Comments on: Problems Financing Live/Work Units?

By: mk

mk — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 23:04:46 +0000

I'm trying to buy out my partner. We have a legitimate live work building with 75% as shop space. I have 50% of the equity, the loan to value will be about 60%, I have a stable well paying W2 income, with smaller business income. I'm being denied because the business income alone will not cover the note.

By: mk

mk — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:04:46 +0000

By: Live lead transfer

Live lead transfer — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 22:57:52 +0000

I will rather apply a loan company so I can buy my own house rather than live in a condominium..

By: GoCougs

GoCougs — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:57:10 +0000

If you are truly going to use a live/work loft for work…there are many SBA program loans available. I know first hand of industrial users who have purchased warehouses in the past few months via SBA loans when they couldn't get traditional financing through a lender.

The catch is that you must be an operating business with viable plan, etc…

By: Robert

Robert — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:59:50 +0000

Yes, everything you say lemons is correct. But there are local lenders, smaller banks that are warehousing their own loans based on a “real” evaluation of the property rather than a government/bank formulated rejection. These loans don't need to meet HUD guidelines because they don't intend to resell to Fannie/Freddie.
The trick is finding one of these lenders & getting them to do more than just a few units….

By: lemons

lemons — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 04:01:45 +0000

No loan for a unit in a condominium that has >20% non-residential use or a single entity owning >10% is conforming under current FNMA rules. That means no live-work, no small buildings, no new development, no mixed-use, no street-level retail in many cases, etc.

By: Robert

Robert — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 10:11:26 +0000

Yes. In general, banks are reducing their portfolio of lending….anything outside the norm of fee-simple, primary residence, single family for a person with great credit and substantial income (relative to home value) and 5-20% down is more challenging to find. Particularly the larger banks who are 'formulating' what they will/won't lend. Smaller, local banks who may not resell the mortgage will be more likely to finance.
Don't get me started on condo's. They bring on a whole other set of challenges.

We build live-works and are continuing to look for lenders. They're out there…just hard to find.