Regarding the HomePath Renovation Loan — Fannie Mae

My name is Eric Green, I’ve been in the lending business for about 20 years.

I like to answer questions with my experience that I’ve gained. There is a lot to know, a lot of questions, and today I’m going to answer the question:

What is a Home Path Renovation Loan?

Just to let you know, Fannie Mae discontinued the Home Path Renovation Loan program on October 6th, 2014. If buyers like myself had to complete the contract by or before this date to use the Home Path program. So again, it’s been gone for a while, but if you had been in a real estate contract they would still be able to do the program.

The primary reason this program went away is that Fannie Mae, one of the government entities that buys mortgages from mortgage lenders, decided that its portfolio companies, or what we call REO property was shrinking and that they no longer needed incentives for that type of market.

Back when we had the mortgage meltdown, and the real estate market tanked, there were a lot of people foreclosing on homes — the number were staggering, so programs like this were very popular. So, if you’re looking to do a renovation loan, you have a few alternatives depending on what you’re trying to do.

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One option would be a 203k Renovation Loan, and that’s through FHA. This is designed for people who are first time home buyers who may have had some struggles with credit in their past who may be very close on their income qualifications and things like that. But the biggest thing with the FHA 203k is it must be a primary residence, which means you’re going to be living there, not using it as an investment property. The other option, also for first time home buyers, is called a Home Style Renovation Loan. It’s also for people buying a home as their primary residence, but it has another aspect which allows you to use the home for investment purposes. The Home Style gives you a couple of different options depending on what your needs are. Also what the Home Style Loans allow for more elaborate renovations to be done, such as adding swimming pools, or a lot more opportunities for landscaping right off the top of my head that I can think of.

But, as I said before, the Home Path Renovation Loan is no longer available, but it works similarly to how to the two renovation loan programs: the 203K and the Home Style. They all work the same but the bottom line difference is its a renovation loan with a minimum down payment.

Thats the story for the Home Path Renovation Loan.

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