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cowner of condo, valued at about 130k, and i owe about 30k. trying to refinance as i have a home owners assesment i need to pay for 14k.
having tons of trouble qualifying:
purchased place in 2004 with my dad as cosigner as at the time i was a law student. put down 20k.
have been making all hoa dues and mrtgage payments on time since day one.
mortgage balloons in 2014.
hoa assessed condo owners for boiler repairs at 14k price tag.
i need to refi or get an equity line to pay this off, but am having hard time qualifying as i am working in the world of temporary contract attorneys in which i am placed on temp jobs. pay is good, 35+ overtime, and have made over 40k for about 5 months worth of work this year. i moved to dc in order to take advantage of the better employment options avaiable now, and my father is caring for my condo.
lenders telling me the temp work and that i do not occupy the place are wokring against me.
i understand the premise however, i have great credit score, have made all payments, and though my work is temp it is more lucrative in terms of income than many other jobs, and i am not in a place where a layoff could occur - the jobs always come, they are just short term.
any advice on how or who or what i can do to make this happen?
The lenders are telling you what they need to hear:
If you the condo is NOT owner occupied they CANNOT refinance it through their normal channels.
If you do not have FULL TIME employment then YOU are not the kind of credit risk their normal channels will accept.
You might find working with a mortgage broker to be helpful, but honestly MOST of them have far fewer options than just a short time ago.
Any chance you could get dad to move into the condo? That would probably make it count for owner occupied. Could your employer change your status?
With out that things you are basically AN INVESTOR and the rates that are being charged to real estate investors are MUCH higher than for owner occupied...
re: my dad - he could easily "occupy" my place. but, we were told that having him live there would create a situation in which i then would no longer be considered "occupying" and it would become investment. though, another lender told us the opposite, as you mention, that because he is family it is still considered "mine". guess i need to find a precise and correct answer and knowledgeable lender.
nothing i can do re: work - i am actually very lucky to be doing the work i am doing considering the hi layoff rates and poor employment rates all together. i have tried for permanent, but no luck. is it ethical to ask my staffing agency to refrain from including the word "temp" in my job description. if so, i am willing to ask this of them, but they have been good to me and i don't want to put them on the spot.
again thanks for the help so far. any other advice out there - are there no loans i might qualify for? i have over 20k in savings, a stable history of paying all my bills, and though my work is considered temp, it is consistent and pays pretty well.
The "employment verification" is a big deal and so is the occupancy.
I suspect that the agency has pretty strict rules about "temp" vs "perm" as they could get burned when it comes to unemployment claims and benefits, still it could hurt to ask BOTH the lender and the agency.
If I understand your situation it sounds like the place is either vacant (not good at all...) or rented out (not much better). If by dad "taking care of the place" that means checking on any EMPTY unit I'd have him move in IF THE EXISTING LENDER will accept a family member (and co-signer) as "owner occupied". Gets a little grey, but you don't want to do anything fraudulent AND THIS IS A SITUATION where your record of payment and existing relationship with the existing lender MIGHT be enough to get them to do a refi or MAYBE A HELOC to help you pay this assessment. If you do the math on both the HELOC and the possibility of other maintenance needs down the road maybe it makes to SELL unless you have a long term plan to move back...
Your situation looks like you would qualify for the FHA "non-occupant co-borrower" program. The lender combines your and your fathers income and debts together.
Typically the problem is that the program only works if there is 25% or more equity in the property. Not a problem in this case.
When you have verifiable income with a 2 year work history, you could finance on your own.
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