“The one thing I have told them when I’ve spoken with mortgage professionals is to make sure that you read the guidelines very carefully,” Blake told Mortgage Professional America. “For example, when Fannie says they want to make sure that you have a minimum of 10% going into a reserve account, there are things that you, as a mortgage professional, have the discretion to remove. An example of that is utilities.”
She said making those allowed modifications can be the difference between a property qualifying for full review, and therefore a larger LTV allowance, and not qualifying.
“If in your governing doc that requires you to provide cable for the unit owners, you can actually remove that. It says that in Fannie’s guidelines, you can remove that from the equation. And if you were at 9%, that could push you to 10%, and then that building would qualify under the full review when it didn’t before.
“So just make sure you are reading all of Fannie’s guidelines and becoming familiar with them. Know when you have the discretion to make those decisions and help with the numbers, and help more people qualify.”
New laws provide some help
Blake credited Orlando Diaz, the president of the Florida Association of Mortgage Professionals, for being a great partner as they work to support legislation aimed at improving the Florida housing market.
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