Any advice for someone with low income to find their first home?

[Sergey Pshenichkin]

Hey BP folks! I'm a long time fan, first time poster. I hope I'm in the right forum. I bought my first home last year in December, mostly to get out of renting (it was a condo in Montgomery County, Maryland with a low condo fee, not a super great deal but very reasonable). I'm working on increasing my income to hopefully invest in future properties, and trying to help my friends and coworkers on the path to home ownership since many of them are renters in their 20s and don't know the options that are really out there. Here is where I'm stuck: someone I know is currently renting. Let's call her "Jane". She has a w-2 job but doesn't make a lot from it (somewhere in the $30-$35k range). She's been there a few years so she'd have tax returns, and her credit isn't great but it can be boosted pretty easily by paying off her $300 credit card debt. She bought a preowned car last summer, and the car payment and credit card (which she opened 2 or 3 months ago) are the only items on her credit report. She has 2 kids and her salary is the only source of income in her household, and she's in her late 20s. She has no savings and no investments (yes, I know, we are working on fixing that) but fortunately she has no student loan debt or anything besides her car and credit card payments mentioned above. Now, I'm aware of some on the low and no down payment options for her (FHA, USDA, I'm almost positive she can't get a VA loan but I'll double check), but the sticking point would be the monthly payments. Right now she can afford her rent due to a low-income housing program, but even that is a struggle. The program is also tied directly to her income, so when her income increases, her rent does as well so she isn't any better off. Many of the low and no down payment options I've seen require mortgage insurance, which would probably raise her monthly payments past what she can afford, but if she tries to get a conventional mortgage, she'd have to come up with a down payment which she doesn't have. She could borrow it, but then she'd have to pay it back, which again would mean she's paying more every month... The best option I could think of would be the FHA 203K loan which would let her buy a property that's really cheap and fix it up. Hopefully she could find a property with enough of a discount that the PITI and the repair costs together would still be affordable, but fixing up a house with 2 kids living there while working a full time job would be challenging for most people, let alone a first time homebuyer. In any case, I'd love hear any sage wisdom that you folks might have. Maybe there are better paths for her? She's currently in the Olney area of Montgomery County, MD but she's not far from Silver Spring or some parts of Gaithersburg or Germantown, and she works in Rockville. Thanks everyone!

[Mark Smith]

Hi @Sergey Pshenichkin, here are my thoughts.

Go for an FHA, a regular FHA, no 203k. The 203k portion requires that all the work be done by an approved general contractor, so she wouldn't be the one doing the work anyway. However, there would be a requirement that the work be completed within a certain amount of time (6 months I believe), so there would be some pressure to find a contractor and get that work done.

Find a property that she could reasonably live in. Maybe it needs a little cosmetic work, but let's assume it's all things she can do on her own as she felt like; no need for the 203k. I don't know what home prices are in your area, but if you were able to find a duplex in the $90,000 range, you would only need $3,150 down ($90k * 3.5%). What about closing costs? Ask for seller concession in the offer to cover the closing costs. The seller concession limit on an FHA mortgage is 6%. All of this essentially means you are financing in the closing costs, so the closing costs wouldn't be cash out of pocket. Here is how it would look:

Purchase Price:  $90,000

Plus 6% Seller Concession:  $5,400 (this means $5,400 of the closing costs would be covered; no cash out of pocket by the purchaser).

Minus 3.5% Down Payment:  $3,339 cash out of pocket

Total Financed:  $92,061

P&I Payment at 3.5% interest (FHA offers pretty favorable interest rates): $413, then add PMI (probably about $55), taxes, and insurance onto this to get your total monthly payment. You will pay PMI any time you put down less than 20%.

Theoretically, in the situation above, the purchaser only has to come up with $3,339 out of pocket to purchase this house. The $5,400 seller concession should cover most, if not all of the closing costs. The trick here is to find a multifamily that will cover the mortgage, insurance, and taxes for her. You can use an FHA on up to a 4 unit residence. If she has kids and is really busy, she may want to consider finding a duplex where once side rents for $750 or $800/month. There are of course other hurdles here: debt to income ratio, credit score, cash in the bank, etc. But you will encounter those hurdles with any mortgage application.

Hope this helps.