SONYMA?

Ladies has anyone used SONYMA for their mortgage? Pros/Cons?

Re: SONYMA?

I never heard of them.

Re: SONYMA?

We plan on getting a sonyma mortgage. Have you looked at the website
nyhomes.org
All the information is on there, if you have any specific questions I'd be more than happy to try to answer for you.

Re: SONYMA?

I didn't think you could go direct to them - I thought you had to go through an authorized financial institution.

Re: SONYMA?

You do have to go through a financial institution and apparently you should be very careful with it.
You can't refinance or sell the house within a certain time period if you get one...and there are other issues that made us opt against it (I don't remember exactly). Check with your Mortgage Banker/Broker - they will tell you the plusses and minuses.

Re: SONYMA?

We used sonyma- having no closing fees was nice .
My only complaint was that the process was a bit long and frustrating.

Re: SONYMA?

We tried to do SONYMA through the Bank of New York, which told us we could list only my income to qualify...Long story short, we were totally jerked around, it took forever, and then we were turned down at the last minute when we wound up having to list both incomes and were over the maximum.

It's great when it works, but it is a long process and I would NOT recommend the Bank of New York. I feel like they lied to us about qualifying and then we were tied into using them for the regular mortgage due to time constraints. When the market was good, some sellers did not want buyers using SONYMA because the process takes longer than a traditional approval process. You must be first time buyers and have to pay back a certain amount if you sell within three years I think.

Message edited 7/23/2007 1:19:43 PM.

Re: SONYMA?

We were going to go with this program but the process would not fit in our time frame for needing a mortgage. The previous owners of our house were in forclosure, so time was of the essence.

Re: SONYMA?

How much longer does this generally take?

Re: SONYMA?

SONYMA is very particular about loaning money and how they loan it. It is great for certain people because it can save you alot of money but if you don't plan to stay in a house for a long period of time I think it is 10 years then it may not be worth it. For some people it may be the option to go. Depending on the bank I think it can take anywhere from 3 to 5 or maybe more months to secure this type of loan. Make sure that if you are going to go with this type of mortgage that you have enough time in your contract--some sellers want out in 3 months and if your sonyma takes longer they may require you to close without it or keep your downpayment if you aren't ready to close because of financing.

Message edited 7/23/2007 7:42:16 PM.

Re: SONYMA?

We have a sonyma loan from 1996. We went through Home Federal Bank (or something like that-they got bought out). The rate was lower and you had to own your home for 9 years or you would have to pay a fee if you sold it before then.
I didn't have a problem with them at all and we will own our home 11 years this year so we are past our time already.

Re: SONYMA?

I don't think that is accurate that it takes 3-5 months. I was told that it takes approximately 1-2 weeks longer than processing a regular loan application.

Re: SONYMA?