FHA Loans for California and Hawaii Home Owners 

Franklin Advantage offers FHA mortgages. Whether you are refinancing your current home or buying your first home; the best home loan available may be a FHA program.

FHA offers loans for First Time Home Buyers, foreclosures, Seniors who are looking for payment relief,  and  home owners looking to refinance to a low fixed rate payment.

What is the Federal Housing Administration?

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) was created by the National Housing Act of 1934. Its intent was to regulate the terms of mortgages that it insured and increase the number of people who could afford homeownership. With minimal down payments and affordable monthly mortgage payments, FHA accomplished its goal of increasing homeownership over its 75 year history. 

Today FHA is the largest insurer of mortgages in the world, insuring over 34 million properties since its inception and Americans are now arguably the best housed people in the world.

Is a FHA Loan Right for You?

Choosing the right loan can be very confusing; especially in this complex and ever changing market. There are a lot of options and extraordinary opportunities today. FHA may be the program that can help you buy or refinance your home.

Contact us or Apply now a let FHA work for you.

Buying a Home with FHA

California and Hawaii home buyers can use FHA to buy their home with:  
> Only a 3 1/2% down payment.
> Easier credit qualifying

FHA helps home buyers who cannot afford a conventional down payment of 20% or who cannot qualify with the more stringent underwriting guidelines imposed by Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI).  PMI is required on conventional loans if the applicant is financing more than 80% of their total value or sales price. California home buyers can use FHA to buy their California home with only a 3 1/2% down payment.

FHA First Time Buyer Programs  

California First Time Home Buyers have several programs available to them that work in conjunction with FHA.    
 * CalHFA offers a concurrent 3% second mortgage that allows the First Time Home Buyer to buy a California home with only a 1/2% down payment. 
 * The FHLBSF offers grants to First Time Home Buyers in California of $3 for every $1 dollar the new California buyer contributes up to $15,000.
 
Franklin Advantage offers a FREE first time home buyers guide, 10 Easy Steps to Buying a Home. It's informative, easy to read and best of all, it's FREE!. 
 
* Send me my "Free Guide to Home Ownership"  

Use FHA to Refinance your Home

Home-owners with less than perfect credit, little equity or a bankruptcy 2 or 3 years ago may be able to use FHA to get a new loan. FHA also offers  home-owners cash proceeds up to 85% of their homes value. If you currently have a FHA loan on your California or Hawaii home, FHA may not require an appraisal when you refinance (see Streamline Refinance below).

FHA  Offers Financial Help For Seniors

As seniors become a greater part of the American population, FHA's Reverse Mortgage loans have grown in popularity. For many homeowners, this loan provides opportunities to stay in their home when financial circumstances may not otherwise allow.

FHA created this unique loan that allows for cash advances which can be taken in a lump sum, as needed or on a monthly basis for as long as the homeowner remains in their California home. The money you receive is tax free and there are no monthly mortgage payments required. Contact us to find out if this FHA loan can help you.

FHA Will Help You Fix a Foreclosure 

FHA's 203k program allows you to buy a home, fix it up and include the repair costs in one loan. Or if you want to re-model or repair your current home, this FHA loan will allow you to add the cost of repair to your loan. 

Foreclosed homes for sale often need repairs. Conventional financing will not allow financing until the repairs are complete. This keeps many potential home buyers from buying these homes but with the FHA 203k program, homebuyers can finance the cost of the repairs into their FHA mortgage.

Are you looking to buy a foreclosed home or does your home need repairs? Contact us at Franklin Advantage and a loan officer will be happy to answer all of your questions.

FHA's Streamline Refinance
 
Lower your payment and reduce the interest rate on your current home loan. Home owners with current FHA loans in good standing may further qualify for streamlined refinancing with less paperwork, and without an appraisal.

Make your Home More Energy Efficient with FHA 

FHA's Energy Efficient Mortgage program (EEM) helps homebuyers and homeowners save money on utility bills by enabling them to finance the cost of adding energy efficiency features to new or existing housing as part of their FHA insured  home purchase or their California home refinance mortgage.

Franklin Advantage can put a FHA loan to work for you if:

New Home Purchase
* You're a first-time homebuyer  
* You have out grown your current home

Refinancing
* You would like to get cash out of your home
* You need to lower your payment, but don't have a lot of equity
* You need to refinance but your credit is less than perfect

Qualifying 
* You don't have a lot of money for a down payment
* Your credit is less than perfect 
* Allowed 2 years after bankruptcy
* Allowed 3 years after foreclosure
* Allowed 2 years after a short sale when current on payments 
* Gift's, loans against 401K's and other methods are acceptable for obtaining the down payment)

FHA General Guidelines

Debt to Income Ratios:
As with conventional loans, to secure an FHA loan you must meet basic income to debt ratio requirements, be able to verify your income and assets, liabilities, and credit history. However, these qualifications are likely to be more flexible with an FHA insured loan than the conventional loans offered today.

Reserves:
Unlike conventional financing, FHA does not require the borrower to have a minimum of two months mortgage payment s in funds after the close of escrow.

Appraisal:
The FHA requires a physical home appraisal (except in the case of streamlined refinancing)

Credit:
FHA allows for more aggressive credit underwriting than conventional financing:
* Home purchase or refinance allowed just two years after a bankruptcy
* Home purchase or refinance allowed just three years after a foreclosure
* Home purchase or refinance allowed two years after a short sale if payments made current through short sale
* Credit scores down to 580 with 10% down payments and compensating underwriting factors

Other General Guidelines
* Down payments as low as 3.5% of the purchase price (1/2% down payments available with CalHFA)
* Cash out refinances to 85% of your home's value
* FHA will use a cosigners income in calculating debt ratios even when the cosigner will not be living in the home.

New Higher FHA Loan Limits
* The Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 went into effect as of March 6, 2008 and allowed the FHA to increase loan limits for new purchases and refinancing through the FHA.
* The FHA loan maximum limit was increased from $362,790 up to $729,750.
* New limits were reduced in October 2011 and vary by the geographic location of the home you are trying to purchase. The maximum is now $625,500 applies to large metropolitan areas where the cost of living and homeownership is higher.
* Nearly 240,000 more homeowners and potential buyers may be helped by the new loan maximums

About FHA

FHA is the only government agency that operates entirely from its self-generated income and costs the taxpayers nothing. The proceeds from the mortgage insurance paid by the homeowners are captured in an account that is used to operate the program entirely. FHA provides a huge economic stimulation to the country in the form of home and community development, which trickles down to local communities in the form of jobs, building suppliers, tax bases, schools, and other forms of revenue.

FHA loans are available throughout Hawaii and California including Los Angeles County, Orange County, Riverside County, San Bernardino County and San Diego County.