FICO and FHA
January 28, 2008

The interest rates are going down and down. There is money to be loaned! Most of the lenders have raised the minimum FICO® Scores for the Majority of their programs. It appears the adjustment to those FICO® Scores is up between 10 and 40 points, depending on the lender. Qualifying for those stated loans is even tougher, requiring the borrower to show more documentation. Loan to Property Value on Investment Purchases have decreasedbetween 5% and 15%. So if you want to buy investment property, the lender will only go to about 65% Loan-to-Value. The 35% has to be (in most cases) cash, not a second. Even with my wifes and my FICO® Scores close to 800 the banks won’t lend money for a manufactured investment property unless I want to pay around 10% or more and come up with 45% cash. As I have told so many of my clients before, is to check all scenerios prior to purchase:
  1. A first loan on the property, with Cash down
  2. Refinance your existing home and pull the equity out to pay cash for purchase.
  3. Sign up for an equity line on your current house to pull the equity