Second homes...

[admin]

I have a friend who is interested in a second home up north here in AZ. It's in a small area with only about 40 or 50 homes, and has septic, propane and solar/generators - not hooked up to an electrical power grid, but none of the other homes are. They are concerned about getting financing.

Can you give any advice? What kind of programs would be available for this kind of house? Obviously, they'd like to put as little down as possible.

[liverichly]

Not hard at all, a friend purchased a home in a very quiet place in the mountains of California "off the grid" and he was able to qualify for conventional financing and put 10% down.

The best bet is for him to introduce himself and ask the neighbors who they got their loan with.

[Ravenous Wolf]

For some Texas banks and credit unions, loans specifically state that the property does not have to be directly connected to utilities but the utilities have to be immediately available at the edge of the property or off the road.

I don't know what the rules are in Texas but I always thought that was interesting because I looking at buying some land in the boondocks.

In a way, I thought it made sense because it being connected to utilities or having it accessible to them would make the land easier to sell.

[firstsource]

For most lenders the only additional requirements are that the water pass a test to make sure that it is "good", and the septic system has to pass a test to make sure that it is working properly.

There are quite a few places in "populated" areas of the US where the homes have, as a general rule, septic systems.

Charles