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VA and FHA Approved Condos

 

Some condo projects have already been reviewed and approved by VA or FHA. Here’s where and how to search if your condo has already been approved for each type of financing.

 

For VA loans, the VA (Veterans Affairs) must review and approve the condo project themselves. VA condo approvals are permanent and do not expire. You can check if a condo has been VA approved with the following steps:

  1. Go to this VA website: https://lgy.va.gov/lgyhub/condo-report.
  2. Input the condo’s legal name for the condo’s name for question #2
  3. Input the condo’s city and state for question #4
  4. Click Submit
  5. Verify the record found matches your condo’s name and address
  6. If the status of the condo is “Accepted Without Conditions” or “HUD Accepted”, then the condo is approved for VA financing.

 

Tip: I recommend thoroughly looking through the list alphabetically, it’s sometimes hard to search by condominium name and I recommend not just inputing the condo name into the search tool.  You’ll want to know the legal name of the condominium.  Imagine you believe the condominium is called “The Brittany.” You’d want to see if it’s listed as “Brittany, “The Brittany Condominium,” “Brittany Condominium”, etc, if you are unaware of the formal legal name.  The formal legal name would be stated in the condo documents.

With a VA approved condo, we only need to verify the condo has an acceptable master insurance policy to finalize a VA loan for the condo. If the condo does not appear on the list, we can pursue a VA condo approval.  Learn more about how we pursue a VA condo approval: https://alexjaffe.com/va-condo-approval

 

For FHA Loans, HUD (Department of Housing and Urban Development) approves condo projects, and their approval is only good for 2 years. After the 2 year period, the condo needs to be resubmitted to HUD to renew their approval.  You can check a condo’s status with HUD with the following steps:

  1. Go to this HUD website: https://entp.hud.gov/idapp/html/condlook.cfm
  2. Input at least the condo’s state and legal name
  3. Click Send
  4. Verify the record found matches your condo’s name and address
  5. If the status of the condo is “Approved” and the approval is not expired, then the condo is currently approved for FHA financing.

 

If a condo is already FHA approved, then we simply need to have the management company complete a condominium questionnaire and provide the condo’s current master insurance policy to verify the following:

  1. Project’s legal information
  2. Current occupancy status for all units
  3. Individual owner concentration
  4. Number of units 60+ days delinquent on dues
  5. Sufficient master policy coverage

 

This is much easier and faster process then submitting a full condo review to HUD to approve the condo. We are able to complete this review in house so we can approve FHA financing much quicker on an FHA approved condo versus a condo that HUD has not reviewed.

For a condo that is not FHA approved, either never having been FHA approved or with an expired approval, with some restrictions we can very often pursue a single unit approval. Learn more https://alexjaffe.com/fha-sua