Articles Tagged With: Energy Efficient Mortgage

September 30, 2019

Home Buying And Your Credit: Three Simple Tricks

Worried about your credit score? Thinking about buying a home but you don’t know if your credit is good enough to qualify? There is a LOT of home buyer advice out there, especially where improving your credit score is concerned. Work On Your Credit As Early As Possible Do you know how long it takes to dispute wrong information on your credit report? How many people share your first and last name? Do you know how possible or likely it is that someone else’s credit data might end up in your credit report? Or how likely it is that outdated information is still plaguing your credit information? If you don’t you, you are not ready to apply for a home loan yet. No borrower should apply for a mortgage loan | more...

July 9, 2019

Can I Do An FHA Cash-Out Refinance On A Rental Property?

By Bruce Reichstein

When you buy a home with a mortgage loan, you generally have the option later down the line to apply for cash-out refinancing on that home. It doesn’t matter if you have a conventional mortgage, VA loan, or an FHA home loan, cash-out refinance options are available once you have made a minimum amount of mortgage loan payments (not ideal) and the cash-out options only get better the longer you pay on the original mortgage. Why is cash-out refinancing not such a great deal in the earliest days of your mortgage? Partially because you haven’t paid down the loan enough and/or waited for your property values to increase long enough in the right circumstances to get much value out of the property. Generally speaking, the longer you pay on the | more...

June 12, 2019

Should Homeowners Turn Into Real Estate Investors?

By Joe Wallace

If you are thinking about buying real estate with an FHA mortgage loan you may have run across some trends in recent times addressing the topic of ordinary home owners becoming real estate investors. Is this something that is possible with an FHA single-family mortgage loan? The first thing you need to know about buying real estate with an FHA mortgage is that FHA single-family home loans are for owner-occupiers only. The occupancy requirement is non-negotiable for a new purchase home loan guaranteed by the FHA. There is no FHA loan rule against buying a multi-unit property and renting out the unused living units. Borrowers are free to do so since you can buy a home with as many as four units with an FHA mortgage. But what you cannot | more...

June 11, 2019

FHA Home Loans: Solar And Wind Technology

By Bruce Reichstein

Did you know that you can ask for an add-on to your FHA home loan or refinance loan to get funds for solar or wind-powered energy efficient upgrades to the home? Whether you want to add such features to your home at purchase time or refinance time is up to you but it is possible to apply for extra funds to install wind or solar power features. Some reading at this stage might assume we are talking about the FHA Energy-Efficient Mortgage add-on, but this is actually a different program. Under a section in the FHA loan rulebook, HUD 4000.1, labeled “Solar And Wind Technologies” we find the following information: “The solar and wind technologies policy allows the Mortgagee to increase the Base Loan Amount to cover the cost and | more...

April 22, 2019

Lower Home Prices And FHA Mortgages

By Joe Wallace

House prices in 2019 seem to be “at risk” to go lower according to some industry reports. If you are researching home prices (especially for those in housing markets on the West Coast) you may read about these issues being higher than usual for a variety of reasons. How Do Declining Home prices Affect FHA Home Loans? If the value or asking price of a neighborhood is in decline, it may affect certain options you have to negotiate with the seller. Your seller may or may not be willing to negotiate on items like the allowable six-percent-of-the-sale-price contributions toward closing costs the seller can make. Sellers may agree to pay this six percent as an incentive for the borrower to purchase the real estate. But if prices are going down | more...

March 20, 2019

Home Loan Rules You Should Know

By Bruce Reichstein

What home loan rules should you know ahead of your mortgage loan application? There are several that you should keep in mind when planning and applying for your new home loan. FHA Loans Are Issued By Participating Lenders A lender must meet FHA standards, conform to the FHA loan program rules, and generally be recognized by the FHA as being permitted to issue FHA-guaranteed mortgage loans. But not all lenders choose to participate in the FHA home loan program so you may need to shop around for a lender. Shopping around is a good thing, but some feel that one lender is as good as another. When it’s time to compare interest rates and mortgage loan terms, you may find that to be untrue. But not all lenders choose to | more...

March 19, 2019

FHA Home Loan Approval And Undisclosed Debt

By Joe Wallace

Some first-time home buyers are tempted to leave information off of credit applications, hoping that the lender won’t find out or that the omitted information will get lost in the details of the loan. But this is not a good strategy; FHA home loan rules in HUD 4000.1 anticipate such issues and there are instructions to the lender accordingly. Leaving out crucial information including certain debts may jeopardize FHA home loan approval. FHA Loan Rules For Undisclosed Debt In a situation where the borrower fails to disclose debts and the lender discovers them by other means, HUD 4000.1 instructs the loan officer as follows for undisclosed debt that does not involve another mortgage: “When a debt or obligation (other than a Mortgage) not listed on the mortgage application and/or credit | more...

February 12, 2019

Rising Rent Versus FHA Home Loans For First-Time Home Buyers

By Joe Wallace

Real estate and home mortgage blogs in the first quarter are 2019 are still reporting on the rising rent trends in many areas of the country that seem to be encouraging renters to examine their home buying options. Did you know that rents increased in places ranging from Wichita, Kansas to Scottsdale, Arizona? The increases in those two areas was above 12% each. Studio apartment rents climbed roughly 5% higher by the end of 2018, and in Newark, New Jersey renters were on the receiving end of more than 17% higher rents from last year. If you are tired of renting and are considering buying a first home, consider these perks of the FHA home loan program: Low Down Payment Requirements For FHA Loans First time home buyers looking at | more...

February 5, 2019

FHA Home Loan Approval For First-Time Home Buyers

By Joe Wallace

What should you know about FHA home loan approval? Buying a first home or a larger property after purchasing a starter home with an FHA mortgage can be less stressful if you remember a few important things right at the start. FHA Home Loans Require A (Lower) Down Payment FHA mortgage loans require a minimum of 3.5% down. Compare that with other mortgage loans such as a conventional mortgage, or other government backed mortgage loans such as the USDA program. Yes, when you do research on USDA loans, you will find a no-down payment option offered to some qualified borrowers. But USDA loans are need-based, and FHA home loans are not. Any financially qualified borrower can apply for an FHA loan if they intend to use the house they buy | more...

FHA Home Loan Credit Score Requirements: FICO Scores And More

February 4, 2019

Questions To Ask Your FHA Lender

By Joe Wallace

There are many questions to ask your participating FHA lender when you are getting ready to purchase a first home or a replacement home. If you are looking at working with a realtor and begin your house hunting process, make sure you create a list of questions for your lender so you can go into the home loan process as informed as possible. Do FHA Home Loans Require Me To Have A Financial Need To Qualify? Your lender will explain that no, FHA home loans are not need-based. There are government-backed need based loans that feature income requirements and maximum income rules; USDA home loans are a good example. But FHA mortgages have no income limit, are not need based, and do not require the borrower to be a first-time | more...