If you're a first time home buyer or just a home buyer seeking a down payment assistance program to help you purchase a home, you may find yourself as one of millions with challenged credit. Please, don't let some financial "professional" tell you that you can expect to pay a 9% interest rate! We've seen it published in several publication, most recently in Yahoo's financial section (the article we refer to - Please note this article may have been removed by Yahoo!®), that if your FICO score is lower than 600, you can expect to pay an extremely high rate of interest.

Nonsense! This is simply not true! Anyone that would state this gives us the impression they have no knowledge or are inadequately prepared to address such an important financial issue. Especially with so much money at stake!

The fact is, you can have a 500 to 600 credit score and get just as nice an interest rate as someone with a 680 or 750 FICO. How? By doing things the right way when preparing for your loan. This fact alone can save you, the credit challenged, tens of thousands of dollars in the first two years of home ownership alone!

Such words, written by any "Financial Professional" should never be printed without full disclosure of all the facts or alternatives that help home buyers avoid home loans that charge excessively high market rates! Poor credit means these home buyers need better education, preparations and tools to buy their first home the right way, the first time!

Never do business with a broker/lender/banker that cannot originate or fund FHA home loans! The opportunity to save so much money is simply not worth the risk of getting a higher interest loan with no other options!

Shame on those "Financial Experts"!