BOTELHOMortgage broker · Providence, RI
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14:00 · what I do

Condos, mill conversions and historic districts

Providence has a lot of beautiful housing inside buildings that lenders find complicated. Mill lofts, converted schools, small four-unit condo associations on the East Side. The building has to qualify as well as you do.

An engraved plate of a brick mill building with tall arched windows and a square stair tower.

Where this one goes wrong

Three things worth knowing before you are under contract, rather than after.

  1. Warrantability is about the building

    Owner-occupancy ratio, how much one owner controls, commercial floor area, the reserve line in the budget, litigation. Any one of them can move a building outside conventional guidelines, and none of them are about you.

  2. Non-warrantable is financeable

    It just costs more and needs a lender who does it on purpose. Finding out in week one instead of week five is the difference between a plan and a scramble.

  3. Ask what the reserve study says

    A small association with a low reserve balance and an old roof is a special assessment waiting to happen. The lender cares. You should care more.

Illustrative throughout. Percentages and thresholds named on this page describe how these programs generally work, not a commitment about your file. Program rules change, lenders add their own overlays, and nothing here is an offer to lend or a rate quote.

Also

Other files I take

  • 09

    Your first house in Rhode Island

    The first one is mostly a translation problem.

    Read more
  • 10

    The three-decker, and everything like it

    Buying a two-, three- or four-unit and living in one of them is the most Rhode Island way there is to own a house.

    Read more
  • 11

    Self-employed, 1099 and seasonal income

    If you run something, an underwriter is going to read your tax returns differently from the way your accountant wrote them.

    Read more

Reach me directly

Talk about a condos & mills file

Whatever stage you are at. If it is a house you have not seen yet, that is the useful time.

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