My tweets for the last few weeks read:

"Still Working on 203K loan..."

Well, it's closed, and I want to share the story behind those brief, cryptic tweets:

Here's Fran's Story:

In October, I received a call from a woman working at a local diner.  She moved to North Carolina in July - having worked for 14 years as a waitress in Northern Virginia.  Fran makes a base pay of $6.55 an hour, and tips.  She is in her mid 50's, and wanted to purchase her first home.

It was her D-R-E-A-M.

She suffered through a bad marriage, finally got out, raised her children as a single mom.  Five years ago she finally went to court and received court ordered back child support.  She saved money - almost $9,000.  She paid taxes, and her tax returns for the past 2 years reflected an income of $20,000 (or a little less).

As is often the case here, her daughter (and family) moved to the Raleigh area a year earlier, and Fran missed her grandchildren!  Her son graduated from High School, and, as she said"now was HER time!" In preparing to move to NC, she worked extra hours and saved every dime! She was able to pay her car off! She also paid off all of her charge cards, and had an envious credit score of almost 800!

She had been told she would not be able to purchase a home for 2 more years... because she just relocated to this area in July.

She read my posts, and thought I might be able to help her!

After meeting with her, I felt that 14 years experience as a waitress, could be considered in qualifying her here.  We went forward.

She found a FREDDIE MAC foreclosed property here (less than 1100 square feet) that sold for $45,000.  It needed help.  Lots of help.  The heating was ripped out, the roof needed help, windows, siding had rot, carpet - all told it needed $12,500 in help.

I helped Fran and her agent work through the FHA 203K process. We found a carpet company (you have to get 2 letters of recommendation from customers for each company performing the work), the roofing company, the HVAC guys, and the handy man.  We did the appraisal, and we were ready to submit all the paperwork (you also must get 3 other forms signed and completed by all parties involved in the repairs for a FHA 203K loan)... when Fran had a "down and out" builder come into the diner!  She wanted to help him out!  This delayed things 5 more days as we worked to obtain letters of recommendation, and get all the forms signed, and checked with the appraiser to insure it would not change his position.

Finally we submitted the loan.  The underwriter WANTED to make the loan to Fran... but she couldn't count her tips.  THREE re-submissions and 5 more letter of recommendation for FRAN later, we finally had an approval!

When we started this process, rates were substantially higher, because of NC rate spread laws, the bank was forced to renegotiate a lower rate for Fran prior to closing.  This caused a delay, which meant Freddie tried to play hard ball, and charge the buyer an extra $200 bucks! (after multiple calls with the attorney - I was able to get this waived!)

In the past year, we've all cut margins, and made less to make a deal work.  This was one of those deals for me.  HOURS and HOURS of work, for less than $500.  But that's okay!  It felt so good to help Fran realize her dream!  Do you think she'll refer me?  Absoultely!

That's right.  With rates where they are, she was able to purchase a home with a payment less than $500! And with the improvements to the property - it's like getting a NEW home!  It cost her less than $3000 to purchase! As an added bonus... Fran also qualifies for a $7500 Tax Credit!  Fran is THRILLED!

It was probably the hardest deal I closed in 2008... but this is the kind of buyer that makes me GLAD that I'm in this business and GLAD folks can FIND ME on the Internet!  THANKS ACTIVE RAIN!