We bought a home in year 2 of chapter 13. It was not easy, but very doable. To get in with FHA you need 12 months of perfect chapter 13 plan payments. They will need proof from your trustee's office. You will need decent credit. 620 or better if I remember to get the 3.5% dp blessing from FHA. Then there are the mountains of paperwork they will ask for (the prospective lender). Biggest one is the letter from your trustee allowing you to incur debt. Our attorney setup the motion to incur debt. Took 6 weeks to get into court. Was an easy Yes from the trustee and the judge OK'd it. It was easy because our new mortgage was going to be the same payment that we were already paying in rent.
If you are going for more than what you are paying, you run the risk of the trustee saying no and objecting, then moving to take that extra money you can supposedly afford for that bigger mortgage and want it put to your plan every month. Example, say you are paying $1500 in rent or current mortgage. And you are asking for $2000 a month permission. If you have a mean trustee, they could easily say no and then motion to adjust your plan to take that extra $500 towards your plan. Its happened. Be smart. Adjust your schedules for inflation. Be creative but not deceptive. A good attorney will be able to guide you as to what makes sense on your schedules as to be able to make room for a slightly higher payment if thats what youre going for.
And once you get that letter from the court, you will be submitting everything else under the sun. Years of W2's, months of pay stubs and statements from your current mortgage, bank accounts and believe it or not a "I messed up and this is why I filed" letter. They like to hear stories that you "had no choice to file" and "it was not of your fault why you had to file". A good chapter 13 broker should be able to look at what you send in and make sure you are not saying "Hey I was stupid and ran up a bunch of debt". Get what Im saying?
And once you get the approval and all is said and done, its like any other closing. Ours started with the motion to incur debt in November of 2019 and we closed in February of 2020. That was also right before covid. So your mileage may vary. But its 100% possible and its not nearly as hard as you might think. Just be good getting paperwork from your files, scanned and emailed. If you are not tech savy and have no idea how to scan, email or edit PDFs, get some help. The only thing you will do on actual paper is the closing.
Good luck. If you are buying in Florida, I have a broker that will walk you through this to ensure you get closed. If any other state, then I cant help you with a contact. Hope it works our for you.
