Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: FHA Approval

[Diana Carroll (dianaecarroll]

On Wed, Apr 2, 2014 at 1:49 PM, Sharon Villines
<sharon [at] sharonvillines.com>wrote:

> > There are so many entities involves in the home mortgage transaction
> that I
> > don't think it makes sense to say "stand up for your rights, they can't
> > discriminate".  Mortgage lenders and guarantors vary hugely in the amount
> > of due diligence they do, how risk averse they are, and even what their
> > actual goals are.
>
> But the FHA is not a private bank. It's a Federal Agency. If they are
> discriminating it should be on the basis of written and transparent
> rules/standards. Not hidden and not in writing. And it should be fairly
> exercised across all housing groups.
>
> The rules/standard should also be fairly determined based on factual
> evidence. As we all know, cohousing is probably the lowest insurance risk
> of any class of housing for which a bank would be applying for insurance.
>

I was responding to your message, which in turn was a response to the idea
that groups should consider removing "cohousing" from their name.  You said
instead of doing that, they should demand fair treatment.

I don't disagree that we should demand fair treatment from FHA.  But the
FHA is just one agency.  And MANY agencies and organizations and companies
share the prejudice against cohousing.   My point was that de-emphasizing
cohousing in one's name and/or legal presentation may be wise, because of
the FHA *and all those other entities*.   Only a minority of buyers and
properties even qualify for an FHA loan, so although it is good to fight
for justice, it is also good to be realistic, and take steps to make your
community as "lender friendly" (ALL lenders) as possible...which might
include choosing a name that doesn't have the word "cohousing" in it.

Diana