For many people here in Arizona, they are in a situation where they owe more on their home than it is currently worth. For those people who are in an FHA loan, the FHA streamline refinance program may be a good option for refinancing their loan because there may not be an appraisal required.

Arizona FHA Streamline Refinance Highlights

• No appraisal required
• No employment verification (verbal only, no income required)
• Existing loan has to be an FHA loan
• Payment history for the last 12 months must be clean
• Mid credit score must be 640 (with this lender)
• No cost FHA streamline options available

Academy Mortgage is Arizona’s leading FHA lender with more FHA loans done than any other mortgage bank in 2010 due largely to great service and excellent rates. Call now to speak with an FHA streamline expert!

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• Arizona FHA Streamline Refinance Requires 620 Credit Score
• FHA Streamline Refinance: No Longer Easy?
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• FHA Refinance Streamline: More Information

Recently it was announced that changes were coming to the FHA streamline program — and the changes that were announced won’t make it any easier to get an FHA streamline done.

According to the official announcement from HUD, the FHA streamline qualifying rules will change effective November 17, 2009.

Prior to the announcement, the FHA streamline refinance was popular with FHA borrowers because it was a “no income, no asset, no appraisal” refinance option that allowed them to take advantage of lower interest rates without having to completely re-qualify for a new loan.  Recently, many lenders had started requiring a minimum credit score (580, 620, whatever) but prior to the recent announcements, there wasn’t a credit score requirement.

Times have changed and now the FHA streamline program has changed it’s guidelines – to be much stricter.

The new FHA streamline guidelines include things like you have to provide proof of employment and income as well as any cash that will be required at closing.

Oh, and you can’t finance your closing costs into the loan without a complete home appraisal now either.  For anyone living in Arizona who has an FHA loan, this will be a big deal — because many times your home is worth less than what you currently owe on your mortgage.

Maybe we should call it just a regular old FHA refinance… and drop the word “streamline”.

The announcer just stood up and said something to the effect of “Ladies and gentlemen, the FHA streamline program has just left the building.”

Or – at least will leave the building come November 17th.

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Arizona FHA Streamline Now Requires Minimum 620 Credit Score

Yesterday, it was announced that virtually all lenders in the US now require a minimum credit score of 620 for the Arizona FHA Streamline refinance loan program. TB&W made the announcement that they were moving their minimum credit score requirement for all Arizona FHA streamline mortgage refinance loans to 620.

Details Of The Announcement of New Credit Score Requirements For FHA Streamline Refinance Loans

FHA Streamlines (credit and non-credit qualifying) and VA IRRRL’s with Credit Scores below 620 must be LOCKED prior to July 13, 2009 AND must CLOSE (Note Date) no later than September 15, 2009, and must be delivered to TB&W within 10 days after closing Loans in this category locked on and after July 13, 2009 will require a minimum FICO of 620. Clients will be required to obtain a 3 Repository credit report and utilize the standard method of determining qualifying FICO.

Any Conventional, FHA (including Streamline Refinance), or VA (including IRRRL) loan that exceeds $417,000 with a Credit Scores below 660 must be LOCKED prior to July 13, 2009 AND must CLOSE (Note Date) no later than September 15, 2009, and must be delivered to TB&W within 10 days after closing Loans in this category locked on and after July 13, 2009 will require a minimum FICO of 660. Clients will be required to obtain a 3 Repository credit report and utilize the standard method of determining qualifying FICO.

In addition, any previously announced minimum Credit Score requirements that TB&W has put into place, that did not have a specified Closing date, will be required to be LOCKED prior to July 13, 2009 AND must CLOSE (Note Date) no later than September 15, 2009, and must be delivered within 10 days after closing. Therefore, any loan, regardless of whether it may be locked, registered or approved, that has a qualifying credit score below 620 (with the exception of those loans that have specified higher FICO requirements) must CLOSE (Note Date) no later than September 15, 2009.

