Arizona FHA Streamline - Arizona Mortgage Team

Arizona FHA Streamline Refinance: No Appraisal Required

January 17, 2011 Leave a Comment

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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FHA Streamline Refinance: Getting Tougher To Do

October 7, 2009 2 Comments

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 Refinance Requires 620 Credit Score

July 10, 2009 1 Comment

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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FHA Streamline Refinance: No Longer Easy?

June 17, 2009 Leave a Comment

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.

FHA Streamline Refinance: No Longer Easy? %spacebasename 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 Refinance With No Appraisal Required

January 23, 2009 3 Comments

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%!