Mortgage broker for the San Gabriel Valley

A large share of SGV purchases involve gift funds or help from parents. Lenders will fund these all day — but they want a paper trail: a gift letter, proof the funds left the donor's account, and proof they arrived in yours. Start that documentation before the money moves, not after. Cash that appears in your account without a source is the single most common reason an SGV file stalls in underwriting.

Alhambra, Monterey Park, Rosemead and parts of Pasadena have a lot of attached housing. Whether a lender will finance it depends on the HOA's owner-occupancy ratio, reserve funding, insurance and — critically — whether there's pending litigation. A perfect borrower can still be declined on a building's paperwork. I check warrantability before you write the offer, not after.

Pasadena, South Pasadena, Altadena and San Marino have beautiful pre-war homes. They also have unpermitted additions, converted garages and square footage that doesn't match county records. Any of those can cut an appraisal and change your loan amount days before closing.

Multigenerational households mean co-signing is common. If you're on a relative's mortgage, we can exclude that payment from your ratio — but only with 12 months of proof the other party made the payments. Gather the statements early.