Has anyone ever used a down payment assistance program such as the FHA Nehemiah program?

I don't think we're going to go with the VA loan b/c a fixed 30 FHA loan appears to possibly be our best option right now if we can get approved for the down payment assistance. I was just wondering what programs you've heard of or used and how they worked out for you!

http://www.fha.com/program_nehemiah.cfm

We have a 30 yr FHA.... It's awesome!!

I've heard of the Nehemiah program, haven't used it personally but I can ask someone in the industry if you want.

We have a 30 yr FHA.... It's awesome!!

I've heard of the Nehemiah program, haven't used it personally but I can ask someone in the industry if you want.

My mom is really familiar with it and says she signs contracts with people all the time who use it and have had great luck with it, but I didn't know if us being in Cali would have any bearing on it being any different... seems like Cali has all sorts of weird rules and loopholes for everything :lol Cali is not a normal state. :nutts

She also said that a lot of times, people are better off with a 30 yr FHA and especially if you can get the assistance with down payment and closing.

So, we're going to explore both and any additional info is most definitely appreciated!!!

Are you guys planning on going through USAA or?

We are looking into that as well trying to buy a home... well a mobile home... we can't afford a "real" home in a million years.

Are you guys planning on going through USAA or?

We're actually not going through them b/c it seems like we can not get the best rate through them. My mom did say that that's actually kind of typical b/c she sells to a lot of military and a lot of times their lender can do better than usaa can. So, probably not. :worried I do (L) usaa but for loans they just haven't worked out the best for us.

We have a 30 year fixed rate FHA loan back with a VA loan. The Va doesn't actually give loans they only back the loan you can get. With our credit it was the best way for us to go.

We looked into every down payment program we could find. Most of them required the seller to pay either a fee, all or part of the down payment as well as the closing costs. Some of the programs are only available to certain people in certain areas of the country in certain neighborhoods and on certain houses.

For us it was just to much to ask of the sellers. We were already asking them to pay closing costs.

I wanted to add that because we got the VA loan we didn't have to come up with a down payment.

Navy Fed has a FHA loan now.

Some other programs.
http://www.famonline.org/

My friend got this information from her pastor.

San Diego also has their own, I am not sure how they work.
http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/sdhcd/homeowners/dcca.html
http://sdhc.org/hafirstimebuyer1.shtml

We didn't use any of these. The two San Diego ones require a class and both of us would have to attend. JJ is gone so it wasn't possible.

You may also want to look into a 80/20 loan.
You make two loans from the lender at the same time. The first is the primary mortgage for 80%. The second is a home equity loan for the other 20% (less what ever down payment you can afford to make.) You use this 20% as the down payment for the big loan.
You get the better interest rate on the bog loan because of the 20% down. You also avoid the PMI which become a HUGE cost as part of your monthly payments.
You do need to sit down and do the math on the individual repayments and costs to see whether it is worth while for your situation.
I know this isn't directly on point with your question, but it is another option.

You may also want to look into a 80/20 loan.
You make two loans from the lender at the same time. The first is the primary mortgage for 80%. The second is a home equity loan for the other 20% (less what ever down payment you can afford to make.) You use this 20% as the down payment for the big loan.
You get the better interest rate on the bog loan because of the 20% down. You also avoid the PMI which become a HUGE cost as part of your monthly payments.
You do need to sit down and do the math on the individual repayments and costs to see whether it is worth while for your situation.
I know this isn't directly on point with your question, but it is another option.

I do not recommend that now. Besides, with the way the market is, most lenders will not do 2nds or 80/20s. Also, it's very hard to find any lender who will let you use the 20% as the downpayment...................... In fact, in my 5 yrs of doing mortgages, I've never seen any allow that.

We're actually not going through them b/c it seems like we can not get the best rate through them. My mom did say that that's actually kind of typical b/c she sells to a lot of military and a lot of times their lender can do better than usaa can. So, probably not. :worried I do (L) usaa but for loans they just haven't worked out the best for us.

Well, when you're ready, let me know. Our loan officer was awesome for our FHA, if you need/want a good recommendation.

we used nehemiah when we bought our house a couple years ago... you can only use it once though, so if you plan on moving after a few years I would try to find something you could use again... we won't be able to buy a house again for at least 5 years because we used nehemiah and then we sold our house because hubby joined the military. Also, it can be hard to find a seller willing to accept a nehemiah loan program.

