Renting vs Owning: Get On the Winning Side

Economic news is always a mixed bag. Some things go up, others go down, and some stay about the same.

If you’re a renter or familiar with the rental market in Los Angeles and Orange County, you know which of the three options above describes what has been happening to rents.

Here are two recent news reports about rents in Los Angeles. One noted that rents in L.A. have risen faster than inflation since 2007. The other reported that metro L.A. is the least-affordable rental market in the country…and we live in a big nation!

The great divide

However, it was a third news headline that really caught my attention, and I bet it caught yours too: Divide Between Homeowners and Renters is Growing. The painful part of that news story is the fact that L.A. renters, on average are spending half of their income on rent while homeowners are only spending 30 percent of their income on their house payments.

Need I ask which group is getting the better deal in today’s economy?

Yet we know that sometimes it’s difficult to make the jump from renter to homeowner and get on the right side of those statistics. Families and individuals who have been stuck on the rental side of that divide have been working hard to make their rental payments and sometimes that can cause problems in other areas of their finances.

Renting strains finances

It’s easy to understand how renters can have credit reports that aren’t what they would like them to be. These credit reports cause banks and conventional lenders to turn many renters down when they apply for mortgages.

It’s ironic isn’t it? When renters decide to solve their biggest financial problem – paying an exorbitant rent each month – conventional lenders stand in the way. At Evoque Lending, we see things differently. We recognize the fact that most renters are able to make rent each month, despite how costly it is.

We don’t look at an arbitrary number on a credit report. If you’re able to make payments, and the property has the right value for the size of the loan you need, we’ll be able to get you into your property and end your rental nightmare.

The professionals at Evoque Lending know from experience that renters often need help making the initial jump into home ownership, and once they are home owners, it’s something they want to maintain and build on.

Be persistent

If you’ve been turned down by a bank or another conventional lender, don’t give up and think you are forever relegated to writing a rent check every month. Evoque Lending gives you an alternative. Typically we can provide a First Trust Deed that will get you the home you want, buy you some time to pull your finances together and then go back to the bank and have them approve you for a loan.

Further, we are “built for speed.” Our experts do almost everything in house, so we can usually get your approval in a day or so and have your loan funded almost as quickly. When you’ve found a great deal in Los Angeles, Orange County or San Francisco real estate, you know how important it is to move fast.

Call us or email the details of your situation and we’ll take it from there. Don’t delay – you know rents are going to continue to climb.