If buying an Orlando condo or townhome is in your future, you need to make sure that the home you are looking for is in an FHA approved development. If the condo or townhome you want is not on the FHA approved condo list for October 1, you will need to get immediate approval to close your FHA mortgage in Orlando.
If your Orlando condo is not on the FHA approved condo list, again, don’t automatically worry. It is possible to get approval to purchase your condo location with an Orlando FHA home loan. Most of the information needed for this comes from the condo’s Home Owners Association (HOA).
One of the main things to consider in a condo community if you want to use an FHA mortgage is the ownership ratio. To be approved for an FHA purchase, 51% or more of the units must be owner-occupied. Your condo association will also have ample cash reserves, it will not be a party to any litigation. All of this is compounded by the fact that the entire FHA mortgage approval process in Orlando will change on October 1, 2009.
Under this new process, FHA lenders will be able to approve a Condo project for HUD. This means that “one-time approvals” will no longer be required. In fact, once a loan is made to a unit in a development, it will be added to the approved list and future loans on the project will be easier to approve. Over time, this should really speed up the time it takes to make FHA condo loans here in the Orlando, Florida area.
However, if yours is the first FHA home loan in the community you chose, it may take longer and be much more difficult to obtain an FHA loan, so keep that in mind when writing a purchase offer backed by the Orlando FHA in a condo not on HUD’s approved list.