Anyone know abut Sonyma Mortgage Loans?

We're looking to get a co-op and the realtor gave us the number for a broker from a Sonyma bank (or something like that)
It's some sort of a deal for 1st time buyers within a specific income range (which i fit into)
They apparently pay all of your closing costs, including lawyers and everything and give you a low mortgage rate.
anyone have any experience with this - it sounds too good to be true!

We applied for a Sonyma mortgage, our broker said we were perfect, we ending up not qualifying. It was a nightmare for us, hopefully it will be better for you guys.

Regarding the closing costs, I don't ever remember that being included (but that could be something new). Basically you have to meet income requirements and qualify to get a low interest rate.

Below is the website:

http://www.nyhomes.org/sony/sonyma.html

We are looking in to this right now. Apparently it is true - I've spoken to my mortgage person about it a lot. They do have a thing right now where they will pay up to I think 5% of the loan to put towards your closing costs. I think the trade off has something to due with the fact that if you sell within 10 years, there is a certain percentage you may or may not need to pay back (of the closing costs as well as profit from the sale?). The other drawback is that you can not get pre-approved for it. We are getting ready to get a pre-approval, but for a different mortgage through my bank. Once you go to contract, that is when you can try and apply for the SONYMA mortgage. They do have very strict guidelines though - not just your income, but your income to debt ratio and other stuff like that (I know all mortgages will have one, but apparently theirs is very stringent.) Definately check in to it.

BTW - peabody, can I ask what made it such a nightmare? I'm a little worried now.
Thanks.

This is just my advice from my experience:

1. Don't use a mortgage broker, I paid a $700 fee for no reason. Instead, go via bank who does Sonyma loans (North Fork, Suffolk County National)

2. Have a back up loan, spend the extra application fee, it's worth it, because if you don't get the Sonyma loan you have back up and you not freaking out about getting another loan. If you don't get the funds to buy the house, you could lose the house.
Go via another bank for this loan with the best rate.

3. Make sure you have good credit, that saved us. They gave us a low rate (not as low as Sonyma) and then we got a home equity line of credit, so we didn't have to pay PMI. In my opinionm PMI is a waste of $$$, you are paying bank's insurance. I would try find a loan where who don't pay PMI.

Any other ???'s please feel free to FM. It's a challenging process.

thanks for all the help peabody!!

i bought my condo with a Sonyma loan (although i had been spelling it sunnie mae all this time ). essentially it's a tool to encourage people to buy instead of rent. your down payment is generally lower and your interest rate is anywhere between 1 - 2% lower than the going rate. my mortage is a 6.5% when the regular rates were about 8 - 8.5%. the only downside is that you must maintain the title for 5 years. you can rent your unit out, but you can not sell. if you sell before the time is up, the bank will go back and recapture the difference between the interest rate you received and the regular interest rate.

i did all of my mortgage work with my regular bank - HSBC Bank. the best benefit is that their consider your mortgage to be part of the overall balance you hold with them - in addition to your regular accounts. even though our savings accounts are pitiful right now - we get the best perks because they throw our mortgage balance in when they determine what 'level' you are.

does your broker know you are specifically looking at co-ops? i recommended this program to my GF and she was told that with the purchase of a co-op - you don't get a mortgage itself, you get some sort of loan with the corporation that owns the co-op. she was not eligible for any of these programs.

good luck!!!!!

forgot a few other things:

1. you have to prove that neither of you owned real property anywhere before. this requires a background check.

2. there is more paperwork in this type of loan - again, they need to certify that neither of you have owned real property before. i remember having to get lots of stuff notarized.

good luck!!!

thanks for all of the information karen!!!!
the realtor at the co-op community told us about the sonyma program, so i hope that will all work out. my lawyer said that it's a good program, but it takes a little longer than the normal mortgages.
and neither one of us has ever owned property before, so we're good with that.
i hope it works out because it would save us a TON of money!!! and then we can save more and buy a house sooner!!

i just looked on the website for sonyma and for nassau and suffolk county
for the Limit to qualify

Income $66,960
One family place $316,100

then another part of the website says:
income $83,700...

what are the numbers?

if your income is below $66,960, then you qualify for one percentage rate...provided the lovation you are looking to buy is under $316,000.

If your income is below the other amount $83,700, then you qualify for a slightly higher percentage rate.

Does that explain it a little?
I was incredibly confused!!

we qualify no problem becuase we're only using my salary for the mortgage....and the co-op we're getting is way under $316!
look at me bragging about how little i'm going to make while living in my cheap little co-op!
it's a program to help out first tiem buyers who might struggle financially.....

so it wlso has to beyour first time buying real estate

ddefinatley our first buying time...

if it was only like 3 years ago and we could get a house for under 316

so it's the $316 that's going to keep you out?
houses are really expensive now!
that's why we went with a co-op.....much much much much cheaper!!!
we'll have a house someday......

well, the ones worth moving into at least!
good luck!!!