Announcing ForFHA.com

As a first time home buyer I’ve recently experienced the roller coaster of surprise and challenge I imagine most first timers have encountered.  One of the major themes of this experience was finding real estate that would qualify for a loan.  As a naive first timer I expected to become pre-approved as a buyer and then purchase anything I could afford with the loan I received.  I was way off…

I found a property and went to my realtor to write an offer, that’s when the news hit me.  My realtor had spoken with my mortgage broker who informed her that I was applying for an FHA mortgage.  Turns out FHA mortgages have a long list of conditions that must be met in order for the loan to be approved.  This discovery quickly eliminated the property I’d chosen along with my alternate as neither were FHA approved and the FHA spot approval was set to expire on October 1st. (HUD letter: http://www.hud.gov/offices/adm/hudclips/letters/mortgagee/files/09-19ml.doc )

As a result of this new discovery I was told I would need to start my property search again from the beginning and target FHA approved listings.  I asked my realtor for a list of FHA approved listings in the area and was referred to a HUD website that I was told would allow me to search for condos of interest by name and location and would return approval details if the condo was approved.  I tried the form a few times and abandoned my search in defeat when I failed to get any results.

You can try the form for yourself at: https://entp.hud.gov/idapp/html/condlook.cfm

The directions I had were to enter a condo name and the location of the condo and hope for results.  I never found anything using this strategy (Note: The approval type defaulted to HRAP/DELRAP at the time of my search)

After being frustrated for some time I decided to adjust my approach with the form and eventually uncovered a few lists of approved condos.  The process had been far less intuitive than necessary so I decided to make it easier for everyone.

The result of my effort to make finding FHA approved condos easier is: http://www.forfha.com

The site makes finding FHA approved condos easier by offering visitors a clear path of navigating to concise lists of approved properties with clear details available within 3 clicks.  Give it a try and send me feedback on your experience.  My hope is the site saves others from the difficulty and stress I encountered when looking for my first home.