Online Tool is Now Available on Condo.com, Highlighting Demand
for FHA Transparency in Condo Industry Westlake Village, CA- FHA Pros, LLC, a national FHA (Federal Housing Administration) condominium approval service, unveiled www.checkfhaapproval.com, a unique online resource for buyers, sellers, lenders, real estate agents, property managers and appraisers that provides full reports on FHA approval status for condos across the country. This is the first comprehensive platform of its kind for condos that streamlines the process of identifying FHA-approved properties and comes at a time when demand for such properties is at an all-time high.
“With FHA loans making up almost half of new residential mortgages, real estate professionals, buyers and sellers face the challenge of quickly identifying and obtaining information on FHA-approved properties,” said Chris Gardner, founder and president of FHA Pros, LLC.
Due to the elimination of “spot approval” in February 2010, an entire condominium development must now apply to HUD (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) and be granted FHA approval before someone can purchase or refinance a unit using an FHA loan.
Gardner continued, “We created our www.checkfhaapproval.com platform after witnessing existing FHA Pros clients’ increasing frustrations with the process of identifying which condo properties were approved. In some cases FHA transactions even in approved condo developments ultimately fell apart due to eligibility concerns and we knew there had to be a better way.”
“We have invested countless hours designing and building a cutting edge technology platform from the ground up which provides users with a detailed report for a given condo address, showing FHA approval status as well as eligibility statistics,” said Eric Diamond, CEO. “In essence, we wanted to make life significantly easier for everyone involved in the search for and sale of an FHA-approved condo.”
FHA approval is required in order for an FHA loan to be possible in a given condo development, but it is eligibility that ultimately determines whether an FHA loan will be funded by a lender and insured by FHA.
Resources for identifying and obtaining information about FHA-approved condominiums have traditionally been scarce and difficult to navigate, requiring paper trails, legal names of properties and significant investments of time. With nothing more than a simple street address, www.checkfhaapproval.com immediately identifies whether a property has the highly-demanded FHA approval status and provides users with a wealth of critical eligibility information. The report includes:
* Approval Status, indicating whether the address searched is located in a condo on HUD’s approved roster (and therefore whether an FHA loan is possible)
* Eligibility Status, noting whether certain criteria have been satisfied (and therefore whether an FHA loan will likely be funded by a lender and insured by FHA)
* FHA Concentration Percentage, the percentage of mortgages in a development that are FHA insured. Concentration is relevant because current HUD rules allow only up to 50% of a development’s mortgages to be FHA
* Owner Occupancy Percentage, reflecting whether a condo project has the minimum 50% owner occupancy rate (a required eligibility criterion)
* Investor Ownership (10% Rule), indicating whether one investor owns more than 10% of the units within an association; if such is the case, an FHA loan will not be funded or insured
* Maximum FHA Loan Amount for the area
* Number of Units in the association
* Decertification Date, the date on which FHA approval is scheduled to lapse
* Pending Litigation (at an additional cost), detailing whether or not the association is currently involved in litigation. If litigation exists, a detailed report will be provided. The existence of certain types of litigation can negatively affect eligibility.
“The FHA Pros platform is an especially useful resource in today’s real estate market where an increasing number of prospective homebuyers are faced with challenges in obtaining financing,” said
Richard Swerdlow, CEO of
Condo.com. “The new tool removes the frustrations from the opaque FHA approval hunt, which will allow our users to direct their attention to finding the property that’s right for them through the seamless search experience provided on
Condo.com,” added
Swerdlow.
The website launches today, with FHA search capabilities available in 11 states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, New York, Texas, Washington, West Virginia and Wyoming. FHA Pros will be adding additional states on a regular basis, with full national search capabilities expected by the end of the year. The tool is available to buyers, sellers and industry professionals for $2.99 per search.
About Condo.com
Condo.com (www.condo.com) is the world's largest condominium marketplace with over 800,000 listings valued in excess of $250 billion. The site is a consumer-facing, online real estate portal which receives over 1 million visitors monthly and is dedicated to the evolution and prosperity of the condominium real estate market. Condo.com improves and simplifies the way people buy, sell, rent, live and vacation in condos. Condo.com lists condos for sale and for rent in the United States and in 70+ countries around the world. The Company cost-effectively delivers exposure and qualified leads to developers, brokers and owners through the seamless distribution of its listings to a global network of real estate websites visited by over 15 million viewers per month. The company is also a licensed real estate brokerage business in multiple markets and has a growing nationwide network of licensed real estate agents providing brokerage services. Condo.com is privately held and headquartered in Miami, Florida.
About FHA Pros, LLC
FHA Pros, LLC launched in 2009 as a consultancy firm aimed at helping homeowners associations, law firms, property management companies, real estate professionals and individual buyers and sellers obtain FHA-approved status for condominium developments. Through the executive team’s long-term dealings in the real estate and mortgage industries, including a solid understanding of HUD and its procedures, FHA Pros is able to efficiently navigate clients through the FHA approval process. Additional information about the company’s FHA approval services can be found at www.getfhaapproval.com.
About checkfhaapproval.com
The only national address-check platform that will allow buyers, sellers, real estate agents, lenders and others to enter a condo address and receive an instant report showing FHA approval status and information concerning eligibility criteria for that property. For more information, visit www.checkfhaapproval.com.