Beach-condo-complex-2You may have heard the same that I have – if you want to buy a condo here you need to put at least 20% down and if you’re buying as an investment you need to put at least 30% down. I’ve been told that by lenders as recently as this past year.

Last week I attended some additional training regarding condo financing and found out that this actually isn’t true. There is condo financing available with as little as 5% down (and I also just found out that in some cases you can get financing for a house with as little as 10% down and no monthly PMI added on).

To do this there is a special process that has to be undertaken right at the beginning which is not difficult and doesn’t require that you do anything, it is done by the lender doing your loan. The problem is that a lot of lenders, especially the big banks, don’t do this process in a lot of cases and so they will just tell you that you need at least 20% down. If you were already planning to put 20% or more down then this isn’t an issue for you but if you had wanted to have a smaller downpayment then this is something you need to know about.

Whether it is a condo on Clearwater Beach or one in the middle of Tampa, it doesn’t matter. Not all condos will be eligible but the process will be able to determine this.

An Advantage for Condo Sellers

This is also something very important for sellers to know. One of the factors that makes it more difficult to sell a condo is the difficulty that buyers run into regarding financing. When I work with a condo seller now I know to get this process down right at the beginning and, if their condo complex is eligible, then we can advertise in the listing that the condo can be purchased for as little as 5% down which I can tell you would be attractive to buyers and would expand the potential buyer base. This is actually very significant.

If you want to know more about this and how it could help with your future plans, please let me know.