Downpayment Assistance Programs (Free Money)
For anyone who has wanted to purchase their own home, the hardest obsticle to overcome is saving up the money for the downpayment. This single factor alone probably delays a lot of people from doing it and they continue to pay rent, and try to save the cash so one day they may be able to buy that property that they have always wanted to – be it single family with a nice backyard and room to roam, or a condo with the luxury of common amenities and freedom from outside maintainance. What ever the preference is, the goal should be to buy a home and start accruing some equity and wealth instead of paying the landlord forever. Now don’t get me wrong, rentals are and always have been a great place to start. Very few people after leaving their parents home or college, immediately purchase their first home. That is something you work up to. Anyway, that being said, here is a program that we have been using for our clients who have not been able to amass the amount of money needed for a conventional 20% down payment. This program is not just for the first time homebuyer, it is for everyone. A FHA mortgage requires as little as 3% down payment and coupled along with a downpayment assistance program which consists of asking the seller to contribute up to 6% of the sales price of the home towards the buyers downpayment = home purchase with little money down. You still have to have some of your own money to offer for the earnest, and be able to qualify for a FHA loan. Now the seller can not directly give the funds for down payment to the buyer, but the downpayment can come from a third party gift – that is where the downpayment assistance program comes in - here are a couple of links to DPA websites - check them out and see how it works.
The Nehemiah program: www.getdownpayment.com
The Ameridream program: www.ameridream.org
