Articles Tagged With: FHA Home Loan

July 16, 2025

FHA Home Loan Approval Problems: New Credit Applications

You may have heard advice about seeking new credit while you are in the home loan process. Much of this advice is definitely applicable, especially in times of economic uncertainty and questions about the direction of the housing market. Anyone who advises you NOT to apply for new credit once you have started your home loan journey is thinking with your best interests in mind, but what is it about this advice that makes it so critical? A lender doesn’t pull your credit reports just once during the home loan process, and if your lender sees new information that potentially changes your ability to qualify for the mortgage, it may be necessary to re-approve you for the loan. And that’s just the presence of new credit in your report. What | more...

July 3, 2025

Article Update: FHA Appraisal Rules On Peeling Paint

By Joe Wallace

In the past, we wrote an article discussing a common reader question about FHA home loans. Can the presence of peeling paint be enough to cause a problem in the FHA appraisal process? In our original article, we noted that this can be a major issue for homes built before the lead paint ban which took effect in the 1970s. In some situations, borrowers want to know why the appraiser reviewed the home and required a correction of a peeling paint issue as a condition of loan approval. The age of the home plays a big part in that decision to require a correction. If the house was built before 1978, peeling paint may indicate a lead-based paint hazard and is treated as a potential health and safety issue under | more...

July 1, 2025

FHA Loan Rules: Title Issues For Non-Borrowing Co-Owners

By Joe Wallace

There are plenty of situations that come up when more than one person wants to borrow on an FHA home loan, but there are just as many circumstances where two people may want to own a property purchased with an FHA mortgage, but only one of the two is applying for the loan itself. FHA loan rules for this are found in HUD 4155.1 Chapter Four under the heading, “Title Issues Regarding Non- Borrowing Spouses or Other Parties in Interest”. The rules here state: “If two or more parties have an ownership interest in the property, but only one of the parties is applying for the loan (and credit qualifies for the loan on his/her own), it is not required that the non-applicant individual(s) execute the mortgage note and security | more...

June 10, 2025

Is A Property Eligible for an FHA Mortgage Loan If It Has Asbestos?

By Bruce Reichstein

Borrowers interested in purchasing older properties using an FHA insured mortgage could face several challenges depending on the nature of the property. For example, some buildings insulated or otherwise constructed with asbestos products could pose a health hazard. FHA rules include minimum property requirements for safety, which address situations like these. Is a property eligible for an FHA loan if it has asbestos in it?

May 28, 2025

What to Know About Early Payoff of a Mortgage

By Joe Wallace

Paying off your FHA mortgage loan early has financial advantages including saving money on interest that you would have paid if the loan had gone its full 15-year or 30-year term. FHA loans have the advantage of not allowing your participating lender to charge a penalty for early payoff of the mortgage, making it more cost effective to consider. What do you need to know about early payoff? Take our quiz below to see how prepared you are to begin. True or False: Reputable financial advisors universally recommend that every homeowner should prioritize paying off their mortgage early over all other financial goals, including retirement savings and emergency funds. Answer: False. The decision to pay off a mortgage early is a personal one that depends on a wide range of | more...

April 18, 2025

Before You Fill Out FHA Home Loan Forms

By Joe Wallace

Are you ready to apply for an FHA mortgage? You’ll want to make sure you have done a few important preliminary steps before you submit an application. The most basic thing to start with is knowing what type of home loan you need. If you plan to buy a condo unit your FHA loan will be a different variety than if you need to buy a manufactured home, for example. That may sound like some of the most basic home loan advice out there, but what is not so basic is knowing that there are nuances for some of these loans you need to know. A condo unit must typically be part of a project that is on or added to the approved list for FHA loans. But did you | more...

March 5, 2025

FHA ARM Loans

By Joe Wallace

There are many types of different FHA loan products. You can apply for new purchase home loans, refinance loans, and even Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loans (HECM). But even with this variety of options to choose from, did you know you can apply for purchase or refinance loans guaranteed by the FHA that have adjustable interest rates? It’s true–the FHA Single-Family Home Loan program offers both fixed-rate mortgages and adjustable rate home loans. The FHA official site has an entire page dedicated to Adjustable Rate Mortgages (also known as ARM loans). Here’s how the FHA/HUD official site defines the ARM Loan: “An ARM is an Adjustable Rate Mortgage. Unlike fixed-rate mortgages that have an interest rate that remains the same for the life of the loan, the interest rate on | more...

March 1, 2025

5 things to know about FHA Appraisals

By Joe Wallace

What do you need to know about FHA appraisals? There are plenty of details to be concerned with depending on the nature of the property you want to buy but some issues loom larger than others. FHA Appraisals Are Not Home Inspections That’s an obvious one. The FHA appraisal is meant as a tool for the lender and not the borrower. What’s not so obvious? The appraisal process does not require the appraiser to be an expert in all systems of the home. That means your roof may have problems the appraiser can’t identify, or the HVAC system might be experiencing symptoms unfamiliar to your appraiser. In some cases, the appraiser might not even set foot inside a building to be appraised. It’s not so hard to understand why you | more...

FHA Loan Approval and Late or Missed Housing Payments

February 11, 2025

What Hurts Your Chances For FHA Loan Approval

By Joe Wallace

What can stop your FHA home loan from getting approved? Knowing what the lender will do when confronted with common home loan problems can be half the battle for some. In 2025 house hunters need to be more vigilant than ever to protect their credit and their ability to obtain it. If you can anticipate the lender’s expectations for things like credit, verifiable income, reliable credit history, and other factors you can get a lot closer to loan approval. What You Should Know About FHA Home Loan Minimum FICO Scores Borrowers with FICO scores below 500 are not eligible for an FHA mortgage loan. Borrowers with credit scores above 500 but below 580 may technically qualify but these applicants must put 10% down rather than the lowest down payment possible | more...

December 30, 2024

Down Payment Help For FHA Mortgages

By Bruce Reichstein

Who qualifies to get down payment assistance in order to buy a home? If you are using an FHA mortgage, your downpayment requirement is, at a minimum, 3.5%. And while that isn’t as large a down payment as you would make if you wanted to eliminate private mortgage insurance from a conventional home loan, some may struggle to come up with the money down. Buying a home can be expensive. There are inspection and appraisal fees, there may be pest control services to pay for, title searches, and more. Saving early is the key to making your down payment easier to manage in your budget. But even with saving early, extra help may be needed. That’s where down payment assistance programs can come in to help. But what does it | more...