Clear road map leads way through complicated condo purchase

Loan officer: John Holmgren. Property: Condominium at Oakland’s Lake Merritt neighborhood. Purchase price: $715,000. Loan: $425,000. Loan terms: 30-year fixed at 4.25 percent with no points. Backstory: The buyer already owned a home in El Cerrito where she also ran a day care business. She wished to buy a unit in a desirable lakeside condo complex in Oakland and retain her prior home. Her agent, Janette Licata of Highland Partners, kept her eye on the market for listings in the building so that they could act quickly when the right unit was available. In the meantime, she referred the buyer to Holmgren so they could make a preapproved offer.

Holmgren quickly determined that the buyer didn’t have enough readily available liquid funds to make the down payment that would produce her desired monthly payment. Since she had substantial equity in her current residence, Holmgren suggested that she refinance her loan to pull out more funds and to make that payment more affordable.

Just at the time she completed that process, Licata learned that a unit that met the buyer’s requirements was about to be listed. She quickly put in a preemptive, non-contingent offer. Because the offer was so clean (short close, no contingencies, large down payment), it was quickly accepted.

The buyer was well-qualified from the standpoint of credit history and income despite being self-employed, which is frequently a source of qualification problems. Yet Holmgren suspected that the underwriter would question the move from El Cerrito to Oakland because of the relative public safety/public schools reputations of El Cerrito and Oakland, and because the buyer’s existing home was a detached home, considered in the underwriting world to be a superior form of residence to a condo.

Holmgren had the buyer write a detailed letter explaining her preference to live in the vibrant downtown Oakland community, emphasizing the many amenities of the condo project and how that area better fit her lifestyle.

The loan was approved and closed within the 30-day contract period. John Holmgren, Holmgren &

Associates, (510) 339-2121, john@mortgageholmgren.com.