The FHA has helped thousands of people across the country to buy their homes. Out of the FHA’s loan programs, the most popular of all is the Single Family  under section 203(b).

Also known as FHA’s Standard or Basic Program, section 203 (b) has important features to familiarize oneself with. First of all, this program boasts of significantly lowering payments to as little as 3%. This is possible through the FHA’s property value financing of up to 97%.  Second is that it finances majority of closing costs, which are the fees associated with buying a home, thus reducing the property’s price. However, all of these are not for free. Borrowers pay an up-front premium upon purchasing the insurance. They also pay for the monthly premiums not financed. All of these are added to the mortgage payment. The next feature is that the FHA imposes limits on some of the fees charged by mortgage companies in making loans. And the fourth and last feature is that the FHA sets limits on the mortgage loan’s dollar value to make sure that it can be afforded by the lower economic class.
An important fact to keep in mind is that the FHA loan is strictly for homes intended for dwelling and may be used as long as the borrower does not have another FHA insured loan in his name. The only property types allowed are Single Family Real Estate Homes (SFR), Condominiums (approved complexes less than 4 stories) and Public Urban Developments (PUD), all of which should be located in HUD approved projects. One of these properties may be purchased as a primary residence. In addition, the borrower may still rent property that is not FHA financed.

Section 203(b) is the centerpiece of all FHA Loans programs. It is an important tool that provides an opportunity for people, especially those of the lower economic class, to become satisfied homeowners. Prospective buyers should make the necessary inquiries in order to clarify and iron out details, and get more comprehensive information.

Check out more FHA Loans Information here.

What is the internet coming to? There are scams everywhere. The latest scam comes in the form of loan modification leads that arose due to the popularity of loan modification programs.

Here’s the bitter pill that you have to swallow about the internet, around 70% of the content in the internet is unreliable. Texts just proliferate in the internet ad infinitum and are unreliable. This is because ownership of the text in the internet is not as apparent as say an author publishing a book. The author or the source of the texts are unknown and are relatively far from the text they publish in the net. There is a saying that if you post something in the internet, it’s not yours anymore. Anyone can access it and use it in other places. There is also little moderation in the internet as compared to publishing. Anyone can easily just get a free Blog and write things anonymously. Because of the nature of the internet, the relative anonymity and the distance of a post from the person that posted it, the internet is a scammer’s paradise.

The newest scam to hit the net is loan modification scams and these people operate by buying loan modification leads. Though there are legitimate companies that also buy loan modification leads, their reputation is tarnished because of the sheer number of scammers out there that operate with similar techniques.

This new scam is of course due to the current economic recession that has hit so many Americans right now. Banks started giving loans to everyone, and real estate development grew because the demand was increased due to the accessibility of loans. Then this debt started to balloon. It was a void, a bubble in the economy that suddenly popped. Apparently the rich economy that people enjoyed in the past few years was based on the illusion that debt has created. And now that the people are getting more and more desperate, scammers can smell a buffet and gather life vultures. Both scammers and legitimate loan modification program companies will look for loan modification leads anywhere they can find them

Do not be one of those people who are victimized by scams and read up on as many loan modification tips as you can. Your contact number may have been bought through companies buying loan modification leads, but that does not automatically make this company a scammer.

Here are a few simple things you can check out to know if something is a scam or not:

1.    Trust in non profit organizations. They are more than likely more trustable than other organizations.
2.    Look at the quality of the website. If the web design looks expensive, then this is a sign that these people are not scammers because they can invest enough money for quality.
3.    Look at how old the company is (the older, the better), research its background, and look in other places such as forums for real testimonials of people who have used their services before.

People think they can join the FHA mortgage loan programs or get help from loan modification companies and their financial problems would be solved. Well, there is still the matter on how to repair bad credit score. Let us make one thing clear first. Strictly speaking, there is really no known quick fix available for a bad credit score. At best, we can just correct the mistakes that credit reporting agencies commit in order to increase our FICO score. But in any case, here are some of the best things that you can do along with the things that you should be aware of when you are in a credit rut.

First principles for a healthy credit score
Never be late with your payments. Let me repeat that. Never be late with your payments. Late payments are the leading cause of bad credit for many people. This is the leading cause of bad credit score. Neither the FHA programs nor the loan modification companies can help you with this bad habit. And besides, this triggers increase in interest rates which makes it harder for you to pay on time.

Keep your balance low
The second largest impact on a person’s FICO is how high the credit balance is. Try to keep it on or just under 29% of your credit card limit so that you can ensure a healthy score. If you have various credit cards with balance in them, make sure to bring the ones with highest balance to the thirty percent range.

Tax Liens, Judgments, Bankruptcy, and Foreclosure
If there are any monsters that can really gobble up your good credit score, then these are it. When dealing with tax liens, judgments, bankruptcy, and foreclosure, you are dealing with things that would bring your credit score down for a very long time. Avoid them as long as you can. If you have foreclosure problems, consult with fha programs for a fha mortgage loan or seek help from reputable loan modification companies. But if you do have them, you will have to make extra effort. The only real way anyone knows how to repair bad credit score in these cases is to demonstrate a revitalized payment record.

Defaults for student loan
If you have defaulted on your student loan, do not fret. There is a chance for you to remove it. You need to speak with your creditor in order to find out what you can do to get your student loan out of the default status. People can usually pay for some months worth of payments and then their student loan can be go back to the current status.

So there you have it. People will likely try to look for more solutions. FHA programs, FHA mortgage loan, loan modification companies can only help you so far. Most of the work on how to repair bad credit is in your hands.

Americans – the hoi polloi’s, banking institutions, economists, and politicians alike – have diverse opinions about Obama’s loan modification program. Although many have been rooting for the President’s mortgage glitch fix, some are still unconvinced whether this plan would really work to the advantage of the American populace. Needless to say, banks and lending institutions were the first to dispute this plan. According to them, it would only temporarily put a cap on the rising foreclosure rates and that in the end, it would just bring a double-edge effect to the whole mortgage practice in the US.

Lenders are saying that the loan modification program unveiled by the government would not be the solution to the mortgage crisis. As a proof to support that statement, they cited the trial run that the government did during the first quarter of the year. The run yielded many modified loans, but 50 percent of these went bad again after only a span of 6 months. In a nutshell, lenders are saying that if it did not work on a smaller scale, the mortgage restructuring plan would definitely bog down once implemented on a national level.

Lending institutions are also saying that the government is pushing the envelope too far in using its legislative powers to force unyielding lenders to modify loans. According to the plan, if banks and lenders would not agree to modify loans, courts in each state could make a verdict that would pave the way for reinstituting mortgages. Lenders also maintain that although the government is giving cash incentives for every loans they agree to modify, said incentives would still not cover probable financial liabilities that the mortgage process would involve.

The Obama administration is obviously under pressure to find quick fixes to the economic downturn. The loan modification program is not the only drastic measure that they are trying to implement this year. There are the credit card bill and the highly controversial health care bill. These laws and government programs seem to be enacted quite hastily, which resulted to a lot of uproar from different sectors. Although the main end of these would be to help the American populace rise above the downturn, there are still some loopholes that were not addressed by the administration.

In the end, Obama’s loan modification program would only work towards saving America from drowning in the sea of mortgage dilemmas if the government would ensure its proper implementation. The government should also intensify its campaign to get the support of lending institutions by thinking of ways to make it fair to them, as well, because at the end of the day, without the support of this sector, the program would only yield a plethora of modified loans gone bad.