Opinions on FHA vs HomerReady loans

[Joel Bullock]

When talking about low money down options, I always see people on BiggerPockets mention FHA/FHA 203(k) loans, but very rarely mention HomeReady/HomeStyle loans. On paper at least, they're very comparable, with the major differences I've noticed being that HomeReady is more selective on the Buyer's information and slightly less picky about the property than FHA, and has private mortgage insurance versus the set mortgage insurance for FHA. They both seem to have pro's and con's depending on the situation, however I always see FHA being mentioned but very rarely does it seem like HomeReady is brought up. I might just be missing something, but I'd love to hear everyone's opinion on HomeReady vs FHA loans and any reasons it seems to be less popular.

[John Warren]

@Joel Bullock we recently had a client switch to one of these in the middle of a deal. The client was tight on funds for a property here in the Chicago suburbs, and the lender mentioned he could switch to this loan. If you have the right lender, you won't need to learn all the ins and outs of these loans because the lender will be actively seeking to fit the loans to your investing strategy.