FREE MONEY TO BUY House Available Now!

Would you like to buy a home but can't seem to get ahead enough to save for the down payment? What if you could make a wish and suddenly the money would appear? Well, start wishing and say hello to two down payment assistance programs offering up to $10,000 available just for you.

The City of Philadelphia's recently announced a Down Payment Assistance program offering a whopping $10,000 to first time home buyers. There is also the First Front Door program which offers up to $5,000 towards down payment and closing costs. Each program has income qualifications according to their guidelines and each program requires that buyers qualify for financing with their lender.

Other requirements include completing a Home Ownership Counseling course, or that the home buyer provides 1 percent of their own money. Sound too good to be true? It's not. These programs are available to help deserving folks—people like you with decent credit and stable work histories—get a home without having to save up for years while pouring rent money down the drain. As an example, I recently had a client purchase an $110,000 home with just $1200 out of pocket by taking advantage of the FFD grant and receiving assistance from the seller's towards her closing costs. Even I was floored!

Not a first time home buyer but an owner thinking about selling a home? Well, you can benefit from these programs as well. As the pool of potential home buyers increase, grant programs help sellers sell homes faster and for possibly a higher price than they might otherwise with a smaller group of eligible buyers. Bottom line, down payment grant programs bring more buyers to the marketplace.

It's all about supply and demand so as a home owner, you may want to take advantage of it while you can. As you might expect, there may be a few “catches” as one may call them such as income/asset restrictions, recapture clauses, reserves required or geographic boundaries but either way you look at it, the pros of getting free money certainly outweigh the cons.

Funding for these programs are first come first served so you must act FAST. Down payment assistance programs generally participate with FHA, conforming and jumbo loan products, and can be used for single family homes, condos, town homes, existing or new construction homes.

Other than two mentioned above, there are several others available so contact your local real estate agent and/or mortgage professional for more details as well as to determine the program that is right for you. Keep in mind, not all lenders offer the same programs so be sure to ask what they have available for you. If the lender doesn't offer any down payment assistance programs, move on and go where the money is, it's out there for you so take advantage of it while you can!

Desarrie “Real Estate Diva” McDuffie Realtor at Coldwell Banker Preferred [email protected]