January 27, 2016
FHA mortgage loans aren’t just for suburban homes. You can use an FHA mortgage to buy a manufactured home, a townhouse, or a condominium unit. When it comes to FHA condo loans, there are some additional rules and requirements in place to protect the borrower and to insure the condo units purchased with FHA mortgages don’t place restrictions on the borrower in terms of occupying or selling the property.
That is one reason why the FHA requires all loans for condos to be for units found in projects on an FHA approval list. If a condo project is on the list already, the sale can go through just like any other type of FHA mortgage. But if the condo project is not on the FHA approved list, it must be reviewed and added–if appropriate–to that list by the lender.
Some borrowers will look for a condo unit to buy and then see if the project is on the approved list. Others may not wish to take the time to look at units in projects not yet added to the approved list.
Is there a way for potential buyers to search a central database of FHA approved condo projects and look only at those currently approved?
Yes–there is a page on the FHA/HUD official site that allows you to search the FHA database of approved projects. You can search by city, state, zip code, condo project name or even the condo project ID number if you have it.
You can find this search tool athttps://entp.hud.gov/idapp/html/condlook.cfm.
The fine print on the FHA website states that the condo units/projects you find by using this search tool are NOT for sale by the FHA itself–these are simply the projects that are on the approved list.
If you need further assistance with determining whether a local condo project is approved or not, you may need to speak with a loan officer to discuss your needs or whether the project you are interested in is still on the list depending on circumstances.
Do you work in residential real estate? You should know about the free tool offered by FHA.com. It is designed especially for real estate websites; a widget that displays FHA loan limits for the counties serviced by those sites. It is simple to spend a few seconds customizing the state, counties, and widget size for the tool; you can copy the code and paste it into your website with ease. Get yours today:
http://www.fha.com/fha_loan_limits_widget
Joe Wallace has been specializing in military and personal finance topics since 1995. His work has appeared on Air Force Television News, The Pentagon Channel, ABC and a variety of print and online publications. He is a 13-year Air Force veteran and a member of the Air Force Public Affairs Alumni Association. He was Managing editor for www.valoans.com for (8) years and is currently the Associate Editor for FHANewsblog.com.
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