Independent mortgage broker · Licensed in California Derek Shao · NMLS 242117 · DRE 01358261 310-869-5678

Service area

Mortgage broker for Greater Los Angeles

252 loans across the city, the Valley, the South Bay and the Westside — a market with more price variation than anywhere else in the state.

252Loans placed in Greater LA
$108MFunded locally
48Cities and neighbourhoods
$1,249,1252026 county loan limit

What's different here

Greater Los Angeles, specifically

Every market has its own way of derailing a loan. These are the ones that come up in Greater Los Angeles.

2026 loan limits

County
Los Angeles County
Conforming limit, 1 unit
$1,249,125
Above that
Jumbo

Set by the FHFA and revised every January. See all loan programs →

One county, wildly different loan sizes

A purchase in Gardena and a purchase in Malibu are the same county and completely different transactions — different programs, different reserve requirements, different appraisal risk. The county limit is the same; almost nothing else is.

Condo-heavy submarkets need warrantability checked first

Much of the Westside, downtown and Long Beach is attached housing. Owner-occupancy ratios, reserve funding, insurance adequacy and pending HOA litigation all determine whether a building is financeable at all. This is worth checking before you write, because it can't be fixed afterwards.

Two-to-four unit properties are a genuine strategy here

Buy a duplex or fourplex, live in one unit, rent the others, and you qualify at owner-occupied terms with substantially higher loan limits. Los Angeles has real inventory for this and most buyers never consider it.

The Valley and the South Bay behave differently on rate

Price points across Greater LA span conforming, high-balance and jumbo. Which tier you land in changes your pricing more than a quarter-point of rate shopping ever will, so it's worth structuring the loan amount deliberately where you're near a threshold.

Communities served

Where we've placed loans in Greater Los Angeles

  • Los Angeles
  • West Hills
  • Long Beach
  • Torrance
  • Woodland Hills
  • Glendale
  • Culver City
  • Burbank
  • La Crescenta
  • Rancho Palos Verdes
  • Northridge
  • Gardena
  • Tarzana
  • Cerritos
  • Chatsworth
  • Porter Ranch
  • Sherman Oaks
  • San Pedro
  • Malibu
  • Santa Monica
  • Redondo Beach
  • Downey

From Emory Financial's closed-loan records, 2011–present. Licensed throughout California — if your property is elsewhere in the state, that's fine too.

Next step

Start with a conversation.

Fifteen minutes, no credit pull, no obligation. Tell me what you're looking at in Greater Los Angeles and I'll tell you honestly what's realistic.