HEARTWARMING NEW BEGINNINGS

A few days ago, I looked up from my desk to see a lovely young woman standing at the doorway to my office. She was "picking up a couple of subs" from a favorite food establishment next door to us in our plaza. She said that her father had died in the recent past and she was "just curious" about the place she had called home years ago now that she heard it was on the market.

Many folks share the belief that nothing is left to chance, and this young woman whose father, along with her mother, had taken such good care of her, continued to talk as I searched for an answer for her. The house was no where to be found on the Multiple Listing Service even though she thought that one of "our signs" was in the front yard.

As I continued to look for the property, we began talking about her father, her husband and her children. She said that she was renting, But that someday she and her husband hoped to have a home of their own so that heir children could decorate their very own rooms as they wished, and that they would have their own land on which to play. She said that certain lenders "would not give her the time of day", so that her husband and she had given up on the idea of homeownership until some day in the distant future.

It was the end of the day and our senior in-house loan officer was getting ready to go home to his own family. When he waved good bye, I asked him to come in and meet this young and hard working mother. I told him that she had been led to believe that she and her family could not own their own home at this time in their lives. Moreover, no one had offered to help them prepare for home ownership financing.

The subs would likely have to be reheated, but this young woman was being shown the road that leads to homeownership. It is every person's right to the American dream and it starts by asking "how".

Whether you or someone you know has reason to believe that home ownership is not possible, think again. Lenders simply want to know that buyers will pay them back. Toward that end, there are guidelines and programs in place to minimize the lenders' risks. If a buyer does not meet the criteria today, that buyer can start immediately learning from the professionals who commit to teaching and counseling them right to the closing table. Many professionals regard this vital service as an integral component of our business and as such, the teaching and counseling assistance is complementary. Our mortgage broker spoke with our young guest and they planned to meet the next day. Before I left the office, I looked one last time for the address she had given me. Nothing turned up.
The next day this young lady sat in our conference room with our mortgage broker and I could see through the glass doors that her big eyes were getting wider. When she jumped up beaming and wrapping her own arms around herself, I opened the doors to learn that in fact, she and her family would be living in their own tome sooner than they thought.

We will be “shopping” starting this very week for the back yard where the children can have their own swing set. She has a pre-approval letter in her hand.

It is absolutely critical that new home owners get the education they need to make such enormous decisions that will have great impact on the economic and general welfare of the family. Make no mistake about it. Realtors and mortgage brokers are in the Dream Business, no matter how complicated the forms, laws, rules and regulations may appear, and dreams do come true.

Before she left our office, our soon to be homeowner hugged us. We hugged her right back. I still can't find her old family home anywhere on the market and I don't know what "sign" may have been in the yard where she used to play with her father. I do know that if you read the "signs" along the way, there is very little left to "chance".