So I had a shocking experience at a unit owner meeting of the condominium association where I live regarding amending our declaration to eliminate the association’s right of first refusal which practically would allow FHA borrowers to purchase units in our building. Here’s my previous post regarding a memo I put together on the issue.
Unfortunately we didn’t get enough votes to amend the declaration. Such is life, you win some and you lose some and I’ll do a better job getting the word out for the next go-round.
But what was absolutely eye-opening about the tone of the meeting and some of the comments made by fellow unit owners was the absolute ignorance about FHA loans. Among many older residents apparently FHA loans are only for poor, minorities. Sadly, I heard more than one statement to the effect of “we don’t want those kind of people living there.” I clearly heard code for we don’t want minorities in our building. And without even touching the history of racism in the United States what’s unfortunate is that perception is just plain wrong. The reality is that the FHA program is a real go-to loan option these days for younger, relatively high-income earners who simply don’t have huge savings in place yet.
Good luck amending your declaration!!
sounds terribly frustrating (and wrong) but there may be help on the way.
HB0155 passed both houses in springfield and awaits the governor’s signature. it would bar associations (like yours) from exercising the right of first refusal to thwart an fha-financed purchase -assuming of course that fha is willing to guaranty the loan.