Friday, July 25, 2014

What is Home in Five? How does it help me buy a HOUSE?



The Home in Five Program is a Grant program that will issue a grant to home buyers for 5% of the purchase price of the home they are buying. 

What does that mean? 

Let’s look real quick at an example. Of a home contract price of $200,000.00, the grant will be issued, through your lender, to cover 5% or $10,000. 

Wow! That is a lot of money! Where does it go?

Well there are certain things that this money is allowed to go for. Down payment is the majority of it, and of course the program fee and another fee that the government charges for you to use the program. It usually ends up to be about 2% of the grant that is issued to you.

What? That is crazy! 

Yes, I know, but it is our government. That is how they work, they give it to us, then they take it right back. But the trick is to have a savvy Realtor that knows how to get you in with the least money out of pocket.

So how is that accomplished?

Well, for instance, if your Realtor was wise, they would say to you. “Pay your inspection fee and your appraisal fee with your own funds, from a debit card or check that comes straight from your account, like cash.” When you do this, these funds are able to come back to you from the left over money from the grant.

What?  OMG! This is weird.

Yes, but that is the government. So if you want those monies back at closing, make sure you pay with cash on hand and can prove it. 

So what kind of program should I be qualified for through a lender for this grant program?

The Home in Five program is eligible for all VA, FHA and USDA housing programs. Even if they are at 100% LTV (LTV is lender speak for Loan to Value or for normal people like you and me, the purchase price).  Now be careful! If you are going FHA or VA and are looking at condos and townhomes, you need to purchase one that is approved by HUD. Make SURE your Realtor knows this and verifies this before you go out looking or look at listings of homes, the MLS (or Listing Database your realtor searches from is not always correct!). Otherwise you could be facing an emotional catastrophe when you find out that your financing does not apply for this and you will have to bring in a mountain of money you don’t have or don’t want to put down.

What about opening escrow, can I get my escrow money back? 

Opening escrow, again, you must use your own funds, they can even be gifted funds from family and friends. An example told to me was that a boyfriend can use a payday advance to gift to his girlfriend to open escrow, even if he goes and pays the escrow himself for her, the money is considered a gift and can be credited back to the buyer at the closing provided the funds are left over.

What about closing costs and pre-paids? What are those?

Closing costs are all the fees that are associated with the purchase of the home and the transfer of the title, hoa, and other fun stuff that you will see along the way. Pre-paids are the impound accounts that the escrow will collect to pay for things like your taxes, insurance, etc.  Now if you have a savvy Realtor (wink, wink) she can negotiate for these to be paid for by the seller, as she does her homework. And most HUD programs allow for up to 6% of the purchase price to be contributed to the buyer from the seller for closing costs and pre-paids exclusively.  (That is usually more than enough to cover these costs) 

So how much can I buy on this?

Well it is limited to $300,000 purchase price and this program is only good in Maricopa County, sorry Pinal. But there are some other programs for Pinal County, you just have to know who to contact, people like me! ;) 

If you would like to ask me more about this please contact me!

I love to talk about this and how we can get you into your home with literally almost nothing!
Well, nothing the government way, you fork it out first, then they reimburse you!

Hope you are having an excellent day! I look forward to working with you!
Sabrina

Sabrina Martin-Shamugia
Realtor ®
Keller Williams Realty East Valley
sabrina.azre@gmail.com


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