My last blog entry talked about buying a
home with little or nothing down and I'm going to continue that trend today by expanding on the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency Program.
When I decided to get back into the mortgage business, I made a conscious decision to engage with my inner social worker and to attempt to help people get into homes who otherwise might not be able to. Now, don't get me wrong...if you have a highly qualified buyer with good credit, good jobs and plenty of assets, I'm still willing (and able) to work with them.
The problem with those borrowers though is that anybody can do those deals (unless something goes wrong, in which case your buyer might regret picking a lender strictly on price). Now, so that you know, my bank, Bank of England, is generally pretty competitive when it comes to rates, points and other fees, but I honestly don't compete on that basis.
My feelings on the matter is that if I'm an 1/2 of a point off (which is about the worst that I've seen), I and my 30 years of experience in the business and my ability to get the transaction completed are worth the extra couple of hundred dollars. If nothing else, I've always found it humorous that the agents who have been me up on price the most have also been the same agents that defend their commission rate til the cows come home, but I digress.
Getting back to the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency program, it is a wonderful program that "grants" people buying homes in North Carolina from 3% to 5% towards down payment and/or closing costs. You DO NOT HAVE TO BE A FIRST TIME HOME BUYER!
There are income limits that vary county to county, but they generally run about $85,000 for all borrowers. The minimum middle credit score has to exceed 640, which is a bit higher than required on regular FHA mortgages, but not excessively so.
The program can be applied to FHA, USDA, VA and conventional mortgages and you have to be a legal resident of the United States.
Eligible properties are:
*New and previously owned single family homes.
*Townhomes
*Condominiums and
*Duplexes (though property type may be limited by loan limits and credit score)
The NCHFA also offers an addition program called the Mortgage Credit Certificate that if your buyer is eligible can save them up to $2,000.00 per year on their federal income taxes. The program does have some fees attached, but can be used to help a buyer qualify if they are tight on their ratios.
To apply for a NCHFA mortgage, you have to make application with an approved lender, which of course Bank of England happens to be one of!
Now, as a real estate agent, how is this program going to help you?
Well, as I touched on earlier in this post, like the well qualified borrower that I spoke of, the family buying $600,000 home who has good credit and is otherwise well qualified can have ANYBODY can sell them a home!
With buyers who are struggling to come up with the down payment and maybe even need a bit of help getting their credit score up in order to qualify, you can be a hero! They are also plentiful and not that hard to find! So, if you're in the process of building your pipeline, here are some transactions that are just waiting to have somebody close!
If you have any questions about this program or even your $600,000 buyer, please do not hesitate to reach out to me!
Bob
Comments(0)