Watch For Old Numbers

If you’re buying a home and using cash or a conventional loan, there is no reason for you to read the rest of this, except for additional knowledge. If, however, you’re getting an FHA loan, there’s something new that you need to be aware of.

When a property goes under contract for buyers that are purchasing the home with FHA financing, the lender gets a HUD “case number”, which identifies the property to HUD for the FHA financing (Reminder: HUD stands for “Housing and Urban Development” and is in charge of FHA financing). However, if that transaction falls through without closing, that case number still exists for that property. Your lender will have to get that case number transferred to your transaction with your lender so that they can complete the FHA financing. In other words, an FHA/ HUD assigned case number stays with the property regardless of  whether or not the first transaction for FHA financing closes or not.

This is, in most cases, not a big deal. However, it is incumbent on cooperation between agents and lenders to get the case number and other documents relevant to FHA financing transferred to the new participants of the transaction.  Any appraisals or other FHA related items must be transferred from the old lender to the new one (if the lender has changed). The biggest effect of this on transactions we’ve seen with instances of this issue has been time, because the transfer of these documents and other items take several days to get done (and that’s WITH cooperative participants).

For more information, visit us on the web at www.springfieldfirsthome.com, or simply call or text us at 417.872.9222.