Make Your Home FHA Friendly!

Want to make your home appeal to all buyers? Knowing the basics of the FHA loan rules will help open up to buyers of all types. The Federal Housing Administration insures about 30% of todays mortgages. By passing the FHA rules, your opening the door to a 30% increase in potential buyers! FHA is a great option for buyers, especially first time home buyers, it allows for as little as 3.5% for a down payment.

Some things to keep in mind for the FHA buyer when selling your home.

* Know the FHA loan limits in your area. In Oregon, the FHA loan limites is $418,000

*Appraisals- This can be the tricky part of the FHA deal. An appraisal is different from a home inspection. The home inspection is optional. The home inspection is a general inspection looking at the shape the home is at that given time. They look to make sure the systems are in good working order and they will point out areas that may be a problem or a major problem area. The appraisal is a lender requirement. The appraiser will come out and look at condition and the comparable properties. They do this to ensure value in the property and make sure that health and safety issues are resolved prior to transfer of ownership. The appraiser will be sent by the lender to look at the property. The appraiser can condition repairs to be completed. The repairs that the appraiser conditions, have to be fixed prior to the close of a property. So, if you place your house on the market, its a good idea to do a pre listing inspection. Catch a potential problem before it arises. If an appraiser conditions repairs, they will require that upon the completion of the repairs a reinspect from the appraiser to be done to verify they were done to satisfaction.

*Closing Costs- Most buyers request some help with closing costs. FHA allows up to 6% (sales price) towards closing costs from the seller.

FHA has a whole bunch of rules relating to condos as well.  In a tight market, its best to make sure that we can expose our property to as many people as possible. Check with your real estate agent to get suggestions as to how to make your home available to buyers of all types.