can we refinance from FHA to conventional mortgage?

[jaf4776]

I am just curious.  My husband and I just purchased a home.  We were fortunate enough to buy a house that already has $80K of equity in it.  We closed on a 30 year FHA loan @ 4.25%.  We would like to refinance to a conventional loan (if at all possible) and use the equity in the house to do some major renovations.  Are there any requirements on an FHA loan in terms of waiting periods to refi?  Am I naïve to think that PMI on a conventional loan is much less than PMI on an FHA loan?  Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

[Peter1142]

I don't know much about refi, but PMI on conventional is dependent on credit scores. You can go to mgic to get an idea.

[StartingOver10]

PMI on a conventional loan is score sensitive. the lower your scores, the higher the PMI.

You can refi at any time from FHA to conventional provided you qualify.

[BrianB_The_Loan_Professor]

Since your purchase was recent all the banks that I know of will want a 12 month time frame after the purchase before they will allow you to use a new appraised value - The thought is that if it was worth so much why did you get it so cheap? And if thats what you just paid for it that must be what the true market value regardless of what  new appraisal might say  - 

Also cash out over 80% is not easy to get - not sure how much cash you were looking to get out but the days of 90%-100% cash out are history - FHA allow cash out to 85% 

An option that might work for you now is a HELOC - our bank does not offer them so I am not up to speed on their current guidelines - you may want to contact a local credit union and ask if they have anything that would help given your scenario.

Good Luck

Brian