Your rent is probably the largest monthly payment you make at the moment.
And even if you make on-time payments for years, it never helps to increase your
credit score or your chances of getting a mortgage approval until now what, at
least on the getting a mortgage side and a recent study of previously denied mortgage
applications, 17% of those people who were denied will now qualify for a loan
because of this change in conventional loan guidelines with Fannie Mae.
So starting September 18.
Fannie Mae will now count 12 months of on-time rental history as a positive
factor in getting approved for a mortgage.
And you might have some questions about that, like who is Fannie Mae
and what is a positive factor is a government sponsored enterprise that
oversees one type of conventional loan.
So there's normally two main types of conventional loans.
There's Fannie Mae and there's Freddie Mac that each have their
own set of guidelines that are slightly different from each other.
But basically you need a six 20.
Or higher credit score and 3% down payment or higher to
qualify for a conventional loan.
And what is a positive factor?
Well, it's as cryptic as it sounds basically Fannie Mae has
their own software called Desktop Underwriter that they then give
to loan officers and lenders.
And so what they'll do is they'll take your loan application and all
the data that comes with it, they'll push it into the software called D.U.
desktop underwriter, and it gives a loan recommendation basically saying.
Good to go or is it rejected or denied?
And so that's, what's happening here.
That's what this positive factor is that can kind of work in
your favor to push an approval.
Essentially, what they're saying is showing 12 months of on-time rental
payment history is going to help nudge and approval in your favor.
This isn't going to make up for.
Bad credit or foreclosure or no down payment or, you know, anything like that.
All this is going to do as a positive factor that just adds to the
approval to push it over the edge.
If you are on the line, of course, now there are some basic
requirements for this to work.
So first of all, you do have to be a first-time home buyer.
And basically what a first-time home buyer means.
Is it someone who hasn't been on the title to a home?
You haven't owned a home.
Within the past three years.
So if that's you, you are a first time buyer next, you have to have
a rental payment of $300 per month or more now for a lot of people,
that's a very easy qualification because if you have less than a
$300 a month and rent that's insane.
And we all want to know how you got that.
So $300 or more, also has to be a primary residence, meaning that
you're going to live in the home for.
One year or more with that's has to be your intent.
And then you also have to share 12 months of bank history with the
lender, for them to be able to verify, uh, the actual rental payments.
And this is one of the big problems with why rental payments aren't
included normally on credit reports or mortgage applications is they're
hard to verify because you need to see this 12 month history here.
So it has to be proven through bank statements, um, which can be an issue.
For a lot of people, if it's not documented.
And that way now my first thought was won't this part, people who don't
have 12 months of on-time payments.
So they can't show that on their bank statement.
And Fannie Mae has made this clear that this will only help.
So if you can't prove these things through bank statements, or if you
don't have on-time payments for the past 12 months, then it's going
to be like, it never even existed.
It won't be factored in.
At all.
So don't worry about that.
It's think of it similar to like Experian.
Has there a credit boost thing that really only helps it's not going to take away?
It's exactly like that, that a Fannie Mae, single family division Malloy Evans said
it's not relaxing or credit standards.
It's looking for reliable indicators of the borrower being
able to meet our credit standards.
So this is mainly for people who are kind of on the line of qualifying.
So this isn't something where someone.
Five 80 score can now automatically get a loan approval just because
they had on-time rental payments.
That is not at all what this is.
So, I know there's gonna be people who are like, now anyone can get a mortgage.
It's not true.
What it's doing is it's taking someone who is on the line, so maybe they
were, they couldn't get approved.
They had a six 60 score.
And what this would do is bump them, nudge them.
Closer to getting approved as if they had maybe a six 80 credit score.
So it's not directly directly impacting the application in that way, but it's
just this nudge towards an approval.
It's a positive factor to offset.
Maybe some of the other negative things that might be on the loan
application, but it didn't no way is going to make up for these huge things.
It's not like you had a bankruptcy and now just because you have two
whole months, on-time rental payments, you can get approved for a mortgage.
This is just a positive offsetting factor.
All the requirements of a conventional loan with Fannie may still exist.
And it really is more about creating more predictable ways for a loan approval for
people who have consistently been paying their rent, especially because I hear
all the time people saying I've been paying $1,500 a month in rent for years,
but the bank won't even approve me for a thousand dollars a month mortgage payment.
How am I supposed to be able to get into home ownership?
If I can't even be approved for a mortgage is less than what I've
already been paying and rent.
So hopefully.
Should change that outcome for a lot of people or at least statistically,
what we've seen is 17% of people who have been previously denied.
So now, if you were recently denied for a loan.
I strongly suggest you try to reapply after September 18th.
If you have 12 months of on-time rental history to see if that can
help push the loan approval in your favor, where as maybe you
didn't have that advantage before, I strongly suggest you try again.
If you do have the 12 months on-time rental plan.
So to apply all you need to do.
It's not like a special program or anything.
All you need to do is talk to a loan officer.
I have a link if you want to be connected with one a in the description,
if you'd like to explore that as an option and as with all program changes in 2021,
the inevitable question is raised, how will this impact the housing market?
It's probably going to increase.