Dear Jan,

Some friends told us that the Department of Agriculture is giving out special loans for buying a home.

Are you familiar with these loans? Is there a catch to buying a home through them?

CM

Dear CM,

I am sure your friends are referring to the United States Department of Agriculture home loans.

These loans are for rural areas, most areas in Kitsap County qualify under the program. These loans allow for the buyer to have no down payment which is rare in today’s financing world.

The Department of Agriculture was backlogged so these loans were taking a couple of months to get approved but the department hired more employees and now the loans are getting approved much faster. Just last week I had one approved in two days.

If the buyers negotiate to have the sellers pay their closing costs the buyers can get in with no money.

There are no catches that I am familiar with in regards to these loans.

You could couple this Department of Agriculture loan with the homebuyer tax credit. What an awesome time to buy a home! Local real estate agents can help get you to a lender who does Department of Agriculture loans.

Happy home hunting!

Jan

Jan Zufelt is an associate broker with John L. Scott Real Estate. She can be reached at janzufelt@telebyte.com