The Best Kept Secret ... Fannie Mae's HomePath Financing Program

No appraisal ... no mortgage insurance ... easier qualifying guidelines ... and down payment as low as 3 percent!

Can this be true? Yes, but only with Fannie Mae HomePath homes that qualify for Fannie Mae’s HomePath financing. Fannie Mae is the largest purchaser of mortgages in the U.S. and in February of 2009 announced special financing to make it more affordable to buy their foreclosures.

More features that make HomePath homes a unique buying opportunity include:

Can be purchased as a primary residence, second home or investment. If you plan to occupy the home, HomePath offers seller credits up to 6 percent to help offset closing costs. That’s double Fannie’s 3 percent limit for seller credits on conventional loans.

Another cool feature … Fannie allows the buyer to choose the title company. In a typical “bank owned” purchase transaction (except in California) the seller chooses the title company which many be located in a completely different part of the state. This can cause delays, high escrow charges and often complicates closing escrow.

Fannie has made it easier to qualify for financing by lowering the adjustments for FICO scores below 720. And … if you put 5 percent down instead of the minimum 3 percent, the LTV / interest rate adjustment is significantly less.

To avoid mortgage insurance on a traditonal conventional loan, you need 20 percent down payment. Not true for HomePath. The minimum down payment is 3 percent.

Now that FHA appraisals are managed by the lender, they take longer. Since NO appraisal is required, you not only save money… you save time closing escrow.

This is great information but there’s more. You have to check out another blog I wrote that compares HomePath financing to FHA. Click on the title below to get to that post.

Fannie Mae Foreclosures … Is HomePath Financing Better Than FHA?