Client Wins

Every week we share three stories about how homebuyers and homeowners are achieving their goals with AEM as their partner. Click below to read more.

Our recent borrower is a successful REALTOR® in her market and spends her time helping others find the perfect home. So when it came time to buy a home for herself, she knew how the process should go. She had good credit and income, but is self-employed which made it difficult for her to get pre-approved. Once she finally found a lender, she was promised they would close the deal no matter what. So our client started house-hunting and within a couple months, was in contract. She started getting suspicious when, three weeks in, the title company still hadn’t heard from the lender. When she finally got a hold of them, she was continually told to sit tight and that they were working on it. She knew something was not right. Sure enough, two months and two extensions later, her loan fell apart. Deflated, she was about to pull out of the deal when the listing agent encouraged her to give us a call. We met, studied her file, asked a lot of questions and got to work. We had her loan wrapped up quickly and in just over a week, she landed the keys to her new home.

As the sole caretaker of two special needs children, our client was looking for a larger, more comfortable home in a better part of town. She was thrilled when she found her ideal property, made an offer and it was accepted. But a week into contract, another lender told her that she had too much debt and couldn’t qualify for the loan that she was previously quoted. In tears, she called us for help. We sprang into action, reviewed her documents and developed a plan. Our priority was to match her with a down payment assistance program that allowed her to use the cash she had saved to pay off her debt instead. Combined with an FHA loan, it was exactly what we needed to make it work. Our client is now the proud owner of a home that is perfect for her and her two boys.

After Hurricane Harvey destroyed her home and business, our client was forced to move in with friends in another state while she figured out her next move. She eventually fell in love with the area, found a job and decided that buying a home would be the perfect way to plant roots in her new community. But when it came time to apply for a home loan, she couldn’t get approved due to an eight month gap in employment. Understanding there is sometimes more to a story than paperwork shows, we sat down together and learned of her amazing perseverance. We knew we could make it work and asked her for a copy of the offer letter from her new employer and a letter explaining the break in work history. Within 40 days of getting pre-approved, our client became a homeowner. She is now well on her way to rebuilding her new life.

Referred to us by their close friends, our recent borrowers were upset about being denied by their previous lender two weeks before closing – costing them the house and their deposit. When we met, we learned that the other lender denied the couple for a VA loan due to eligibility requirements and a short employment history. What the lender didn’t seem to know was that there had been recent changes in eligibility limits, which allowed them to qualify. In addition, though the husband had retired from his job of 20 years, he had recently taken a new position with nearly all the same responsibilities. So his time with his new employer was short, but he showed a long history of employment in the same type of work. Overcoming that last hurdle, the couple moved forward with making an offer on a home they liked even more than the first one, and we closed their loan without a hitch.

A couple was making a move across the country and planned to use an FHA loan to purchase a new home. They wanted to leave the husband off the mortgage due to his low credit score and commission-based income, which would be difficult to verify. Still, because it was a community property state, we were required to measure his debts against his wife’s income, which ended up putting her over the ratio limit and threatened to disqualify her for the loan. Thankfully, due to the quick thinking of our team, we found a solution. We lowered the couple’s down payment from 12% to the FHA minimum of 3.5%, freeing up a considerable amount of cash that they then used to pay off their car loan. This not only bettered their debt-to-income ratio, but lowered their monthly expenses. We got the deal closed and the couple is now enjoying life in their new home and community.

After we met at an event a year earlier, a couple came to us ready to accept an offer on their current home and get into contract on a larger one. But, two weeks before the closings, we learned that the buyers of their current home had their financing denied by another lender due to insufficient income. Our clients needed the sale to be able to afford their new home and were heartbroken that they would likely lose out. In an effort to get both families the homes they loved, we stepped in and offered our services to the buyers. Once we took a look at their file, we found income that had gone unreported in their 2017 tax returns. With an extra $5k to report, we were able to approve their loan and move forward with both purchases. Thankful that we could save the deals in time, both families are now happily living in their new homes.

A disabled veteran and his wife were set to relocate to a new state after she landed a residency at a local hospital. They attempted to get pre-approved with another lender, but were told they needed to live in the state with her working for at least a month before applying. Worried they would have to move their family of six into a hotel while they waited, they came to us looking for a second opinion. We reviewed their file and found there would be no need to wait if the husband could qualify on his own for a VA loan. We crunched the numbers and were able to qualify him at an amount they were comfortable with. In the end, the couple closed on a home a week sooner than expected and had time to settle in with their family before the wife started her new job.

A couple had a very specific need for their new home – it needed to help improve their work-life balance. She wanted to shorten her two hour commute and he needed a comfortable space that allowed him to work from home. They also had some specific needs for their loan. She was a first-time buyer and he was in the process of selling a house, so he didn’t have much to contribute to a down payment. Both were receiving gifts from their parents and had a lot of questions along the way. While they started looking for their perfect home, we began looking for a loan solution to accommodate their needs. Working together, we were able to help the couple qualify and feel good about their purchase. They are now set to close at the end of the month on a home with a separate work studio that is only minutes from her office.

An active-duty naval officer was thousands of miles away for training while his wife house-hunted back home. Having been pre-approved for a VA loan by a well-known national lender, she found the perfect condo and submitted an offer. But she was shocked when, the day the sellers were to review offers, she learned the complex was not eligible for VA lending. Knowing there were only a few hours to spare, her agent referred her to us for help. In just 90 minutes we reviewed all documents, got the couple pre-approved for a conventional loan, committed to closing in 21 days and submitted a new offer. Our quick action was enough to help our clients beat out nine other bids and win the deal. Now the wife is settling in and preparing for her husband’s long awaited return home.

Two sisters were looking to purchase their first home together in a very competitive market. They had already been in contract on two different homes, which had fallen through due to poor inspections. Starting to feel frustrated, they decided to take one more chance on a home that they felt would be perfect. To give them a competitive edge, we included in their bid a commitment to close in less than 21 days. The strategy worked! Their offer was accepted and the loan went through without a hitch.

Our client had trouble finding steady work as an auto mechanic and decided to change his career path to become a correctional officer for a local prison. Now with a steady fulltime job and benefits, he wanted to explore purchasing a home. He first started by talking with his bank, but was told he needed at least two years of employment in the same field to be able to qualify. Moving on, he was told the same thing by two other banks before coming to us. Because we evaluate potential borrowers by looking at the big picture, we were able to fully document his past work history and acknowledge his new full time position—allowing us to approve him for a loan and offer him a new role as homeowner.

While on vacation, a snowbird couple had fallen in love with the warm weather and decided they wanted to buy a second home. They hadn’t purchased a property in more than 20 years, so their Realtor referred them to us. At first they were surprised with how much the application process had changed over the years and were concerned about giving out so much of personal information. We reassured them that the regulations in place today are designed to protect consumers and that guidelines are different for purchasing second homes, which explained much of the differences from their past experience. The couple appreciated the explanation, moved forward and are now enjoying their time in the sun.

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