The house decides the program
Chester County’s housing stock splits neatly for this purpose. There are farmhouses and converted barns in the western and southern townships, most of them on a well and an on-lot septic, where the work list starts with a roof and a foundation and ends somewhere near the electrical panel. There are pre-1940 rows and twins in Coatesville and the boroughs, where a kitchen, a bath and a heating system get you a finished house. And there are 1980s and 1990s subdivisions where the only thing wrong is the kitchen.
Structure and scale sort the programs. Work that touches structure needs a Standard 203(k) or a HomeStyle. Cosmetic work under a modest cap fits a Limited 203(k) or a CHOICEReno eXPress. The rest is caps, clocks and who signs off on the plan.
FHA 203(k) Limited
The Limited version covers minor remodeling and nonstructural repairs. Since Mortgagee Letter 2024-13 took effect for case numbers assigned on or after November 4, 2024, total rehabilitation costs must not exceed $75,000 — a figure FHA reviews annually alongside its loan limits. Energy improvements can be financed on top of that cap.
There is no minimum. A consultant is not required, and where one is used, the fee became financeable under the same mortgagee letter. The rehabilitation period runs up to nine months from the borrower-contractor agreement.
That combination — no consultant, a real cap, a nine-month clock — is why the Limited program suits a kitchen, a bath, a roof, windows, or an HVAC replacement in a house you can keep living in.
FHA 203(k) Standard
The Standard version allows structural work, and it carries the machinery to match. There is a $5,000 minimum in eligible improvements. An FHA-approved consultant is required, drawn from the roster for the property’s state, and that consultant prepares the work write-up and cost estimate the whole file runs on. The rehabilitation period is up to twelve months, and a mortgage payment reserve of up to twelve months can be financed for the period the property cannot be occupied.
Mortgagee Letter 2024-13 also publishes what the consultant may charge. A feasibility study runs to $375. The work write-up maxes at $1,000 for repairs of $50,000 or less, $1,200 from $50,001 to $85,000, $1,400 from $85,001 to $140,000, and above that the lower of 1% or $2,000, plus $25 per additional dwelling unit. Draw inspections are capped at $375 each and change orders at $120.
Those are ceilings on what a consultant may charge, and on a farmhouse with a full gut they are among the more predictable numbers in the whole project.
Fannie Mae HomeStyle
HomeStyle is the conventional equivalent and the most permissive on scope: no minimum renovation amount and no restriction on the types of renovation (Selling Guide B5-3.2-01, last updated December 10, 2025). The cap is a percentage. Renovation costs may not exceed 75% of the lesser of the purchase price plus renovation costs or the as-completed appraised value on a purchase, or 75% of the as-completed value on a refinance; manufactured homes are capped at 50% (B5-3.2-02, December 10, 2025).
Eligible property is broad — one to four unit principal residences, a one-unit second home, a one-unit investment property, manufactured homes, and units in an eligible PUD, condo or co-op. Work must be complete no later than fifteen months from closing, with an extension to eighteen months only in rare cases with Fannie Mae’s approval.
Freddie Mac CHOICEReno eXPress
CHOICEReno eXPress is the small, fast option. Financed renovations must not exceed 10% of the value, or 15% in high-needs Duty to Serve areas, and the work has to be complete within 180 days of the note date. It is available on a purchase or a no-cash-out refinance, requires no consultant, and needs a final inspection at delivery. Loans can be sold to Freddie Mac before the renovation is finished, so no interim construction financing is involved (sf.freddiemac.com, August 2026).
The broader CHOICERenovation program allows a total loan-to-value up to 105% with an eligible Affordable Second, on Home Possible and HomeOne only, with the rules in Guide Chapter 4607 and Section 6302.43.
The farmhouse case, and the well test nobody expects
Two Chester County details show up on renovation files often enough to plan for.
The first is the water. HUD Handbook 4000.1 requires a well water test where the appraiser reports deficiencies, where water is reported or known to be unsafe, on newly constructed properties, and on properties close to dumps, landfills, industrial sites or farms, the last of those for pesticides. In the southern county, “close to a farm” describes a great many houses. The sample has to be taken by a disinterested third party, and Chester County already forbids owner-collected samples: under Chapter 500, section 501 the sample is drawn by a DEP-certified laboratory employee or a county-licensed driller or pump installer.
The second is paint. On a pre-1978 house, peeling or chipping paint is an appraisal item, and much of the borough stock here was built decades before that line.