Florida's Hometown Heroes Housing Program

Billee Silva, SW Florida Realtor, interviews Danielle  Damianov from CMG Financial who explains the new Florida Hometown Heroes Housing Program.

To learn more about Billee Silva:
www.SW-FloridaRealtor.com
Jones & Co Realty
(239) 247-2490

Transcript

 
Speaker Intro:

Welcome to the Southwest Florida Realty show with Billee Silva and here’s your host Billee Silva!
 
 Billee Silva:

Hello, this is Billee Silva with the Southwest Florida Realty show.  Well, it’s no secret that Florida is facing a housing crisis, and more and more hometown heroes like police officers, firefighters, teachers, and healthcare workers are finding themselves unable to buy a home.  Especially, the last couple of years where the median price of a home in Florida has climbed more than 58%, yet household income isn’t rising at nearly the same pace. We’re still seeing multiple offer situations where more often than not, the cash offers are winning. The challenge of affording a home is even greater for many essential workers whose salaries often fall well below the amount needed to buy a home in today’s market, let alone a down payment and closing costs so I’m really excited that our Governor just launched the Hometown Heroes program to help our local heroes with down payment and closing cost assistance, so today I have invited Danielle  Damianov from CMG Financial to explain in more detail about this exciting new program.

Thank you so much Danielle for joining us today, for the past 20 plus years you’ve been involved in all aspects of the mortgage and real estate industries, can you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself and CMG Financial?

Danielle  Damianov:

Sure, absolutely Billee, thank you so much for having me. So, I have been in the Mortgage Industry since 2001. I am the area Sale’s Manager and producing Loan Officer with CMG Financial. We are a nationwide lender. I personally am licensed in the states of Florida, Massachusetts, California, Illinois and Texas. We have an office right here in Bonita Springs, actually in Coconut Point. We are a nationwide company, and we offer every single loan product out there with a few others that unique to CMG such as the All In One Loan and the Homefundit Program.

Billee Silva:

That’s great, someday I’ll have to have you come back and talk about those programs, but today I was wondering if you could tell our listeners about the new Hometown Heroes Housing Program that became effective June 1st , what exactly is it?

Danielle  Damianov:

Ya, I’m so excited about the Hometown Heroes Program, it’s really a great program and it’s offering a lot of value and as you mentioned before home prices are on the rise, as well as interest rates, so it really became an issue for a lot of people and an affordability issue. So what the Hometown Heroes Program is, is basically giving back to our frontline workers by providing down payment and closing cost assistance as well as reduced interest rates and mortgage insurance.  The other benefit it has lower fees than the traditional mortgage.

Billee Silva:

Now, when I think of hometown heroes, first responders, educators and healthcare professionals automatically come to mind, but I understand there are 50 different eligible professions that qualify for this program.  What are some of the other professions besides law enforcement, nurses, firefighters, EMTS, teachers that would be eligible to participate in the Hometown Heroes Program?

Danielle  Damianov:

Well, what’s really interesting is that it started off with only 50 professions and is up to 99 professions at this point so if you believe that somebody should be included in an eligible profession I believe you can talk to Florida Housing to them on the list. It did start with 50, it’s u to 99 as of today and some of the other eligible professions would be childcare employees, childcare facility owners, massage therapists, probation officers, teachers, home health aides, athletic trainers, so as you can see they really have continued on expanding that list.

Billee Silva:

Wow, that’s amazing! Now, how does this program differ from other grant and down payment assistance programs?

Danielle  Damianov:

So, quite a few things that differ as opposed to some of the other bond programs or down payment assistance programs. First of all, what the Hometown Heroes offers is up to 5% of the total 1st mortgage balance in the form of a 2nd mortgage not to exceed $25,000. So, basically you can get 5% of your total first mortgage balance, it cannot exceed $25,000, those funds will go towards down payment and closing costs. You can even use it to buy down the loan balance or buy down the interest rate and its in the form of a second mortgage. But the great thing is that its 0% interest, no monthly payment, non-amortizing. So, let’s say you take out, you get the Hometown Heroes Program, you get $25,000, that $25,000 is a 2nd mortgage on title, you do not have any payments throughout the time you own the property. However, when you sell the home, or transfer the deed or refinance, that $25,000 would have to be paid back.

Billee Silva:

What are some of the Program Requirements?

