Articles Tagged With: FHA Home Loan

December 28, 2021

Don’t Get Scammed When Refinancing Your FHA Mortgage

Are you considering an FHA Cash-Out Refinance loan in 2022? What about your options under the FHA Streamline Refinance program or the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage option for qualifying borrowers aged 62 or older? Each of the refinance loan options above could be used as a tool by scammers to try to fool you into paying money to someone other than your lender. All it takes is a “spoofed” e-mail that looks like it came from a legitimate source or a text message from a number you don’t recognize and some people are on the hook. Others know to look for the signs of a scam and avoid trouble by spotting the signs. How many unsolicited e-mails, junk mail, and robocalls do you get each month associated with some kind | more...

December 14, 2021

HUD Announces Disaster Relief For Kentucky Home Owners In Federal Disaster Areas

By Joe Wallace

The FHA and HUD have announced disaster relief for FHA borrowers who live in the federally declared disaster areas in the State of Kentucky. The declaration was made effective as of December 10, 2021, in the wake of flooding, tornadoes, and other natural disaster-related issues. The President announced major disaster declarations for the following counties in Kentucky: Caldwell Fulton Graves Hopkins Marshall Muhlenberg Taylor Warren An FHA/HUD press release published at HUD.gov adds that there is also relief on a “cost-sharing basis” in Caldwell, Fulton, Graves, Hopkins, Marshall, Muhlenberg, Taylor, and Warren counties. What does the FHA/HUD disaster relief announcement mean for FHA borrowers and homeowners? HUD offers “immediate foreclosure relief” for FHA mortgages in the form of a 90-day moratorium “on foreclosures of Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured home mortgages | more...

December 9, 2021

Do You Need Down Payment Assistance For Your Mortgage?

By Joe Wallace

If you want to buy a home and you worry about the down payment, you may be able to get help from a state or local down payment assistance program offered in your housing market. If you are considering an FHA mortgage, you should know that the FHA itself does not offer down payment help, but does recommend borrowers seek such programs to help lower the overall upfront cost of the mortgage. What kinds of down payment help is available? There are many options depending on the state where you live and whether or not you have owned property recently. One issue that is common for many state-level down payment assistance programs? Being either a first-time homebuyer who has never owned a home before, OR being a former homeowner who | more...

December 7, 2021

Get Ready For A Home Loan In 2022

By Joe Wallace

How do you know if you can afford a home loan? It may seem like a daunting task to estimate a monthly mortgage payment with principal, interest, taxes, and fees, but there are online mortgage calculators that can help. All you have to do is to bring a bit of information to the process to get an idea of how much that house you have your eye on might cost you. Get Started The first thing you want to do is to examine your current monthly debt and compare them to your income. What is the largest amount of a monthly mortgage payment you could afford in your current circumstances? The number you arrive at here is not necessarily the same number you’ll use for your final mortgage calculation, but | more...

December 3, 2021

What Are FHA Rehab Loans?

By Joe Wallace

What are FHA rehab loans? Simply put, these are home loans you can apply for to buy or refinance a fixer-upper property. FHA rehab loans come as “standard” mortgages but there is also a special FHA rehab loan program for those who have homes located in a federally-declared disaster area. The FHA 203(k) Rehab Loan HUD 4000.1, the FHA loan handbook, describes the FHA 203(k) rehab loan as follows: The Section 203(k) Rehabilitation Mortgage Insurance Program is used to: -rehabilitate an existing one- to four-unit Structure, which will be used primarily for residential purposes; -rehabilitate such a Structure and refinance outstanding indebtedness on the Structure and the Real Property on which the Structure is located; or -purchase and rehabilitate a Structure and purchase the Real Property on which the Structure | more...

December 2, 2021

Why Are FHA Home Loan Limits Higher In 2022?

By Joe Wallace

FHA is required by a federal law known as the National Housing Act (NHA) (and its’ amendments found in the 2008 Housing and Economic Recovery Act) to establish FHA home loan limits. These limits are announced close to the end of the previous year in anticipation of the new year. Those limits are set at 115 percent of area median house prices, with a low-end limit (the “floor”) and an upper limit (the “ceiling”) for FHA loan limits. There’s an annual review of these limits to see if they should be adjusted due to economic factors or other variables. In the first week of December 2021, the Federal Housing Administration announced higher FHA loan limits for the year 2022, and those higher limits are effective for both forward mortgages/purchase loans | more...

November 30, 2021

Do I Have To Make A Down Payment On An FHA Mortgage?

By Joe Wallace

One variation of a commonly asked question about FHA home loans is, “Do I have to make a down payment on an FHA mortgage?” This question gets asked sometimes in reference to other government-backed loans that feature no down payment (available via a Department of Veterans Affairs program offered to qualifying military members and certain military spouses only). FHA home loans do require money down-the borrower’s minimum required investment is 3.5% of the adjusted value of the home. But the borrower does not always have to pay that money out of pocket. Why? State and local down payment assistance programs can help–a borrower using a state or local program that meets FHA standards for third-party down payment help could save thousands upfront on the loan. What kind of standards are | more...

November 23, 2021

Problems That Can Stop Your Mortgage Being Approved

By Joe Wallace

Do you know what can stop your home loan or result in your being denied a mortgage? There are multiple factors that can complicate the mortgage process and you should know about the ones you can control and those issues that may be beyond your ability to anticipate. What kills a home loan dead in its’ tracks? One serious issue is associated with the appraisal. To buy a home with an FHA mortgage, you need to select a property that has a remaining “economic life” that will last the entire duration of the mortgage. OR you need to buy a fixer-upper with an FHA Rehabilitation loan to simultaneously buy and renovate the property to bring it up to local building code and FHA minimum standards. But no matter which way | more...

November 22, 2021

How To Get Cash Back On An FHA Home Loan

By Joe Wallace

Do you need to know how to get cash back on an FHA home loan? If you want to purchase a home with an FHA “forward mortgage” you might be tempted to ask your lender if it’s possible to apply for more mortgage loan money than is required to complete the transaction. This question usually comes with the hope of being allowed to take the extra loan funds out in cash similar to a personal loan. Some borrowers want to know if they can do this, but that specific scenario is definitely NOT possible under FHA home loan rules. Borrowers are not permitted to get cash back in such cases (we’re discussing FHA purchase loans here and NOT FHA cash-out refinance loan options) except in the form of a refund | more...

November 19, 2021

Updated FHA Appraisal Rules

By Joe Wallace

The Federal Housing Administration has issued a set of revised instructions for FHA appraisals that’s meant to bring the process more fully in line with the Fair Housing Act. What kind of changes? We’ve discussed the basics in a previous article, but the specifics required include modifications to HUD 4000.1, the FHA Single Family Lender’s Handbook. One big change is an entry in a new section called Appraiser Conduct, which includes the following instruction; the appraiser is required to be competent, independent, and objective. But the appraiser must also NOT: • Discriminate in “developing any part of the appraisal or value conclusion based on characteristics that are protected by federal, state, or local laws”; • Misrepresent “the scope of work performed in the completion of the FHA appraisal”; • Develop | more...