TB&W will continue to allow non-traditional credit for those borrowers with no useable credit for the loan programs that allow the use of such credit in accordance with published guidelines. TB&W is fully aware that these limitations may result in the inability for a particular loan to meet these specified deadlines. TB&W will work as diligently as possible to accommodate all loans in the pipeline. We will be unable to grant any extensions or exceptions to these requirements.

Arizona FHA Streamline Refinance: What This Announcement Means

Although the FHA guidelines do not officially require a minimum credit score, virtually all lenders (and all of the major lenders) in the US are now requiring a minimum of a 620 credit score. TB&W was the last major US lender who was not requiring a minimum credit score. There may still be a few smaller lenders who are still able to do a Arizona FHA refinance streamline loan with no minimum credit score, so be sure to ask your loan officer in order to know for sure. The rules change all the time!

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• Arizona FHA Streamline Refinance: No Appraisal Required
• FHA Streamline Refinance: No Longer Easy?
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• Arizona FHA Refinance With No Appraisal Required

The FHA Streamline refinance was originally created by HUD to “make it easy” for people who currently had FHA loans to be able to take advantage of lower interest rates when they were available without having to completely re-qualify for a new loan.

Recently, many lenders now require credit scores of 620 if you want to do an FHA streamline refinance — many, but not all.

Here is an example of an email lenders get when a particular lender changes their credit policy:

FHA & VA Non-Credit Qualifying Streamline Refinance Transactions Credit Report Requirement

Effective for any loan that does not have a Conditional or Final Approval on or after June, 18, 2009

<XYZ Mortgage Lender> requires a credit report for all non-credit qualifying FHA streamline refinance transactions as well as all VA IRRRL transactions

The credit report must reflect the borrower(s) credit score and must have a mortgage rating for the subject property that reflects no more than 1 X 30 in the previous 12 months. A single in-file credit report, from one repository, with all credit reported, will be acceptable provided it contains a complete credit history for the borrower(s) as well as the required mortgage history information; if not then a tri-merged credit report will be required.  If you have a 495 prefix then you must have a 640 and reflects no more than 1X30.

In addition to the credit report provided by the broker or correspondent a separate mortgage rating will be pulled by our Quality Control Department to validate the mortgage history. <XYZ Mortgage Corporation> will obtain a single in-file report from CREDCO using the repository that reported the mortgage history on the original broker/correspondent credit report

Remember, when shopping for an Arizona FHA streamline refinance, right now, the rules are different from one lender to the next — so if you don’t get the answer you want… keep looking!

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• Arizona FHA Streamline Refinance: No Appraisal Required
• Arizona FHA Streamline Refinance Requires 620 Credit Score
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I have had more than one call recently from someone asking me a question similar to:

“Do I need a 620 credit score for the FHA streamline program?”

And I am happy to report that my answer a.) is accurate as of today and b.) is generally the answer they are looking for.



I don’t remember the last time that someone with a credit score of 740 called me and asked me “hey, do I need a 620 credit score…?” because the truth is that in my experience, the only people who care about whether or not a particular credit score is required are those people who have recently been told that they didn’t qualify.

The good news (for now) is that if you have recently been told that you need a 620 credit score to qualify for the FHA streamline program, your loan officer was probably right. What I mean by that is that many lenders are requiring that you do have a 620 credit score and your loan officer was probably working with those lenders. Which means that although he was right — you can still get a loan if you ask a different loan officer.

But to my knowledge…

As of today…

I have more than one lender who will allow you to participate in the FHA streamline program with no minimum credit score required.

And if it changes, I will be sure to keep everyone updated.

So if you have been told that the FHA streamline program has recently begun to require a minimum of 620 credit score – you were mis-informed. What is true though is that most lenders and investors have started requiring a minimum of a 620 credit score before they will lend you money.

And remember — it is the lenders/investors who lend you money, FHA only insures your loan.

