Articles Tagged With: FHA Cash-out Refinance

January 13, 2016

FHA Refinance Loan Facts And Fictions

If you are thinking about your refinance loan options in 2016, now is a good time to review some FHA refi facts. Planning for an FHA refinance loan is important, and if you start early the same way as preparing for the original purchase of your loan you may save yourself valuable time later on in the process. It’s important to take enough to time to review your recent credit history, make sure you have no late or missed payments in the 12 months leading up to the loan application, and make sure there are no errors or evidence of identity theft on your credit report. Here are some basic facts–and fictions–about FHA refinancing: FACT: FHA refinance loans are available for existing FHA loans and non-FHA mortgages alike. You can | more...

December 2, 2015

FHA Refinancing: When Is A Credit Check/Appraisal Required?

By Joe Wallace

Are you considering refinancing your dream home? Are you looking for cash out, lower payments, or a lower interest rate? Your financial needs and goals will dictate the type of FHA refinance loan you should apply for. Knowing which type of loan you need is an important part of the refinance preparation process. Borrowers who have existing conventional, VA, or other non-FHA home loans can refinance into an FHA mortgage loan using an FHA cash-out or non-cash out option. This type of refinancing requires both a new appraisal and a new credit check. To get cash out on such a loan, you’ll need to have enough money left over in the new loan after paying off the old mortgage plus any fees and expenses associated with the loan. Borrowers who | more...

When Is An FHA Loan Better Than A Conventional Loan?

September 3, 2015

FHA Refinance Loans: When Is A New Appraisal and/or Credit Check Required?

By Joe Wallace

Borrowers who want to refinance may wonder which FHA refinance loans offer no credit check or new appraisal. Are such loans possible? The answer may depend on your lender and other factors, but let’s see what options are open: For starters, non-FHA loans refinanced under the FHA single family home loan program will always require a new appraisal and credit check. This is because the only refinance option for non-FHA mortgages (aside from reverse mortgages offered under the FHA program, which also require new appraisals and credit documentation) is the cash-out refinance option or the no-cash-out equivalent. Which leaves only FHA-to-FHA Interest Rate Reduction Refinance loans (IRRRLs) with a possible option to apply with no credit check or appraisal. But there’s a caveat with these loans–the FHA loan program does | more...

July 14, 2015

FHA Refinance Loans: With Appraisal Or Without Appraisal?

By Joe Wallace

For borrowers examining their refinance loan options, it’s important to know what kind of refinance loan you want so you can plan ahead for expenses that might be related to the loan such as appraisals and up-front closing costs. Some borrowers assume that certain types of refinancing never require an appraisal, but this is not true–FHA loan rules for Streamline Refinancing, for example, say that no appraisal is required by the FHA but the lender may ask for one regardless. This surprises some applicants, and we get a fair number of inquiries asking if certain lender policies (including “appraisal required” streamline loans) are legitimate. “My understanding is that the FHA rules don’t require an appraisal for this refinance loan. My lender says I will need one for my streamline refinance | more...

April 9, 2015

FHA Cash-Out Refinance Loans: A Reader Question

By Joe Wallace

A reader asks, “Our home is in trust, and my mother-in-law has signed a quit claim deed. My husband was in a hit and run motorcycle accident 3 years ago this coming June. Due to his inability to work for 4 months we struggled with payments and our credit is horrible. We would like to get a loan on our house so we can pay off a home equity loan, and multiple collections.” “Our home is valued at approx. $250,000, and we would like to get a loan for half of that so we can get out of debt and make some improvements to our home. My husband has credit scores of Experian 558, Equifax 517, and Transunion 491. Is it possible to find an FHA lender that would be | more...

November 16, 2011

FHA Financial Report: 440,000 Families Helped Through FHA Refinancing Loans

By Joe Wallace

In a troubled economy, it’s easy to see why an FHA refinancing loan would be widely used–who doesn’t want to lower their monthly mortgage payments? Even in the best of times, a lower monthly commitment is attractive; when money is tight refinancing is on the minds of homeowners across the U.S. On Tuesday, November 15, 2011, the FHA and HUD released a financial report to Congress which included some figures that might surprise you. In 2011, the FHA “Served more than 1.2 million households and insured $218 billion in single-family mortgages, bringing the active single family portfolio to more than $1 trillion” according to an FHA press release. The press release, HUD No. 11-270, also noted that the FHA “…enabled more than 585,000 families to become homeowners for the first | more...