CalPERS Home Loan Program - Your Thoughts? (real estate, credit, fees)

[BNR_1]

Can anyone shed light on the pros and cons with obtaining a 30-year fixed conforming loan under the CalPERS home loan program? I am strictly looking for a conventional loan and will be meeting the 80% LTV ratio. For those who are a CalPERS lender and those who have actually obtained a loan through CalPERS I would appreciate your experience and thoughts.


I visited the site and did some research but I couldn’t find a lot of information. I checked with colleagues and none went through CalPERS for their loan. They just did not consider the agency because they forgot to and instead went with the large banking institutions. Most of the information from the CalPERS’ site is very general.


Thank you

[BNR_1]

Hi Everyone. I am reposting. Appreciate any inputs and thoughts on my questions with regards to a CalPERs loan. Thanks.

[DarrinM]

Hello BNR_1

My name is Darrin Matthews I am a Direct CalPERS Lender with Land Home Financial, the difference between direct and not is that Land home processes, underwrites and funds the loans in-house rather then having to broker out the loan to another lender whom they don't work for directly.

I wish I saw this page months ago when you started your search but I will try to answer your question of pros and cons.

Pros:

1- Discounted lender fee, most lenders will charge you a processing fee of $600 - $800 and a admin fee of another $600-$800 CalPERS will not allow more then $350.00 to cover both those fees.

2- Competitive rates. CalPERS offers both purchase and refinance mortgages.

3- CalPERS won’t let you get taken advantage of by a loan officer trying to over charge you with points/origination they max out the origination/points to 1% on FHA loans and 1.25% on all other loans, the amount charged is up to the CalPERS loan officer but cannot exceed the above.

4- CalPERS as of Oct. 19th is now doing loans up to $729,750.00 with the same great rates as loans under $417,000.00

5- CalPERS has participating title company's that give a discount on title fees to CalPERS members.

6- CalPERS members also have a benefit when it comes to real estate agents that participate in the program; a percentage of the Realtor's commission gets credited back to you to cover some of the closing costs.

7- The biggest benefit is that CalPERS offers FHA loans with only 3.5% down payment and that 3.5% can come from your retirement as the down payment, the retirement money is not a second mortgage its a personal loan which is paid back over time, if the amount is under $10,000.00 its paid back over 10 years if its over $10,000.00 its paid back over 15 years, (the money does not come out of your retirement) To use the money from your retirement there are restrictions ( first loan amount does not exceed $350,000.00, you can borrow 1/2 of what’s in your retirement not to exceed $18,421.00 and no more then 5% of the purchase price.)

Cons:
1- No longer do loans over $729,750.00

2- No longer offer rate float downs

3- Can’t borrow money from retirement if the first loan amount is over $350,000.00

The pros totally out weigh the cons with the CalPERS Home Loan Program, you cannot go wrong doing a CalPERS Mortgage because they have there members protected from being taken advantage of.


Thanks so much I hope this helped.