September 10, 2015
We give out a lot of advice about the planning stages of your FHA home loan. Did you know it’s best to begin planning at least a year ahead of time for a new home loan? Doing so gives you time to save up or continue to save for a down payment, related fees and expenses, pull your credit reports and other tasks that should happen long before you are ready to fill out your application.
One area we strongly encourage buyers to examine is housing counseling. Pre-purchase housing counseling can help new FHA loan applicants navigate the entire process more confidently and better prepared. But where can a potential FHA borrower turn to get this housing counseling?
The best thing to do is to contact the FHA directly for a referral to a HUD-approved housing counselor in your local area. One way to do this is to call the FHA directly at their toll-free hotline: 1-800 CALL FHA. But there is another option that also includes plenty of other resources–the FHA/HUD official site.
The FHA and HUD have a section featuring resources for house hunters and renters broken down by state. Here you’ll find lists of HUD approved housing counseling agencies, news about FHA and HUD initiatives in each state, learning tools about home ownership, foreclosure avoidance and much more.
These resources can be a very important tool for any borrower, but first time home buyers should definitely take the time to explore what’s available in their state–you may be able to learn about local or state initiatives for first-time home buyers you would otherwise be unaware of.
The FHA single family home loan program does not offer incentives to first time home buyers or first time FHA loan applicants (though a lender might, depending on circumstances), but state or local programs may offer help crucial for some borrowers.
Knowing those resources exist is an important part of making the most informed FHA loan choices possible.
Do you work in residential real estate? You should know about the free tool offered by FHA.com, designed especially for real estate websites–a widget that displays FHA loan limits for the counties serviced by those websites.
It’s 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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