Related Posts

• FHA Minimum Credit Score Now 620
• FHA Loans Now Require A 640 Credit Score
• FHA Loans and Credit Scores: What Role Does Your Credit Score Play?
• 640 Is The New 580

For as long as I can remember, the Arizona FHA streamline refinance has been a no income, no asset, no credit score loan – meaning, you didn’t fully have to re-qualify for a new loan, you were able to streamline the documentation needed in order to qualify.

Recently, many lenders have tightened their guidelines where credit scores are being required on an FHA streamline refinance – where the lender will actually pull a tri-merge credit report and you must have at least a 620 credit score to qualify for the FHA streamline program.

This means that many people have recently been turned down for a FHA streamline refinance because they have a low credit score. NO MORE!

We now have a lender who will do an FHA streamline with NO CREDIT SCORE REQUIREMENT and only 3 criteria that you need to meet:

1. You can’t have more than 1 30 day late payment on your mortgage in the last 12 months.
2. You must occupy the property as your primary residence.
3. Participating in the FHA streamline program must make financial sense – meaning that the benefits of participating in the FHA streamline refinance program must outweigh the costs involved.

If you are currently in an FHA loan that is above 6% and have a bad credit score but meet these criteria, now is the time to act before rates go up or another lender decides to change their guideline.

While it is possible that the guidelines may change for this particular lender at any point in time — we are happy to have found them because virtually all of the other lenders that we are aware of are now requiring a tri-merged credit report with at least a 620 credit score.

Other Interesting Posts

• 12 Months of Default
• How Do FHA Loans Work? 2009 FHA Loan Limits
• What’s The Difference Between Interest Rate and Annual Percentage Rate (APR)?
• How Do FHA Loans Work? MIP and UFMIP Explained

Ok, so if you are a mortgage professional, delete this from your reader and act like you never saw it.

One loan officer is more than enough to have at the upcoming REBarCamp Phoenix being held April 23rd at Scottsdale Stadium.

It costs too much for you anyway – so it probably just doesn’t make sense for you to go.

Now that we have gotten rid of the loan officers in the room.

If you are a Realtor and you somehow stumbled across this post from the lone mortgage guy who will be at REBarCamp Phoenix…

Don’t Miss It.

Don’t miss it if you have a blog.

Don’t miss it if you don’t have a blog and are wondering if you can get rich by having one.

Don’t miss it if you are on Twitter.

Don’t miss it if you think Twitter is something your heart does when you see your high school boyfriend.

Don’t miss it if you are a “helper” of some kind at a big real estate brokerage firm.

Don’t miss it if you are the CEO of some kind of big real estate brokerage firm.

Don’t miss it if you are sick-and-tired of the high fees and no support that your big real estate brokerage firm gives you and you are thinking of going out on your own.

Don’t miss it if you have been with the same company for 20 years and love it there.

Don’t miss it if you have been in the real estate business for years and think you have seen it all.

Don’t miss it if you just passed your real estate exam and haven’t even sold a house.

Don’t miss it if you work for a title company and are wondering where all the Realtors and one mortgage guy went that day.

Don’t miss it if you sell anything where Realtors might be one of your target customers – there will be a gaggle of ‘em there.

IT IS FREE — So just plain don’t miss it.

Or…

Go ahead and miss it.

And we will see you next year when we have REBarCamp Phoenix 2 which you will surely show up for after hearing what you missed at the first one.

Don’t Just Take My Word For It: See What Other Experts Are Saying

Jay Thompson from the Phoenix Real Estate Guy blog.

Steve Belt wrote, “You don’t want to miss it.”

John Hall & Associates wrote about BarCamp.

Nick Bastian (THE RailLife Guy) called it an “extravaganza“.

REMARKABLE Callie Waterhouse added an entire page for the fun:

PS If you are a loan officer and want to come… one of the best ways to get in… is to get your boss to actually sponsor the event for a whopping $250, get some positive press out of it and get in front of a bunch of Realtors. Contact Jay Thompson for sponsorship opportunities – and no IOU’s allowed, too many lenders defaulting nowdays to let that happen.

