Three and a half percent is the floor with a qualifying score, and FHA is the most generous program in the country about where that money comes from. The entire down payment can be a documented gift from a family member, and down payment assistance can layer on top. If the only thing standing between you and a house is the cash, this is the program built for that exact problem.

FHA sets 580 as the line for the 3.5% down payment. Between 500 and 579 the program still works, with 10% down instead.

Lenders layer their own overlays on top of FHA's rules and they are not all the same, which is the whole reason to run this through a broker. If one lender's overlay stops your file, that is one lender's answer, not the program's.

FHA allows a seller contribution of up to 6% of the sale price toward closing costs, prepaid taxes and insurance, and discount points to buy your rate down. That is a bigger allowance than conventional gives you at a low down payment.

Whether a seller agrees to any of it is a negotiation, and we run the purchase side of your transaction too, so that negotiation is ours to have.

FHA allows a parent, sibling or other qualifying family member to go on the loan with you and be counted for income, without living in the house. Conventional financing is far tighter about this.

It is one of the few honest ways a young buyer with a thin file gets into a house in a market priced like this one, and most people have never heard of it.

The 203(k) finances the purchase and the renovation in one loan, with one closing. Limited 203(k) covers lighter cosmetic and repair work. Standard 203(k) covers structural work and larger projects.

In a market where the move-in-ready inventory is priced out of reach, the house that needs work is often the only door open. This is how you walk through it.

An FHA loan can be assumed by a qualified buyer, meaning they take over your existing loan and your existing interest rate instead of getting a new one at whatever the market is doing that year.

If rates are higher when you sell than when you bought, an assumable loan at a low rate is a real asset attached to your house. Most conventional loans have nothing like it.

FHA is marketed to first-time buyers and it is excellent for them, but there is no first-time buyer requirement anywhere in the program. If you have owned before, sold, or are buying again, FHA is still on the table.

It does generally need to be your primary residence, and there are limits on holding more than one FHA loan at once, with exceptions for relocation and a growing family.

FHA allows two, three and four unit properties at the same minimum down payment as long as you occupy one of the units. Depending on the file, projected rent from the other units may help you qualify.

Three and four unit properties have to clear a self-sufficiency test, meaning the rents have to cover the payment. Plenty of properties do not pass it, so we check before you write an offer instead of after.

FHA allows higher debt-to-income ratios than conventional does, particularly when the file carries compensating factors: reserves, a long job history, or a small jump from what you already pay in rent.

And when the automated system will not issue an approval, a live underwriter can still review the file by hand. That is where a lot of good FHA files actually get approved.