Owner's Equity Handbook method
How we research
Handbook note
Before anything is published on Owner's Equity Handbook, the rule or definition it describes is traced back to the agency or investor that wrote it. HUD Handbook 4000.1 is the main reference for FHA cash-out rules here, together with HUD and CFPB consumer explainers, and it is reread whenever it is updated.
Last reviewed against the primary sources listed below.
Where questions come from
Search suggestions show how people phrase their questions. We collect those for free, group them and answer the ones inside this site's scope.
Sources we rely on
Pages cite these primary sources, among others. Each guide lists the exact sources it used at the bottom of the page.
- HUD Single Family Housing Policy Handbook 4000.1
- HUD FHA Resource Center: answers to common questions
- CFPB: Home equity loans, cash-out refinances and other options similar to a HELOC
- Fannie Mae Selling Guide B2-1.3-03: Cash-out refinance transactions
- CFPB: What is a debt-to-income ratio?
- CFPB: Credit reports and scores
- CFPB: What is a loan-to-value ratio and how does it relate to my costs?
- CFPB: What is mortgage insurance and how does it work?
How a page is checked
- Each factual statement is matched to a primary source.
- Plain-language wording is compared back to the source so meaning is not lost.
- The review date at the top of the page is updated only after that check.
Pages written this way
- FHA cash-out occupancy rule: twelve months in the home
- FHA cash-out payment history requirement
- FHA cash-out maximum loan-to-value explained
- FHA cash-out refinance credit and income review
- Mortgage insurance on an FHA cash-out refinance
- FHA vs conventional cash-out refinance
- How does an FHA cash-out refinance work?
- The FHA cash-out refinance appraisal: what it checks
About the Owner's Equity Handbook pre-check
Nothing entered into the Owner's Equity Handbook pre-check leaves your device, and no field comes prefilled.
HUD and consumer sources
- HUD Single Family Housing Policy Handbook 4000.1
- HUD FHA Resource Center: answers to common questions
- CFPB: Home equity loans, cash-out refinances and other options similar to a HELOC
- Fannie Mae Selling Guide B2-1.3-03: Cash-out refinance transactions
- CFPB: What is a debt-to-income ratio?
- CFPB: Credit reports and scores
- CFPB: What is a loan-to-value ratio and how does it relate to my costs?
- CFPB: What is mortgage insurance and how does it work?