Articles Tagged With: FHA Loan

December 13, 2021

Qualifying For An FHA Loan

Here’s a great example of a common question we are often asked: “How much is the minimum downpayment required for FHA loan? How do I qualify?” The main issue with questions like these is that the question isn’t specific enough to answer to the reader’s satisfaction. Why? Because good credit scores aren’t enough, and lender FICO score requirements, in general, can vary between one financial institution and another. Essentially, what a borrower needs to know when preparing to apply for an FHA mortgage includes (but is not limited to) a list of items. For starters, you DO NOT have to be a first-time homebuyer to qualify for an FHA mortgage. You also don’t have to worry about income caps or household income restrictions for this type of home loan. Some | more...

December 6, 2021

Thinking About A Mortgage Loan?

By Joe Wallace

If you are considering a home loan but aren’t quite ready to commit yet, you are said to be in the planning stages of your mortgage. That planning phase is quite important and should begin as early as possible so you have plenty of time to save money for your FHA mortgage loan down payment (a minimum of 3.5% down is required), your closing costs, and other loan expenses. There are three basic areas you should pay attention to in the planning stages of your home loan–your savings, your debt, and your credit scores. The credit score portion of the process is obvious–if you don’t start monitoring your credit, work actively to reduce your credit usage and get your credit card balances as far below the 50% line of your | more...

November 29, 2021

New to FHA Loans? Things You Need To Know

By Joe Wallace

What are the FHA loan basics you should know as a first-time homebuyer? The first thing you should remember is that FHA loans are not restricted to first-time buyers, but there ARE state-level down payment assistance programs and closing cost assistance programs that may be able to help you with your FHA mortgage as a first-time buyer. Those programs can help save you thousands of dollars in up-front costs on the down payment and other expenses with your loan. Remember that FHA loans permit your seller to contribute up to six percent of your closing costs as an incentive to close the deal, but any amount valued above that six percent results in a dollar-for-dollar reduction in the FHA loan amount. First-time home buyers are sometimes not aware that they | 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 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...

November 17, 2021

Worried About Getting Scammed During Your Home Loan Approval Process?

By Joe Wallace

There are plenty of warnings about mortgage scams, mortgage-related identity theft schemes, and much more. We could go into the specifics of one or two of the more popular variations, but it’s equally important to know how to protect yourself more or less unilaterally against such threats to your privacy, your personal data, and your money. The first type of “best practices” you should adopt to protect yourself against scams of any kind? Refusing to respond to “out-of-the-blue” contacts on social media, text messages, or emails that you did not initiate. People get contacted unsolicited for legitimate reasons all the time. What we’re talking about here is third parties who write you trying to get you to click on a link, provide your account information, or perform some other act | more...

November 10, 2021

Get Ready For Your New Home In 2022

By Joe Wallace

Are you considering a home loan in 2022? There are many options and while the FHA home loan limits for the new year have not been announced at press time, borrowers should know the FHA loan limits for 2021 were increased over the previous year. Will that happen again in 2022? Time will tell but it’s a good idea to start thinking about your home loan as early as possible to get ready with a budget and a plan. FHA Forward Mortgage Options In 2022 The “forward mortgage” is the kind of loan you will use to buy your dream home. They are also known as “purchase loans” and simply as “home loans”. And with the FHA Single Family Home Loan program, your forward mortgage loan options are not just | more...

November 9, 2021

FHA Mobile Home Loans Get Enchancements

By Bruce Reichstein

For the first time in four decades, the Federal Housing Administration has published major new guidelines to improve the sale of manufactured homes, mobile homes, etc. In a press release on the FHA and HUD official sites, it was announced that the FHA Title One Program for purchasing mobile homes has been revised and “enhanced” with policies designed to streamline the program and help those who want to use and FHA mortgage to buy a manufactured home. These rules are updated to include FHA mortgages for mobile homes that are “titled as personal” as well as the lot where such a home would be placed. Motivation for these enhancements includes a need to make the program guidelines more understandable to both lenders and borrowers, “while providing expanded eligibility requirements for | more...

November 4, 2021

HUD Announces New Funding To Fight Housing Discrimination

By Joe Wallace

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has announced a round of funding intended to combat housing discrimination related to COVID-19. Fair Housing Act violations are bad enough when things are “normal”, let alone during a global pandemic. A press release at the HUD official site notes the agency is funding more than 50 Fair Housing initiatives to the tune of approximately $13 million. That money comes from the pool set aside for the American Rescue Plan (ARP). The press release states the money funds a “range of fair housing enforcement and education and outreach activities related to the COVID-19 pandemic” including work to fight discrimination in communities determined to be “underserved” by such efforts. “Discriminatory policies have no place in a nation struggling to deal with the lingering effects | more...

October 28, 2021

FHA Loan Limits For 2022

By Bruce Reichstein

What do you need to know about FHA home loan limits in 2022? It may sound a bit early to be discussing FHA loan limits by county, but at the beginning of 2021, potential FHA borrowers were treated to the news that FHA limits would be higher for the new year, giving many a chance to get more home loan for their efforts. What do you need to know about FHA home loan limits for the coming new year? We’re just over 60 days away at press time, 2022 will be here sooner than you realize! FHA home loans feature loan guaranty limits established every year, set by county. These are annual limits and are revised or considered for revision over the year before. There are no guarantees that the | more...