Would like to buy a home but need help.

[Irene_in_So_Cal]

Hi!  First of all, let me make myself clear, I would like genuine advice, not criticism. 

Ok.  So I would like to purchase a home.  I'm working on getting my scores above 640 to qualify for CHDAP (down payment assistance program; hope I spelled it correctly).  As far as finances go, we would qualify for 200,000.  The problem is there is SSI income included in our finances.  Those familiar with SSI know you can't go over 3,000 in resources for a married couple.  I have spoken to many lenders that would get back to me, but seem to have just let it be because of this situation.  I have inquired about IDA (savings program that wouldn't affect SSI, but there is no current date when the program will start again in our area and is a minimum of 12 months).  I have been told we would need about 5-7k in closing costs.  Family gifts are out of the question since it also would affect eligibility.  Does anyone have any advice on how to proceed?  Would it be best to speak with a real estate agent to see if we can include closing costs in the home offer or continue to find a lender that may be able to work with us?  We are in California, if you have anyone you'd recommend, please let me know.  Thanks in advance.

[p-]

You can save up to 5k per year in a Roth IRA if you are working, and a non-working spouse may save the same amount.  You should confirm, but I believe that Retirement Accounts might be exempt from the savings restrictions.  

If so, that is post-tax money.  You can save it, and draw out the original principal tax free.  You can't draw out any gains, though.  They have to stay in there until retirement.

I'm not too familiar with SSI - is a home exempt from the 3k resource limit?

You should talk to a mortgage broker and make sure that a Roth is acceptable for a place to draw closing costs from, and someone who knows about SSI to see if Roth accounts are exempt from the resource limit.

You can wrap closing costs into the loan, but only if your LTV is good.  I don't think they will let you go negative LTV.

[StartingOver10]

You also can get a seller contribution of up to 3% of your purchase price toward closing costs and pre-paid expenses on a conventional loan but you have to negotiate that in your contract up front to have the seller pay it. For FHA the seller is allowed to contribute as much as 6% of the purchase price toward your closing costs and pre-paid expenes but those costs are usually in the neighborhood of 4.5% so you don't need to ask for 6%.

The issue you might face is that the seller might not agree to contribute to your costs.

Some lenders will contribute toward your cc's and pp's but they have to bump the rate up a bit in order to do so.