Attention Lenders:
Effective June 21, 2021, NJHMFA will be retiring the federally funded HomeSeeker Down Payment Assistance Program, and all Down Payment Assistance (DPA) will use the Smart Start program.
This means that HomeSeeker will no longer be an available DPA option when registering loans on the Internet Loan Reservation System (ILRS). Instead, Lenders will reserve all DPA loans under the Smart Start Program, regardless of the county of the subject property.
Starting June 21, 2021, the Smart Start Program will be the single NJHMFA DPA Program, offered statewide to eligible applicants. This adjustment will not impact the availability of funding for DPA, nor will it in anyway impact the current scope of the DPA program. The most relevant change is that Lenders will need to register any DPA loans under the Smart Start Program and utilize the Smart Start DPA documents during the closing process.
Any pipeline HomeSeeker DPA loans that have not completed the pre-closing review by the Agency by June 30, 2021 will be adjusted by the Agency to the Smart Start program. NJHMFA will inform the lender of the change to ensure the correct documents are used at closing.
Please Note: The Smart Start DPA does not require the signing of the Dodd-Frank disclosure that was required for HomeSeeker. All other provisions of the DPA programs will remain the same.
If you there are any questions or concerns regarding this current update, please contact the NJHMFA Business Development Team at SFLenders@njhmfa.gov.
