Repairs On A House With FHA Loan

by Jennifer
(Bloomsburg, PA USA)

I found a house I love that has been foreclosed on. My husband is very handy and has built homes before so the repairs that need to be done are not an issue.

He bought a house several years ago with an FHA loan and was able to do the repairs himself and then have them inspected, but our real estate agent says that with an FHA loan we can NOT do the repairs ourselves and we have to have a licensed contractor do the repairs for us.

Is this really the case? We need to know ASAP so we don't miss out on his house of our dreams.

Thank You

=====ANSWERS=====

Hello there Jennifer;

Thank you for visiting my website and explaining your situation so well and asking your questions.

I love sharing with people and helping them during the home buying process.

I have some good news for you. FHA has a loan program that allows you to both buy the house and do the repairs yourself.

This FHA rehab mortgage program is designed to help you get done what you're looking to do.

Now the big problem will be finding a lender that will do this for you. I'm not surprised your real estate agent does not know of this program.

There are a lot of loan officers that do not know about this loan product.

When I was in the mortgage business, I did these kind of loans. They work in a way that makes it possible to purchase and fix up the home.

However, the only down side to this loan product if you plan to do your own work is the repair escrow part of it.

You have to pay for the supplies and perform the repairs, then get an inspection and they reimburse you the costs.

So, you have to have some cash on the side or credit cards to work this out. You only want to get 2-3 draws at the most so you have to plan it out.

The type of loan you want to ask for is the FHA 203K loan. It is different from the FHA 203B loan product.

You may have to search rather hard to find this kind of a loan. Many people will tell you they do not exists because they are too embarrassed to admit they do not know about it.

So if you follow all the links on this page and read everything over, chances are you will know more than 99% of the Realtors and Loan Officers out there since this is kind of a secret.

I hope you find this helpful. If you do, please pay it forward so other people can learn about my website by "Liking" us in your FaceBook account and giving us a shout out in Twitter. The button just below make it real easy to do. Just be sure you are logged into your accounts before you do this.

Kind Regards,

Jeffrey Ragan