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My husband and I have been trying to purchase a home for a year. Every single home fell through. We gave up. We decided to try again next year. We had been putting off some medical issues that I needed to take care of, so we went ahead and got the procedure and paid for it.
Then, my Realtor calls and tells us that our dream home from June is back on the market, and we were the backup bid. We had an hour to decide before they removed our bid. We ran the calculations and figured we would have just enough money with a down payment assistance program. So we put in the bid and we won. I call our lender, and he informs me that we cannot use the down payment assistance program. The previous owners took up the carpet in the master bedroom, and therefore the home is disqualified. It is considered unfinished. That leaves us 5k short, we have $6500 after paying my medical bills. This is a HUD home, so I can't request repairs. He never told me about this stipulation before.
We are currently staying with my mom because we thought for sure we would have a home by now. This home is perfect. Good schools. All the space we will ever need, and it is listed at only 86k. I am so discouraged. So, so discouraged. I thought for sure that this was it. Everyday we go to my mom's house my daughter asks to go to her own home, with her own bedroom. Ugh, I am just sick with anxiety. It's all I think about.
This is a FHA loan.
I have thought about a 203k, but my lender says it has to be @least 110k with 5k in repairs.
Does anyone know if I can put carpet in a HUD home myself?
I know I can still wait, and try for next year, but this opportunity will not come twice. Almost an acre of land. 4bd 3 bath. Finished basement. Good schools. 86k.
So all you need is legally acceptable flooring in one room? Think outside the box...
What about those stick-on vinyl tiles you can buy at home depot?! They offer something called "Traffic Master" for $0.39/sq ft. It would probably cost less than $200 to do the master bedroom.
Maybe the realtor can pay for it, or you could "gift" a couple boxes to the seller as a Happy Halloween gift? The home owners could stick those things on the floor in an hour.
I would do that in a heartbeat, but HUD is the seller. Can I do that to a HUD home?
Hmmm...that's trickier. It would be weird if "someone" snuck into the house and put down peel-and-stick vinyl tiles. I wonder if HUD would even notice? In fact, maybe there were always vinyl tiles under that old carpet and the HUD representative simply hadn't noticed it before.
Your loan officer is creating a problem where there is none.
Interior flooring is considered to be cosmetic for FHA purposes. It is the FHA appraiser who will determine if finish carpeting is needed in that one room. If the he or she decides the subfloor is safe to walk on, then nothing needs to be done to it.
If the appraiser calls for finish flooring, then yes, you can do the flooring yourself. The only problem here being that as HUD owns the home, they have to allow you access prior to closing to do it.
If your loan officer wants to argue the question of the flooring with you, tell him or her to get into the HUD manual and look it up for him or herself.
One more thought. Lenders can and do sometimes create their own overlays on loans. That means the lender, not HUD/ FHA may want finish flooring. But again, you can do it yourself. And it can be any quick, cheap thing you can think of.
Good luck
Last edited by willow wind; 10-20-2013 at 05:13 PM..
The government agencies (VA and FHA) will never allow improvements on homes in their inventory. The listing or selling agent that permits it, puts their license in jeopardy. (Let's play extreme devil's advocate: what if a nail gun was being used by someone correcting the flooring issue creates a serious injury. That person's health carrier sues the owner of the home......this does happen and a reason why possession is not allowed until closing).
Willow wind is correct, the great appraisal memo of 2005 put HUD homes on the same playing field as conventional loans, and finished flooring is not required. Find a pure FHA lender, someone without overlays.
ask if you can do an escrow holdback for repairs.....
money is left at title after closing to pay the carpet installer
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