FHA Offers Big Discount on Foreclosed Homes with Good Neighbor Next Door Program

According to Bankrate, the Federal Housing Administration offers the Good Neighbor Next Door program. As it turns out, finding a home and then qualifying for the program aren’t so easy to do.The program is available only to schoolteachers, law enforcement officers, firefighters and emergency medical technicians.Also, the home is required to be in the area that they serve – hence the name Good Neighbor Next Door.Just one house was for sale in California through the program, three were listed in Texas, and there were none in New York or Florida, bringing the total to four in the country’s most populous states, according to Bankrate.Compared with 2,223 homes in fiscal year 2000, from October 2009 to July, it stated that 446 Good Neighbor Next Door homes were sold.If a qualifying buyer were able to track down a home in their neighborhood, it sounds like a deal that’s nearly too good to be true.Bankrate states that qualifying buyers pay only half the home’s appraised value in either cash or through a loan with as little as no money down. If the home is in need of some upgrading, buyers can even qualify for an FHA-insured renovation mortgage.According to Department of Housing and Urban Development, the discounted half is considered a no-interest, payment-free “silent second” mortgage that is scheduled to be forgiven after you have lived in the home for three years.Though, you might have to pay back the second mortgage if you leave early.Source: msn.com