Government Shutdown

With the government shutdown dragging into its third week, many future home buyers are wondering how this will affect them. There is no need to worry about your loan being slowed by the government shutdown in most cases. The IRS is still pumping out transcripts, and IRS.gov is still open allowing for borrowers to obtain their transcripts. The Social Security Administration is still available to verify identities using the SSA-89, with a two to three-day delay. While it is mostly great news, some folks will be affected.

Since HUD is working with a skeleton staff, having a borrower that has a CAIVRS claim can be challenging to resolve. A CAIVRS claim is assigned to an individual that has defaulted on government loans such as a prior FHA mortgage, a DOD loan, or a defaulted student loan. If you have a previous CAIVRS claim, please have all the information associated with that claim available -- this will help expedite clearing up any claims.

Government employees that have been furloughed will also be affected. Currently, they can not get verification of employment. Since no job can be verified, this group will be unable to meet Ability to Repay, and therefore have their mortgage process delayed until they return to work.

All in all, your mortgage process should not be interrupted or delayed, but if you have any questions -- give us a call at 205.776.8401, and we will help you in any way we can.