Other Interesting Posts

• Does It Cost Money To Lock A Rate?
• Debt Settlement: What Is It?
• FHA Hope For Homeowners Program – How It Works For Arizona Homeowners
• Two Monkeys In Banana Suits

Arizona FHA guidelines are getting tougher.

If you are interested in getting an Arizona FHA loan, most lenders are now requiring that you have a minimum of a 620 mid credit score. For many people who are currently in an Arizona FHA loan and are thinking of refinancing by taking advantage of the Arizona FHA streamline program, the mid credit score requirement of 620 will pose a problem.

Up until last week, if you wanted to participate in the FHA streamline program to lower your interest rate without having to completely re-qualify for a new loan, you would be able to do an FHA streamline and as long as you had made your mortgage payment on time for the last 12 months, your credit score didn’t matter.

Now, your credit score matters.

If you are interested in getting an FHA loan, but you have a mid credit score that is lower than 620, it doesn’t mean that you are completely “out” – it just means that you will need to do a little work to get your score higher than 620 before a lender will lend you money.

Fortunately, for people who may be in this boat and have a credit score that needs a little bit of help, we have programs available to help them improve their credit in the shortest possible time.

Other Interesting Posts

• Arizona FHA Reverse Mortgages – Ten Reasons Seniors Choose A Reverse Mortgage
• Fannie Mae HomeStyle Renovation Mortgage Program: An Investors Dream
• Light Rail Testing
• 100% Financing USDA Home Loans

One of the things that we have been playing with is setting up individual micro-sites that will expand out information about a loan program. One of our recent efforts about the FHA refinance streamline program seems to be getting some traction and people are finding it useful.

How many micro-sites are needed for individual loan programs? I don’t know for sure, but we build them so that there is more information about the loan program, include relevant news information about the program and set it so that it is not targeted towards people only in Arizona (we work in many more states than just Arizona) and try to make it a source of relevant information for people searching on information about this product.

How many people are looking for information about the FHA refinance streamline program? I don’t know for sure, but with interest rates so low, if you are currently in an FHA loan… you probably should be.

Related Posts

• FHA Streamline Refinance: When Can You Lock Your FHA Streamline Rate?
• The FHA Streamline Program: Skip A Payment?
• Arizona FHA Streamline Program: 3 Basic Criteria to Qualify
• FHA Streamline Rules

Is it possible to do an Arizona FHA refinance with no appraisal?

Many people in Arizona want to take advantage of low interest rates, but currently owe more than their house is worth because property values have went down over the last couple of years. If you are currently in an FHA or VA loan, it may be possible for you to do an Arizona FHA refinance on your home – with no appraisal required.

Which means that if you currently owe more than your house is worth, you can still take advantage of lower interest rates and refinance your current FHA or VA loan.

The official program name is the FHA streamline refinance program and it is available to all FHA borrowers who have made their payments on time for the last 12 months.  The Arizona FHA refinance streamline program is designed to allow eligible borrowers to lower their interest rate without having to completely re-qualify for a new loan. There are no income or asset documentation requirements for the Arizona FHA refinance streamline program.

When participating in the Arizona FHA refinance streamline program, in order for no appraisal to be required, you cannot exceed your old loan amount by more than 1.5% (the exact amount of Up Front Mortgage Insurance Premium that is required on your new loan) or an appraisal will be required. So to exactly answer the question of:

“Is it possible to do an Arizona FHA refinance with no appraisal?”

The answer is “Yes” – as long as your new total loan amount doesn’t exceed your old loan amount by more than 1.5%!

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… C: wait… SD: wait…

Related Posts

• Arizona FHA Streamline Refinance: No Appraisal Required
• FHA Streamline Refinance: Getting Tougher To Do
• Arizona FHA Streamline Refinance Requires 620 Credit Score
• FHA Streamline Refinance: No Longer Easy?