Need First Time Home Buyer in TEXAS advice.

[Gom64]

Working dilegntly raising my scores thru good advice on this forum, we reached  our goal of getting pre approved for a home loan.  WOOT! WOOT!!  Began working with a great realtor, but I have a couple questions about the lender we were preapproved by.( Local community bank preapproved us for rate of 4.2 and will probably go with FHA to help reserve some our our savings VS a large down payment)

1.Is anyone here familar with obtaining  " MCC" (Mortgage Credit Certificate) and you live in Texas? Who was your lender?

2. Anyone bought a home using the down payment grant assistance in Texas called, (TMP79)  Texas First Time Home Buyer Program? Who was your lender

Our mortgage lender did not seem to know about these 2 programs. Should this be a RED FLAG? Are these programs optional for a lender to offer?

3. Would it be better to use a Mortgage Broker VS a Mortgage lender? 

Any reccomendations on where we could connect with a  lender, specializing with first time home buyers and get a 2nd  preapproval would be greatly appreciated!

[Anonymous]

I’m not in Texas, but I am going through similar programs in Minnesota.  I quick visited the Texas website to see if it was close.  If you go to the down payment assistance website there is a link to authorized lenders.  Not all lenders will deal with all programs.  My mom is a loan processor (has been for 30 years) and had never heard of either program, needless to say I am not going through her bank.