08/08/2012
Who Can Pay FHA Closing Costs
If you are buying a home with FHA funds, be sure your mortgage broker knows all the rules for who can buy what in FHA closing costs. These days many FHA Borrowers that ask the Sellers to pay most of their Closing Costs, so I need to be on top of what the FHA Guideline On Seller Paid Closing Costs are. The FHA Guideline On Seller Paid Closing Costs are very specific, but could cause some last minute surprises if not explained correctly, and understood by the Borrower.
FHA does not require that a Buyer put any of his or her own money towards Downpayment and/or Closing Cost. All of the money for Downpayment and Closing Costs can come from an acceptable gift source such as a:
Family member
Employer
Non Profit
State Bonded Program
FHA will not allow a Seller to contribute ANY money towards Downpayment, but they will allow the Seller to contribute up to 6% of the Sales Price towards the Buyers Closing Costs. This sounds good and it is, but I rarely see the Seller actually pay the Buyers Closing Costs. In reality what happens is the Seller raises the agreed upon Selling Price by the amount of the Closing Costs that they will be contributing.
This means that even though the Buyer can receive up to 6% towards Closing Costs, they should not request any more than the actual amount of Closing Costs that the Seller will be allowed to pay at the Closing. If the Buyer asks for more money than the Seller will be allowed to contribute towards Closing Cost, the Seller gets to keep the difference, and the Buyer ends up paying more for the house than they needed to. This means that before a Buyer or their Realtor asks for Seller Paid Closing Costs, they need to talk to their Loan Originator, and have him or her give them a very close estimate of what the Total Closing Cost will actually be.
In figuring the Estimated Closing Costs, the Loan Originator will need to take into account the Closing Cost that FHA will not allow the Seller to pay, and subtract them from the Total Closing Cost Estimate. The Closing Costs the will need to be deducted from the Total Closing Costs are any Closing Costs that are paid before the Closing. Those will include any fees paid to the Lender or other vendors prior to the Closing.
Possible items that maybe required to be paid before of the Closing are:
Appraisal Fee
Application Fee
Condo Questionnaire
Homeowners Insurance
There are other fees that could possibly be required to be paid before the Closing, but these are the most common ones. However, even though I have included Homeowners Insurance in the list above, there is away to include them into the costs that the Seller will contribute at the Closing.
All Lenders will require that the Borrower obtain an insurance binder before the Closing, but they do not require that the premium be paid prior to the Closing as long as a check will be sent to the insurance company at the time of the Closing. However, some insurance companies will not issue the insurance binder without a payment, so what I advise my Borrowers to do in that case is to just pay them one month premium, and the other 11 months paid at the Closing. That way they can maximize the funds that that they can receive from the Seller, and reduce their out of pocket cost.
I have heard of angry Buyers that did not find out until the Closing that they could not be reimbursed for the items that they paid before the Closing. That is not the type of surprise that anyone wants at the last minute. It is important that borrowers understand this when they are getting Pre-Qualified, getting approved, and shopping for Homeowners Insurance.
This is something that can not be explained enough, and should be reinforced at every appropriate opportunity. FHA Guideline On Seller Paid Closing Costs are very clear, and need to be followed, because FHA does not provide any flexibility when it comes to this issue.
