Fannie Mae is one of the biggest sellers of REOs (bank owned homes) in the country.

In order to reduce their inventory of 283 homes for sale in Franklin County OH alone, they offer new incentives, which make Columbus loans on Fannie Mae home purchases even better than FHA loans.

You can find details on the new Fannie Mae incentives in this article:

Fannie Mae Announces New Buyer and Seller Incentives for REOs

Here are 5 advantages of buying a Fannie Mae home:

1. Columbus loans on Fannie Mae homes require a low down payment (as little as 3%)
2. Fannie Mae does not charge mortgage insurance on these Columbus loans
3. Fannie Mae homes are generally in good condition
4. Owner occupants have a 15 day exclusive period to bid, before investors are allowed to make offers.
5. They also offer the option of  rehab loans

Some of these incentives are only good till the end of this year. This means that you would have to close before December 31, 2010.

We all know how long it takes to get Columbus loans approved these days. So you need to be in contract no later than November 15, 2010, to make sure that you can meet this deadline.

If you need help finding excellent Columbus OH homes for sale you can simply call Susanne Novak at 614-975-9650. She is an excellent Columbus real estate agent who has many years experience selling bank owned and HUD properties.

Thanks for reading our Columbus Loans & Columbus Home Mortgage Blog
Go to here to find great Columbus Houses

Technorati Tags: Columbus House, columbus houses, Columbus Housing, columbus loans, columbus realtors, columbus realty, Fannie Mae, FHA

At the end of last week we received an email from our favorite loan officer. She told us that FHA changed guidelines for minimum credit scores required to ensure loans. Until now it was still possible to get Columbus loans with credit scores as low as 580. Fifth Third Bank was one of the few Columbus mortgage lenders that approved applications with scores below 620.

Now that has changed. If you have any application in, you can still close with a lower credit score before the end of October, 2009. All new applications fall under the new rule and need to show a 620 FICO score.

What does this mean for you as a prospective home buyer?

If your score falls between 580 and 620, and you planned to buy a house to take advantage of the first time home buyers tax credit as well as the low interest rates, you are out of luck. You won’t have enough time to improve your credit by 20, 30 or 40 points to qualify for a loan before the closing deadline expires. You may have a chance to buy a home with seller financing and still claim the tax credit – I will talk more about this option in another post.

For those of you with solid credit scores, now is the time to make an offer on one of the listed Columbus houses. You should be able to get FHA financing, if you meet the following criteria:

• You buy a personal residence as an owner occupant (up to 4 units)
• Your mortgage amount is below the FHA limit set for your county ($341,250 for Franklin County OH)
• You can come up with the required down payment of 3.5% of the purchase price (if you buy a HUD home you can get away with only $100 downpayment)
• You meet the minimum income requirements and can show 2 years of job history or tax returns, if self employed.
• Your credit score is above 620 and you didn’t have a bankruptcy for 2 years.
• Your new home appraises for or above the purchase price.

There a number of obstacles in the FHA loan approval process. However, an experienced loan officer can get it done in 30 days. Your property has to be in good condition. If it needs repairs you may be able to establish a repair escrow to cover these expenses – this is commonplace with HUD homes.

A good credit score is the key for getting Columbus loans approved by your lender. Take care of your credit score and the harsh lending environment will not effect your ability to get a Columbus home mortgage.

Thanks for reading our Columbus Loans & Columbus Home Mortgage Blog
Go to here to find great Columbus Houses

Technorati Tags: Columbus House, columbus houses, Columbus Housing, columbus loans, columbus realtors, columbus realty, credit score, FHA, FICO score

VA and FHA loans are especially effective in when you want to buy a HUD Home.  As HUD is essentially the same agency that insures FHA loans, they have a great interest in quickly selling homes they had to repo from oveleveraged home owners.  Therfore, they offer special financing terms to buyers of HUD homes, including a $100 down payment program.

Columbus VA Loans are your best option, if you qualify as a veteran. With these loans you do not need any downpayment and VA will also cover your closing costs. This loan works equally well for HUD homes or any regular house purchase. I need to note that all of this applies to owner occupant buyers and not investors.

A few weeks ago one of our clients purchased a home with a VA loan. He did not have to pay for closing costs nor did he make any down payment, but he walked out of the closing with a check for $1,500. This payout was fully approved by the lender and by VA.

Columbus FHA Loans are a great financing option if your credit score is low (at this time banks accept credit scores as low as 580 for FHA loans) and your property meets FHA guidelines. In general, they require a downpayment of 3.5% of the purchase price, but they also allow the seller to pay up to 3% of the buyer’s closing costs.

If you plan to buy a HUD Home FHA financing is your best choice, because HUD will lower your down payment to $100 and still cover your closing costs. On top of it HUD grants major discounts on its inventory homes, so you probably will be the house significantly below market value.

A real estate agent or FHA approved lender will be able to answer specific questions about Columbus Mortgage programs for HUD Homes. To find out more, you may want to visit HUD’s website, call 1-800-CALLFHA or see the Columbus HUD Homes Blog.

Thanks for reading our Columbus Loans & Mortgage Blog

Go to here to find great Columbus Houses

Technorati Tags: columbus loans, columbus realtors, columbus realty, FHA

Duration : 0:9:52

Technorati Tags: FHA, Loans