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Information for Single-Family
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Program Announcement
March 18, 2015
Revised Online Homebuyer Education Requirement for Mortgage
Credit Certificate Program
For the past 11 months, the Washington State Housing Finance Commission has required that anyone using our Home Advantage program to either take an in-person homebuyer education class or to take an online class offered through our partnership with eHome America. With the Mortgage Credit Certificate (MCC) program, we have also allowed borrowers to take online classes offered by the Mortgage Insurance companies. Effective April 15, 2015, we want to bring the same high level standards for homebuyer education to all of our programs and will no longer accept certificates issued by the Mortgage Insurance companies for any of our programs, including MCC.
Used by more than 250 homeownership counseling agencies as well as other housing finance agencies nationwide to provide education, we have found this online class to be very popular for borrowers who are unable to attend an in-person class. This self-study course is comparable to the Commission’s in-person class and meets National Industry Standards for homebuyer education. The class takes approximately 6-8 hours to complete and requires a $50.00 per person registration fee. This class covers the Commission’s benchmark standards and also covers programs offered at the Commission. Each Borrower needs to register separately on the Commission’s website: www.wshfc.org/buyers/education.htm
For the MCC program, the Commission will accept all Mortgage Insurance company certificates dated on or before April 14, 2015. Any Borrower taking online homebuyer education after April 14, 2015, needs to have a certificate from our online approved provider.
If you have questions regarding this announcement, please contact
Bill Conner at
bill.conner@wshfc.org or 206-287-4449.