HomeStyle Loan Renovation

[Account Closed]

Hello Everyone,

We are very interested in using the Homestyle Renovation loan when purchasing our next home.

Our question is, can the cost of hiring an Interior Designer and Architect be included in this loan?

[Paul Welden]

Check with the lender, but most commonly, fees for an interior designer are not to be included in the loan amount. Even if it was, the ID would still collect their fee at the time of service and I can't ever imagine they would wait until the loan closes to get paid. Only benefit I see to adding the ID fees to the Homestyle loan would be to reimburse yourself for what you already paid the ID, but I seriously doubt any lender would allow ID fees to be included.

Architect fees and engineer fees ... YES! Those can be included into the loan, but once again, I can't imagine any architect or engineer doing their work and then waiting to get paid from a loan that may or may not even close.

The pdf page link referenced above that said "other consultants" .... the document actually says "other consultant fees," and on the right column, it says "renovation consultant," and this refers to the HUD approved FHA 203k Consultant and their fees that most lenders employ on conventional rehab loans, even though they are not required and are really only for the FHA 203k loan. Most lenders doing conventional rehab loans like the Homestyle still use HUD approved FHA 203k Consultants.

Regardless, if the lender allows you to include the ID fees, get that in writing, and then you can increase your loan amount to reimburse yourself for the ID fees if the ID requires to get paid at the time of service.