All Forum Posts by: Preston Schmidt

VA and FHA are both government financed (Ginnie Mae) so they have similar guidelines. Typically you can only have one VA or one FHA loan at a time and it must be your primary residence but each loan is a case by case scenario. My favorite saying, "every loan has it's own DNA."

James is right though, you would need to use conventional financing on the house you're planning to purchase unless you go the private money route. I like James' idea of refinancing out of your current VA loan to conventional and making the new home your new VA loan (assuming you still have eligibility left for a down payment).

It will not hurt you at all. Although it is treated similar to a personal line of credit, it will be secured by your primary residence which looks much more favorable to underwriters than an unsecured line. I don't even think you can use funds from an unsecured PLOC towards a down payment anyway because that is considered borrowed funds.

Yes you should be able to use the FHA appraisal for the conventional loan if they qualify. This is because an FHA appraisal consists of everything a conventional appraisal requires but more. If you tried to go the other way around (conventional to FHA it's a lot tougher but still possible). That appraiser needs to be FHA certified and agree to convert it over for you but they typically require a fee to do it. What was the reason for the FHA not approving the Association? My company works with the association to try to get them approved under FHA if it's not a legality issue.

I can tell you from experience as a lender who specializes in Condominium financing, this should not be any issue, if and only if, you run it as an investment property with either 25% or 30% down. You also wouldn't use the rental income to qualify since the rental leases would be for less than one year. With landlord experience of two+ years this would make you eligible under Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Hope this helps.

David Wayman it works for duplexes and triplexes too. I'm looking to do this as well next year when my wife and I move out of or current home to be able to start investing!

Not sure if you wanted to do this but try this: Go get a pre-approval letter from a lender with maximum payment or LTV leaving the purchase price blank so it can be used with all offers. Then once the seller (listing agent) accepts your offer, bring your purchase agreement to your hard money lender and let the seller know that you are switching lenders/financing. It happens quite often in a competitive industry believe it or not and that way you are able to put everyone's peace of mind at ease.

FHA requires a min credit score of 620 in some places with good capital and reserves. 640 in most places. If you are lower than 620 you will have to do what you can to get your score up to that measure. Conventional can also go down to 620 but be prepared to pay high Mortgage insurance if you do not put 20% down.

Welcome back Brock. Let me know if I can help answer any financing questions.

Welcome to BP! You will love this group of educated individuals who are always looking to help out fellow BP members!

You can go as low as 15% down with a minimum fico of 740+ and 6 months reserves but you will have a much higher rate. Right now around 5%. Otherwise it's typically 20% or 25% down.