Question for the lenders here: Is Wells Fargo my only choice?

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone, this question is mostly for the lenders on this board but if you have a suggestion please feel free to chime in:

My husband and I are considering purchasing a 2nd home which will be used as a vacation home in Orlando.  Though we are not 100% sure it will most probably be a condo and not a house because we live about 3.5 hours away from Orlando so lawn maintenance would be a hassle.  Now because we are mostly looking at condos we know that there will be some financing hurdles.  In order to get an FHA loan we would need to choose a condo in an FHA approved building.  We are not sure we want something that restrictive and would rather choose a condo just because we like it. 

To my understanding the only way to get a loan on a non FHA approved condo in the Orlando area is to select a HomePath condo that is approved for HomePath financing.  Is that correct?  Or do we have other loan choices when considering a non FHA condo?

My other question is regarding loan amount.  We are only looking to spend around $25,000 or so on the condo.  Once again, to my understanding, most lenders will not loan less than $50,000.  I did find out that Wells Fargo (which happens to be a HomePath lender does lend on loans less than $50,000.  In fact, they told me that had no minimum loan amount.  But I was wondering, are they my only choice?  Surely there must be other lenders out there.  I have no problems using Wells Fargo but I would like other options too.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.  We tried to buy a condo last year in April and the deal fell through because even though the condo we picked was in an FHA approved community it turned out that there were two phases of construction.  Phase 1 was FHA approved but not phase 2.  So the FHA loan we had fell through and we lost the condo.  I don't want that to happen again.  And I would love to have other financing choices besides just HomePath condos.

Our credit information is as follows:

Equifax: 639 (should go up about 15 points once I make a large payment on the small $300 balance this month).

Transunion: 679

Experian: who knows?

Our debt to income ratio is good (I think) and we should be able to buy a condo for $25,000 and be in the 38% ratio bracket.

We have a mortgage on our home which we refinanced in June of last year and got a good rate of 4.75%.  We are not underwater on our house and will not be selling it in order to buy the condo.  We have no lates on either our current mortgage or on our car loan and only have 2 credit cards, one with a balance of about $300 and the other with about $350.

So, any other loan and/or lender suggestions?

Thanks all!

Monica

[DallasLoanGuy]

fha = owner occupied primary opnly. no second homes.

you will have to go conventional

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the quick response Dallas.  Interesting, I was never told I couldn't go FHA last time but that's good to know. 

OK, well, in your experience do you know of any conventional lenders that will lend on a loan of about $25,000?  It might be more like $20,000 since we are looking for a $25,000 or so condo and depending on the down payment requirements will put down anywhere from 10-20% down. 

I know Wells Fargo does not have a minimum loan amount through their HomePath  program and they allow investors and 2nd homes but I am looking for other loan options as I would rather not have to selet from just HomePath inventory.  Any suggestions regarding conventional or even HomePath loans in my circumstance?

Thanks again!

Monica

[DallasLoanGuy]

I would try:

Wells

BofA

Chase

Credit unions

maybe ask the sellers how they get these financed

[Anonymous]

Great, thank you for the suggestions!

[grammysue]

Not a lender but have a comment:  we live in Ohio and have a manufactured home in a small park near Cocoa Beach as a second home.  Paid cash for it.  My suggestion about condo near Orlando:  DON'T.  The hassles of a second home are not worth it.  Condo values are awful and a lot of owners just walking away making remaining owners responsible for way too much.  Wish we had just saved our cash and used it for renting something for three or four months.  We're always worrying about bugs, is everything running, did the bushes get cut, is our place turning green or black with mold.......like I said, a huge regret for us.

[Anonymous]

I agree with you about Homepath properties being limited. I am pre-approved with Wells Fargo for a Homepath loan, but have only found one property that fit my requirements. I made an offer which was accepted, but the deal WENT TO HELL IN A HANDBASKET real fast due to some issues with the house that I was not willing to accept. It's since been reduced and is still on the market, and I just wish anyone luck who decides to buy it. 

I also agree with one of the other posters. There is really nothing special about having a secod home in the Orlando area, since there are so many condos, hotels, and resorts, and timeshares, I wouldn't buy a condo just for the times I spend there unless it was for 3-6 months out of the year. Anything else and you might as well rent something during the time you spend there, since you'll never make a profit on a condo, and may never be able to sell it either. Just my .02 from someone who has  lived in the area.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the opinions everyone.  I'm not looking to buy the condo as an investment per say.  In fact, if I were to sell sometime in the future it would be very far off in the future, no earlier than 10 years from now.  Basically we want a condo in the Kissimmee/Orlando area because:

1.  We vacation there all the time and would go stay a long weekend at least once a month, 2 weeks or so in December, and who knows how many times during the summer when the kids are out of school.  We always stay in apartment like settings, we don't like hotels, and we would LOVE to have all our stuff waiting for us when we get there.

2.  They are SO cheap right now.

3.  Our son has plans to go to college in central Florida when he graduates high school so the condo would be much better for him than living in a dorm.

4.  Ideally, we would like to gift the condo to one of our children in the future to help give them a start in life.

5.  We have plans to move to Washington once my husband retires and it would be nice to have a 2nd home in Florida to come to during the winter months.

It's just a matter of finding the right place for us, which means within a 20 minute drive to the attractions and a major mall, with HOA fees that are less than $200 a month, taxes less than $1,000 a year, and at least a 2 bed / 1.5 bath for no more than $25,000.  They are out there, it just takes patience.

As far as lending, if anybody knows of a conventional lender that will lend on a $25,000 or so loan with 20% down please let me know.  Until then, we'll have to stick to HomePath homes.

Thanks everyone!