Graystone Funding Company, LLC has arranged home financing in Salt Lake City since 1997. In a market built on new construction, the most consequential number a buyer sees is a builder's closing-cost incentive — and almost nobody is shown how to work out whether it is actually worth taking.
Four steps. Most buyers skip straight to step four
Who we are
Graystone Funding Company, LLC has arranged residential financing from Salt Lake City since 1997. Nearly thirty years in one valley, through several housing cycles and a great deal of construction.
Utah's market has a particular shape. Growth here happens largely through new building rather than turnover of existing stock, which means an unusual share of buyers are financing a house that does not exist yet. That changes almost everything about the process: the timeline, the rate lock, the appraisal, and who is standing next to you offering to arrange the loan.
Builders are entitled to promote their own lending partners, and those arrangements are often perfectly good. The problem is that a buyer is handed an incentive and no way to evaluate it — and a closing-cost credit is very easy to compare badly.
Any lender can quote you a rate. Rather fewer will help you check whether somebody else's offer beats theirs.
Nearly three decades in the Salt Lake valley
Extended locks and build-timeline financing
We expect you to get a second Loan Estimate
Serving Utah buyers and homeowners
Loan programs
Which fits depends on your down payment, your credit, the property, your service history and how long you plan to stay.
The standard route for buyers with established credit — primary residences, second homes and investment property across the state.
Government-insured financing with more accessible down payment and credit requirements — often the practical route for a first purchase.
For veterans, active-duty service members and eligible spouses — frequently with no down payment and no monthly mortgage insurance.
Government-backed financing for eligible buyers in qualifying rural areas — which in Utah covers more ground than most people assume.
Financing above conforming limits, relevant in the benches and the east-side neighbourhoods where prices have moved fastest.
Rate-and-term or cash-out, with a straight calculation of whether the savings recover the costs before you move again.
New construction
Buying new is not the same transaction as buying existing, and the differences are all in the timing. Four things catch people out, and every one of them can be planned for if somebody raises it at contract rather than at closing.
A standard lock runs for weeks; a build runs for months. Extended locks exist for exactly this, sometimes with a float-down if rates fall. Ask what the lock costs, when it expires, and what an extension costs — before you need one.
Weather, inspections, supply. A delay past your lock expiry can mean re-pricing at whatever the market is doing that week. Build a margin into the lock period rather than matching it exactly to the builder's optimistic date.
Design-centre selections are added to the purchase price, and a jump in options can push the appraised value or your loan-to-value into different territory. Decide the upgrade budget before you walk into that showroom, not inside it.
Builder credits are typically conditional on financing through the preferred lender. That is lawful and common. It also means the credit and the rate must be weighed together, because you cannot have the credit with somebody else's rate.
How it works
Your goals, your timeline, and whether you are buying new or existing.
Reviewed properly, so the letter holds up with a builder or a seller.
Side by side against the builder's lender, on the same loan and the same day.
A lock period matched to a realistic completion date, not an optimistic one.
Final figures confirmed ahead of signing, with the walkthrough behind you.
Client feedback
We ran both estimates side by side as suggested. The builder's incentive actually came out ahead over the years we plan to stay, and we were told so plainly. Losing our business and saying it anyway is the reason I keep sending people here.
Our house finished six weeks later than the builder promised, which apparently surprises nobody except buyers. Because the lock had been set with margin built in, the delay cost us nothing. That single decision was worth more than any rate difference.
I was talked through why my refinance would not recover its costs before I planned to sell. Nobody had ever done arithmetic that argued against the transaction in front of me. I came back two years later when it did make sense.
FAQ
Get in touch
Buying new, buying existing, or refinancing — tell us the situation and your timeline. If you already have a Loan Estimate from someone else, bring it. That is the conversation worth having.