There are a lot of facts and myths floating around about mortgage programs these days. These misconceptions start from buyers seeing promises of no money down real estate advertising. Can someone buy a home with no money down in today's environment? The answer is yes and no.

Many of the creative financing offered by lenders in the not so distant past have gone away. However, there is still one government loan program for home buyers that allows for no money down - that is right, nothing down - zero, zip, and zilch.

There are two programs that qualify for no down payment. One program is from the Veterans Administration (VA) and the other is from USDA. The VA program is available to veterans and active duty military that have VA eligibility. The USDA program is available to everyone.

USDA is a government backed loan program; however, not everyone will qualify for a USDA loan. The loan has income requirements that are based on household size. Another qualifier is that the home has to be located in a designated USDA lending area. To see if a property you are looking at qualifies for USDA go to this web site:

http://eligibility.sc.egov.usda.gov/eligibility/welcomeAction.do?pageAction=sfp&NavKey=property@11

Generally speaking, these properties have to be in a rural area. However, I know of many areas in Tampa, which are not rural, but are in the USDA designated area. For instance, an area in Tampa known as New Tampa is well developed with many shops, restaurants, and a mall and is still in the USDA delegated area.

If you would like to see if you qualify for the USDA program, give Jim Costello a call at 813.785.8602.

Feel free to visit USDA's web site at www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome