What are the requirments for a FHA loan??

Question

I am looking to buy a house, I have been told that this is the best way to go. Any suggestions? I am trying to learn how much I need to save up for the down payment.....

Answer 1

I bought a home through FHA. It was my first. YOu have to be in a certain income bracket. Don't know what that is now and it's different for different areas.

And I do believe you have to have decent credit with little debt.

You don't need a bunch down. I bought my house in 1992 in SC for 43,500. It was a little brick, 3 brm, 1 bath house. It was cute and a great starter home. I made $18,600 at the time. I had a car as my only debt. I had some money in the bank. I had good credit. I put $500 down.

Beware of one thing though. If you have to agee to a "SIMPLE DAILY INTEREST LOAN" make sure you make your payments every 28 days or less. This type of loan charges your interest per day. So if your payment arrives two to four days after the last one, you could owe more in interest than your entire payment.

When I tried to sell my house in 1999, the government tried to charge me $600 in interest it said I still owed them. I threw a big ole fit about that one, because I did not know they were doing that. I managed to get out of it and they refigured my payoff amount because I could prove that the FHA lawyer never met with me. The only person I dealt with was the realtor and she never explained what type of loan I was getting into. Do your research on loans and what they all do. There are a bunch of crooked loans out there that look great but are big trouble. I would seek a 30 year fixed conventional loan at about 5 1/2 to 6% at this time. Don't go for an ARM, a interest only loan or a 50 year fixed. They are all geared to rip you off and make money for banks (or this case the government).

Good Luck and I hope some congratulations will be in order in a few months. It's very exciting buying a house.

Answer 2

I did one a couple of years ago when I bought a contractor special: 0% down and repairs wrapped into my mortgage
closing cost was about $4000 incl. tax and all upfront
I refinanced after the repairs were completed