Author: cwatters@primeres.com

The USDA Home Loan has several benefits that attract home buyers to the loan product. One of the greatest benefits is the credit standards set forth by the loan product. While there is no minimum credit score in place by USDA most lenders require scores of at least 620. USDA recently put trade line requirements in place. Borrowers are required to have at least 3 trade lines (they do not need to be currently open) that have a 12 month payment history. If a would be borrwer does not have these trade lines they can use whats called non traditional trade lines. These are things that are typically paid monthly by the but do not report to their credit report. Some examples are water bills, electric bills, and even cell phone bills. The lender must be able to obtain a 12 month payment history on the non traditional credit. The USDA Rural Development Loan also allows borrowers to obtain a loan after only being out of bankruptcy for 2 years and foreclosure 3 years.

The USDA Loan has so many great features and benefits. For the most part the guidelines are as flexible and aggressive as any of not most all other loan types. There are however two requirements that are unique to the USDA Loan. One of those is the property location. For all USDA Rural Development Loans the property must be in a qualifying area. To determine if a property is in one of these areas the lender uses the eligibility map. The map is very simple to use. It is located on the USDA website www.usda.gov. Once on the site you can enter a address and it will show is the property is located in an eligible area.

The USDA Rural Development Loan is a very attractive loan for home buyers especially first time buyers. The 100% no money feature continues to attractive the attention of first time buyers. They can get into a house with nothing out of pocket and for younger buyers who have not had a lot of years in the work force to be able to save a down payment it is imperative.  Besides the no down payment feature other things such as having less than perfect credit also  are a important part. There is no minimum credit score set forth by USDA but most lenders impose their own. Usually most lenders will go as low as 640 and even 620 in some cases. Low mortgage insurance along with close to standard interest rates make it a go to loan for First Time Home buyers.