All Forum Posts by: Stephanie Medellin

Most, if not all, banks should be open to a cash-out refinance. At 60% LTV you should be able to get a very competitive rate. You can use the cash for any purpose.

You will have to qualify as with any other loan as far as income/employment and credit. 

@Anh N. A title company might agree to give you that information as a courtesy, but I'm really not sure.  It's worth a quick phone call.

One thought I had in regards to this situation - usually if there is a loan that is delinquent, many times the lender will step in and pay the property taxes to keep them current, so as not to lose their investment to a tax foreclosure.  Same for insurance - if the homeowner lets their insurance policy lapse, the lender will go ahead and take out a policy for the home, adding the cost to the delinquent amount of payments owed.  They will also many times hire a property preservation company if they determine that the home has been vacated.  You will usually see a notice posted on the door when this happens.  If they are very far behind in taxes, there is a chance there is no loan on the home.  This is merely an observation and by no means a hard and fast rule for this type of situation.  Definitely do your due diligence!

@Account Closed I know this is an old thread, but if you have not already purchased a home, there are new 3% down conventional programs available that you may want to consider as an alternative to FHA. These have lower mortgage insurance rates too.

I don't believe that independently paying someone else's delinquent property taxes would give you any right to put a lien on their home without their permission.  The only party that can go after homeowners for not paying taxes is the local government.

It would be much better if you could contact them to see if they are willing to sell.  Do you know if there is currently a loan on the property?

Currently Fannie is 10 and Freddie is 6.  Only 1-4 unit properties count in this total, and if there are multiple borrowers on the loan, the total of all properties owned by all borrowers will apply.

Hi Mary,

That's great you have a nice cushion of savings available.  I would proceed with extreme caution before sending in that money, as I agree with what

@Eric Black said above.  If you send in that money they will just apply it to principal, and your regularly scheduled payments will still be due each month.  If this happens, they will not refund you that money.  

On the off chance that they do allow the arrangement you described, since you're not pre-paying any principal, your balance will not be reduced and it wouldn't save you any interest off the life of the loan.  Maybe you could set up a bank account with those funds and just have the payment auto deducted every month so you won't have to think about it.

Nicole I don't know about this specific lender but for any lender they will have to be licensed in the same state where the financed property is located.  You can live out of state.

No, this should not affect your DTI if the balance is $0. It's similar to a credit card that has a credit line, but is not carrying a balance.

If the property will be owner occupied you could do FHA financing for a 4-unit with 3.5%. Otherwise, regular conventional loans will be 25% down for 4 units.

I agree, if everyone is family, and everyone is contributing equally to the down payment, would you consider everyone having equal ownership?  Depending on how many family members are involved and how many apartments you need, you could still potentially benefit from the other apartments.  For example if your family occupies two apartments of a 4 unit building, you could each offset your costs with the other two units, and it's still fair for everyone.  Hopefully everyone has good credit and income and can qualify for the loan.