We offer all the standard FHA, VA, Conventional, USDA, First Responder/Teacher & First Time
Homebuyer loan programs available.
The finer details of loan programs vary from time to time so this page is a moving target. I can’t begin to list all the details of every loan program so I’ll begin with some broad brush strokes to help you understand the concepts.
In addition to the “standard” loan types we also have many non-standard offerings. Before you get worried, non standard doesn’t necessarily mean more expensive.
Due to our long history & unique status in the industry (Top Tier Lender) we can offer mortgages that many other lenders can’t. We make the complicated loans simple and the simple loans simpler.
Don’t accept NO for an answer! If you’ve been turned down before or another lender is having trouble getting you approved or is asking for ridiculous conditions - CALL US! Let us take the time to research your situation and you may find we can get you approved when others can’t &/or we might be able to cut the conditions way down.
Experience has shown us that we can approve 80%-90% of other lenders turndowns and we can normally do it using the same loan program, terms and at the same rate or lower! How? We have a larger portfolio of money sources plus we are willing to do more work to more thoroughly document your situation to tell your story. Put simply, we just plain work harder than the other guys.
LET’S BEGIN WITH SOME OF OUR NON-STANDARD OFFERINGS
WE HAVE MULTIPLE DOWN PAYMENT ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS
We have DPA programs for all the loan types including Conventional loans. These programs come & go and honestly I can’t say we’re big fans of them since they have as high as a 90% foreclosure rate, but we have them. They also usually have some strings attached that make them a little more complicated to secure and make it so that many Sellers won’t accept contracts from you if you try to use them.
NON QM LOANS (old school loans)
The new Qualified Mortgage (QM) rules that became effective January 10, 2014 have made it impossible for many people to buy. While most lenders are limited to making QM loans only - WE HAVE OTHER OPTIONS! Here are just a few examples of things we can do:
1 year out of bankruptcy, foreclosure or short sale.
SIMPLIFIED LOANS FOR THE SELF EMPLOYED:
We can use bank statements instead of averaging 2 years tax returns to calculate income for self employed, commissioned or contract employee people.
I can’t list all the options, but if you’ve been told you can’t get a loan, give us a call. Maybe under the new rules they are right, but many times we find they aren’t. Most lenders simply don’t have the sources we have. Most of the biggest lenders don’t care to offer the non-QM loans, so don’t accept NO for an answer without calling us.
INVESTMENT PROPERTIES:
We can do Investment loans (rental property), with as little as 10% down and you usually can own up to 10 properties with mortgages, maybe more. As a way of comparison, the industry standard is 25% down and you can only own 4 properties.
LOW CREDIT SCORE FHA LOANS:
Many lenders are beginning to offer FHA loans with lower credit scores, but we’ve been doing the low credit score loans for many years now and have the procedures and sources down pat. Plus for the other guys the low credit score loans are non-standard loans and carry non-standard interest rates and approval conditions. Not so with us. You’ll get standard rates & approval conditions. We can actually close the low credit score loans at terms and conditions you’ll like.
One of the places we shine is the below 620 credit score market. We have much better rates than anyone else we know of. We’ve found we are about 1/2% better interest rates on 580-620 score loans.
Here are some of the details.
Technically we offer FHA loans down to a 500 credit score.
But below a 580 score usually requires a larger downpayment
Practically the below 530 score is more of a myth. Yes, technically we can go down to a 500 score, but below a 530 score the terms and conditions change dramatically. They change enough that few people would have the wherewithal to actually close. But if anyone can close a 500 credit score loan at reasonable terms it would be FINANCIER$. Let’s sit down & talk.
It’s rare we have to utilize the lower credit score loans because if you’ll give us the time, we help all our customers maximize their credit scores FOR FREE.
Many times the difference between an approval and a turndown is the extra information/education we give you and the rest of the story line you tell us when we take the time to sit down & just talk to you about your situation. Yes that’s right, we take the time to listen.
OUR EVERYDAY STANDARD LOANS
VA to $700,000+
$0 down payment down to a 560 credit score.
CONVENTIONAL LOANS:
We can do a 97% loan down to a 620 credit score. Most lenders require a 640 TO 680 score and are limited to 95%.
We offer a wide variety of Conventional loans with no Mortgage Insurance.
In about 5 years an FHA loan will cost you about 4 times as much as a Conventional loan. So you’d prefer to do a Conventional loan if you have the 3% - 5% downpayment (vs. 3.5% for FHA) and the credit scores. At this moment we don’t know of any Conventional lenders that does not require at least a 620 credit score, but that could change.
USDA: FAST TRAK
Yes the meat people. USDA offers loans in less populous areas, usually outside the big city, city limits. USDA loans are usually available inside the city limits of most smaller towns.
In most circumstances you can get a loan with $0 down. And the Seller is allowed to pay ALL of your closing costs & prepaids so you can actually close and only need a couple of hundred dollars!
USDA also has lower mortgage insurance rates than FHA, VA or Conventional loans which means your monthly payments will be lower. USDA is the cheapest way to get a loan by far.
There is an income limitation to qualify for a USDA home, which varies by where you live, family size, etc. so we will need to gather some information from you to see if you qualify, BUT it’s not a restrictive requirement. We’ve done USDA loans to above $400,000 so regardless if you’ve heard that USDA is for low income, that obviously isn’t true.
The problem with USDA is that typically USDA runs out of money every year at about October. But that’s not a problem for us. We can fund USDA loans 365 days of the year even when USDA is out of money!
