Expert: Diann Tonnesen - 3/3/2008

Question
Hello.My wife and I recently moved back to the east coast after a year living on the west coast.While we lived on the WC we bought and sold a house.Now that we are back on the EC,would we be considered first time home buyers in this state(we did not own a house here before we moved)?Does it matter if we took a pretty hefty lose on our old house?We would like to find a no down payment mortgage program,are there any out there now with all this mortgage crisis going down?

Answer
Hi Nick,

Sorry to hear you took a loss on your first home. That always stinks!!

While you are not considered first time home buyers, there may be programs available locally with 0% down. Sometimes local governments will fund such programs to stimulate the economy. You would need to check with a local mortgage lender to find out.

The only other $0 down payment programs are VA program for veterans and the FHA bond program. For the FHA bond program your household income cannot exceed a certain amount. Again, you would need to check with a lender to see if you qualify. Otherwise, the next best thing is a regular FHA loan with 3% down. The 3% can come as a gift from a direct family member like parent, child, grandparent, aunt or uncle.

Hope that gives you some options and good luck finding a home and a loan program that works for you. If you would like to email me personally, I would be happy to find an agent for you in the area you are looking at that specializes in helping families with limited down payments find homes and lenders to work with! Just drop me a line at move2lasvegas@aol.com and I will take care of it for you!