Buy or Rent for first time living in Los Angeles

[Gabriel Daneliuc]

Hello everybody,

I will move to Los Angeles in the upcoming months, and I am planning to buy my first property using a mortgage loan. As Income, I will have a job in a corporation which also will provide me visa and all the documents need it for relocation.

Can somebody advise me haw fast I can get a mortgage loan in LA? Down payment need it and any tips or advice I can get before make such a big decision.

Thank you !

[Bruce Lynn]

Just be warned....you need to really go over all the details of your job and work history with your lender.   Lots of lenders will tell you they can do it and then in the end they can't.

Tell them where you have a passport from, show them the visa, show them your employment contract, tell them you have no credit score in USA (probably), tell them you have never filed tax returns....all this stuff I am guessing at.   

I have lots of intl clients and have a couple of lenders I always use who are honest and up front with my intl buyers as to what they need, all the costs, all the documentation.

Not 100% true, but normally they will want to see 2 years of tax returns...so may be a couple of years before you can buy without a significant amount of money down...like 40-50%.  

I'm happy to send you to my go to lender that I've worked with for about 20 years, who handles almost all my intl clients.

I would rent when you first get here for a year.  Make sure you like the job.  Figure out what kind of commute you can handle.  Figure out how often you have to go to the office.   See where your friends and activities are.  Get to know the city a bit.   Then look at buying next year.