urgent advice needed..any mortgage ppl out there...

[Anonymous]

  So, as I have stated before I am trying to get an FHA loan. was pre-approved for 80k. On Tuesday, we put a bid in on a bank owned property. the house was assessed last year at $94k, and they were asking $53k.    Problem is this...the realtor calls today and says that the offer has been accepted, but that they are selling th property as is. 

   I have heard that FHA is really strict on what needs to be fixed, etc. For example, the realtor said he hada case last week where the private inspector said there were no issues, and hen when FHAs inspector came in, and said no, the house needs half a roof and the garage needs one. Luckily, he said the buyer and seller were willing to split the costs. Well, we obviously don't have that choice because the bank already says they will not fix anything.

  Will FHA deny because of issues or let us decide if we are willing to pay for the improvements?

  I know that $300 is not a lot of money( the cost of our inspection), but I dont want to just throw money down the drain , so to speak if FHA isnt going to give us a loan because of potential issues.

     Any Advice??

[Anonymous]

We ran into this last year. Bought a foreclosure and FHA said they won't do the loan because it needed work. Went conventional loan with no issues and payments weren't much different. FHA is a royal pain.

[Anonymous]

FHA generally will not laon on a property if it is not currently 100% safe. liveable, and up to code.  They also will not generallly lend if there are major issues (such as a roof) that needs addressed fairly soon (i.e in the next year or so will need replaced).  In general, unless you do an FHA 203K loan (rehab loan), FHA does not want to finance anything beyond a cosmetic fix up job because they know that the majority of FHA borrowers do not have the assets, reserves, and income to fix a mojor problem if it pops up (therefore putting the loan in jeopardy or trashing the house if FHA ever does have to take it back).  In reality, the majority of FHA borrowers go FHA specifically due to the lax FICO, reserves, and down payment requirements making them more susceptible to default should a problem arise.

[Anonymous]

  Mickie- Say for example, they went through and said something was wrong like the roof...could you then ask the lender about the rehab loan? 

[Anonymous]

Yes and no, many FHA lenders do not do rehab loans, and many sellers (especially banks) do not want to hassle with them (they have to let contractors in to do estimates, closing can take a bit longer, etc...)  So in general, you need to make sure your lender even does them, and you need to make sure the seller is OK with doing one if needed.  Also, you need to make sure that DTI wise the larger loan is not an issue.

[Anonymous]

 ok. thanks for the response. I plan on calling the lender tomorrow. I dont know. I was pre-approved for 80k. like I said, the house is 53k. The realtor is the one that said that I could " up" the loan. Definitely going to call the bank. I went to school with and worked with the loan officer in my teenage years. Although, I know she has a job to do...I would hope she wouldn't give me false hope and would give it to me " straight-up" , so to speak.