So if you use that, how does that end up comparing to the VA loan as far as down payment?

We got approved for our VA loan, because our financial advisor mentioned that in CA b/c of the market, you need to have at least 5%, but more like 10% down (for a conventional loan). So would the Nehemiah program cover up to what the banks are requiring? Or is it locked at 6%? Also, does it cover any closing costs, or is that a whole separate thing that will need to be paid for in addition to the down payment they cover?

Nehemiah covers UP to 6% from what I've learned through some research. Also, the sellers essentially have to cover/pay for it... so you'd have to find a seller who would be willing to do that. And, from what I've read, the Nehemiah's 6% can cover closing costs too, so I'm sure most sellers might do either pay closing costs OR Nehemiah. But they are obviously not required to do either.

Hmm... interesting!

Are there any assistance programs to use with the VA loan? (So that we could use the money we have saved to pay off some debt and in turn get a little bigger loan?)

Not that i know of. The problem is, no one is going to truly give away "free" money so someone will have to pay in the end (usually the sellers) - and actually, Nehemiah is the only program of it's kind that I've heard of.

Unless you're planning on paying off say... more than 10-15k of debt with money saved for a downpayment, that would significantly reduce your debt to income ratio (meaning, the monthly payments would have to be significant enough to make a difference in the ratio), I don't think it would make much of an impact on your loan approval. One thing you could do, though... is save the $$ you have saved up for initial cost of moving... ie if you want to paint, or replace carpet, or need appliances, etc and just use 100% financing through the VA with the seller's contributing towards closing costs. But obviously that's totally JMO.

Well the money would be 17K (on our debt), which would get us about $50,000 more house! :wow :shock But it would also only leave us enough money to pay the VA fees and closing costs, which we would hope to negotiate with the sellers and use for the stuff you said, appliances and crap.

So many decisions, it's pretty overwhelming! :hehe

Yea, 17k would make a dent in your debt to income ratio :) However, the question that you have to ask yourself is do you need that extra 50k or can you find something in a lower price range that would work for your family. Also, would that leave you with any reserves should you need it? Would that leave you money for home repairs if you wanted/needed or would that put you in a rough spot? On a 300k house, most sellers will be willing to pay around $9500-10k. That could cover points, the funding fee, etc... rates are kinda high right now in comparison to what they've been for the first few months of the year, so you could always use some of that money to buy down a lower interest rate as well.

I'm excited for you guys ! :cp Let me know if you have more questions :D

Not that i know of. The problem is, no one is going to truly give away "free" money so someone will have to pay in the end (usually the sellers) - and actually, Nehemiah is the only program of it's kind that I've heard of.

Unless you're planning on paying off say... more than 10-15k of debt with money saved for a downpayment, that would significantly reduce your debt to income ratio (meaning, the monthly payments would have to be significant enough to make a difference in the ratio), I don't think it would make much of an impact on your loan approval. One thing you could do, though... is save the $$ you have saved up for initial cost of moving... ie if you want to paint, or replace carpet, or need appliances, etc and just use 100% financing through the VA with the seller's contributing towards closing costs. But obviously that's totally JMO.

John found a few similar to it a few weeks ago. They all seemed to require the seller to pay a fee to use the program or pay all of the down payment and all of the closing costs plus any other fees.

You can try ameridream.org . I believe your lender or agent has to do the application for you though. We decided not to apply because the seller has to agree to work with them too (basically just signing up with them as far as I could tell) and we didnt want there to be ANY reason to have our offer declined with all of the short sales out here.

Also try seeing what each city has to offer. I know when we were looking we found that San Marcos offered down payment assistance if you were buying in their city. I think several cities do that.

We were able to do our loan with 3% down. That was the best we could find. I dont think they even do 80/20 loans anymore, not with what has been going on with all these mortgages right now. Ours is a fixed rate 30yr FHA loan.

I can also give you the name of our lender too if you are looking for one. She was our lender and agent and she is awesome! I have known her for years and she is great at what she does. She is also a good negotiator. She got us a 17k credit from the selling bank after they were only willing to give us 10k for the repairs it needed.