Posts tagged with "loan"

Zero down payment mortgages

A decade ago one could buy a house without having to put any money down.  But how times changed in the aftermath of the housing crisis and Great Recession.  In today’s market, zero down mortgages are few and far between.  However, there are several notable options.

#1)  VA— these zero down mortgages are available only to qualified veterans.  K

#2)  RD (or Rural Development)— as the name implies, these mortgages are available only on properties that are outside big city limits.

#3)  Indiana Housing— these mortgages may be used anywhere; although they are available only to first time home buyers except in certain targeted counties.

To see if you might qualify for one of these zero down loans, just ask!  I’ll be happy to get you answersor to point you in the right direction!

203K better than Credit Cards!

I get calls from a lot of people wanting to buy a fixer upper.  They’re usually motivated by buying something on the cheap and then investing a good deal of themselves into the property to enhance its value.  And that concept works— (drumroll….) when there is enough time and skill to get the work done AND enough money to buy the materials.  (I can’t tell you how many houses I walk through where it’s obvious that the people had good intentions but just ran out of money.)  It’s easy to do.  Fixin’ up houses take chunk money.  A hundered here and a hundred there can work for small stuff, but when it comes to buying furnances, roofs, siding, kitchen cabinets, appliances, carpet, hardwood flooring, etc., etc., etc. you need chunk money.  and if you don’t have the cash on hand then the project stalls out or the cost gets put on credit cards.  Neither strategy works and inevitably puts people in a real bind.

A far better solution is to start out with a 203K loan.  The 203K is a government loan, a FHA product.  It provides the funds to both buy a property and to fix it up.  The total loan amount is capped at $295,550 and the required cash down payment is just 3.5% of the total.  The money is parceled out as the work is being done.  And the interest rate is (right now) somewhere around 3-4%.  Now, that sure beats paying credit card interest rates or letting your project (and the home of your dreams) die a slow death.

Be smart- do it right!  If you’d like to get all the details, call me.