Freddie Mac made a recent change to the required documents for all conventional loans, which includes the HFA Advantage program. As of March 1st, 2023, Freddie Mac now requires the Supplemental Consumer Information Form (SCIF) to be included in the Mortgage file for new conventional Mortgages. Lenders are required to follow all underlying investor and insurer guidelines, including providing the SCIF on all HFA Advantage loans.
Effective immediately, in accordance with this investor guideline NJHMFA requires the Supplemental Consumer Information Form (SCIF) be included with all purchase submissions for the HFA program. The information contained in the supplement should be consistent with the supporting documentation provided to support this information. The reference material for the data on this form is the Homeownership Education and Housing Counseling Certificate.
Per Freddie Mac’s FAQs, the "Homeownership Education and Housing Counseling" section of the SCIF must be completed if required by the loan program or product for which the Borrower has applied. The lender must present the SCIF to at least on Borrower to provide a preferred language, but the Borrower is not required to select any of the language options in the "Language Preference" section. As a result, there may be instances where the SCIF in the Mortgage file only includes the loan identifier information and the Borrower name. See Freddie’s full FAQs here.
This document will be added to the NJHMFA loan purchasing checklist as a reminder of the requirement on applicable loans.