Danielle  Damianov:

So, in terms of the program requirements the other great thing about this program is where some of the other down payment assistance programs offer 7-10,000 dollars, this program offers up to $25,000. The eligibility for this program is a lot less strict. In order to qualify for this program there are income limits, but we look at the borrower and whoever is on the loan applications income limits. Where if you’re going with other traditional bond programs, they’ll look at the income limits for everybody that lives in the house that is above 18. So, if you have an 18-year old child who’s working they’re going to include that income even if that person is not on the loan, they’re going to include that income into the qualifying income limit with the traditional bond program. Where with the Hometown Heroes Program the income limits are much higher and it’s only for whoever is on the actual loan.

Billee Silva:

Wow, I never realized they include children in the household’s income, so that’s really interesting. So, are there any income limits?

Danielle  Damianov:

Yes, there are higher income limits and the income limits are based on the County. You can find a list of the income limits at www.floridahousing.org, but to give you an idea Lee County is $120,600. Collier County is $141,450 and Charlotte County is $118,950.  So, the income limits are pretty high. Now what they do require for the Hometown Heroes Program is just whoever the main borrower is on the loan, has to be in an eligible profession. We do get a verification of employment; we do also need a copy of their certification or State license for the State of Florida. The have to be working and living in the State of Florida. This is for a primary residence only, as well as a pay stub or contract if they haven’t started the job yet. Now with the bond program and this is why the Hometown Heroes program makes it a lot easier to quality with the bond program you have to get three years’ worth of tax returns for everybody that is living in the home above 18 and the income limits for those programs are a lot less. Now you do also have to be a first-time home buyer so a first-time home buyer is going to be anybody that has not owned a home in the past three years, so if you owned a home five years ago but have not owned a home in the past three years you would be considered a first-time home buyer.

Billee Silva:

You know, I just had a buyer the other day that we had that discussion because I’m like, why aren’t you including your husband on the loan and she’s like well because he owned a house ten years ago and we want to apply for an FHA loan. I’m like well you would be eligible if he hasn’t owned a house in ten years.  People don’t realize that it’s a three-year window to qualify for a first-time home buyer.

Danielle  Damianov:

And, what’s really great about the Hometown Heroes Program is that first time home buyer only matters for the person that is on the loan. So, if your, let’s just say, the eligible professional applying by themselves and has not owned a home in the past three years; however, their spouse has, but the spouse is not on the loan, they still qualify. Now with the traditional Bond Program the borrower and borrower’s sous cannot have owned a home in the last three years regardless of if the spouse is on the application or not. So, there are a lot of benefits to the Hometown Heroes Program. Where a lot more people are going to be able to qualify as well as get up to $25,000 and reduced interest rates and payments.

Billee Silva:

That’s awesome.

Danielle Damianov:

That is awesome, it’s really a great program. 

Billee Silva:

Now, are there any property restrictions?

Danielle Damianov:

So, in terms of the property restrictions and this is another great thing about the program is for the conventional loans. So, for the Hometown Heroes Program, it can be combined with an FHA, USDA or conventional loan. We follow those guidelines so whatever the guidelines are for conventional FHA, those guidelines are followed. Now we also allow manufactured housing in the Hometown Heroes Program.

Billee Silva:

Is this program like some of the other grant programs where the borrower will need to pay the money back when they sell the property or refinance?

Billee Silva:

Gotcha. Last question, since this program is geared towards first time home buyers, will buyers need to take the homebuyer education course and if so, how does that work?

Danielle Damianov:

Yes, they definitely will need to take the home buyer education course and that’s pretty much standard for any first-time home buyer. We do have some other products as well where you have to take that course and us as a lender, what we do is we give them options, different places they can go and take the course online. We make it very easy for them so we’ll let them know about taking the Home Buyer Education Course and what the steps are. It can be done online.

Billee Silva:

That’s great. Thank you so much for joining us today Danielle and sharing your wealth of knowledge.  For those listeners out there who are in need of a lender, whether its for this Hometown Heroes program or the multitude of other programs you offer, how can they get in touch with you?

Danielle Damianov:

Sure, absolutely. So, they can go to my website which is www.lendfl.com, that’s lendfla.com or call my cell phone, 786-359-7976. We have a ton of programs. I would love to help anybody that is looking to get in the Hometown Heroes Program, or any other program for that matter. So, thank you so much Billee for having me on.

Billee Silva:

Well, thank you for joining us and thank you folks for tuning in today and remember to share our podcast with your family and friends.  Make it a great day!

Speaker’s closing remarks:

Thank you for listening to the Southwest Florida Realty Show with Billee Silva. To learn more about Billee Silva go to www.sw-floridarealtor.com.  That’s www.sw-floridarealtor.com.  Or call 239-247-2490.