Scott Ptach, Boulder County.   Who do you consider a hero? Is your neighbor next door a hero? There are a lot of people in this world that are heroes and there is a new loan program in the lending world today. It is called the HEROES program.

This is an awesome program that is reserved for first-time homebuyers who are federal, state, county, and city employees, teachers, firefighters, police officers, military, emergency medical personnel, nurses and paramedics.

Here is what the details of the HEROES program look like:

Zero percent down payment .

No mortgage insurance.

Competitive interest rates.

At least one borrower must be a first-time home buyer. A first-time homebuyer is someone who hasn’t owned a home in the past 3 years.

A minimum FICO score of 700

Annual income limits and other restrictions apply.

Most property types are eligible (must be primary residence).

The most exciting part of this program is the zero percent down payment with no mortgage insurance! This means you can buy a home with no money up front. Money for closing costs is required, but there is no down payment on the home, so you can finance 100 percent of it! This is a great way to get into a home for little up front cost, and in a rising home price market like we are in a great way to get an asset that can begin to build some equity.

In regards to mortgage insurance, when one puts less than 20 percent down on a real estate transaction there needs to be mortgage insurance. This can be borrower paid or it can be lender paid, I won’t get into the differences, but what it equates to is a higher monthly payment. Essentially, the borrower pays more each month for mortgage insurance, an extra cost to the monthly payment. This insurance can be in the sum of a couple hundred dollars. By not having this insurance one could potentially qualify for a slightly higher priced home because they could have the room in their debt to equity ratio to allocate toward the monthly payment rather than the insurance.

Personally, I think this is a great program! It is about time that there is something to benefit people who do so much for our communities! To be able to buy a home and have a place to live without having to save for the down payment could help so many people who are making it, but find it hard to save for a big chunk of money like a 20 percent down payment.
Please let me know if you are interested in this loan program and want to know more. We can connect you with the right people to make this happen and get you into a home! Scott Ptach of Re/Max of Boulder can be reached at 970-819-3745 or by email: scottptach@boulderco.com.

Happy Holidays!

(Originally published in the December 6, 2018, print edition of The Mountain-Ear).