Solano Real Estate Scene: Jim Porter
Article By: Jim Porter – September 11, 2026
What is a bridge loan?
A bridge loan is a short-term, temporary loan that provides immediate cash to buy a new home before you sell your old one.
The pros are pretty obvious, folks use a bridge loan for numerous reasons:
• They find the perfect house, and the seller will not give them the time required to sell their departing residence.
• They want to move into the perfect house and not put their departing residence on the market until after they move out because they do not want a bunch of people snooping around their closets and underwear drawers.
• They want to move into the perfect house before they sell because the departing residence needs repairs and cosmetic improvements along with some staging to maximize the sales price.
• They need to move into the perfect house before they sell because the departing residence has 40 to 50 years of stuff packed into the house, and it would be almost impossible for a potential buyer to walk through the home during an open house.
The cons are pretty obvious too:
• Borrowing the money that you will be receiving from the sale of your house in two to six months is not free. A bridge loan will not have a prepayment penalty, but because the lender knows that they will only be collecting interest for a short period of time, they charge upfront fees to make the loan profitable.
There are some large institutional lenders and many local private money lenders that sell short-term bridge loans. Every case is different, so it is absolutely critical to have an experienced mortgage professional analyze your personal financial situation.
There are many ways to buy before you sell based on your income, FICO score and net worth. Here are three actual cases from this year:
• Case No. 1: Our buyers bought their new $700,000 one-story house with 10% down and obtained a 30-year fixed rate loan with no prepayment penalty and zero points, and two months later listed their $800,000 free and clear two-story house for sale. If they had done a traditional bridge loan, they would have paid at least $15,000 in fees for the $630,000 they needed to close escrow.
This only works for folks that can qualify for the $630,000 mortgage, and keep in mind the borrower is not obligated to disclose that they plan to pay off the mortgage in a few months.
• Case No. 2: Two seniors on limited income bought a $600,000 home in Sacramento in an over-55 active senior living community before they sold their $800,000 home in Rancho Solano. We lent them $625,000 secured against the two homes so they could move in without one dollar out of their IRA or their small savings account at a 9.95% rate with $14,000 in total loan fees and no required monthly payments for 11 months.
The house sold and the loan was paid in full 75 days after they moved into their new home, and they pocketed $140,000 to boost their savings account.
• Case No. 3: This couple owed $450,000 on their $775,000 single-family home that was listed for sale, and they purchased their dream home for $900,000. This family could not qualify for both house payments, so they obtained a fancy type of loan from Knock Bridge loans, which competes with Homelight Real Estate in this arena.
Knock loaned the buyers $80,000 for the down payment on the new house and wrote a non-contingent offer to buy their departing residence. This non-contingent purchase agreement allowed the lender to close escrow on the $900,000 house without having to count the mortgage payments of the departing residence as if it were already sold. This family ended up selling substantially above the Knock Bridge offer, but Knock didn’t care because Knock doesn’t want the house; they just want the loan and purchase fee.
Jim Porter, NMLS No. 276412, is the branch manager and senior loan adviser of Solano Mortgage, NMLS No. 1515497, a division of American Pacific Mortgage Corporation, NMLS No. 1850, licensed in California by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the CRMLA / Equal Housing Opportunity. Jim can be reached at 707-449-4777.
Jim Porter, NMLS No. 276412, is the branch manager of Solano Mortgage, NMLS No. 1515497, a division of American Pacific Mortgage Corporation, NMLS No. 1850, licensed in California by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the CRMLA / Equal Housing Opportunity. Jim can be reached at 707-449-4777.
