Habitat for Humanity of Broward’s Post

Transcript

A world where everyone has a decent place to live. Habitat for Humanity of Broward brings people together to build homes, communities, and hope. Welcome to Habitat Broward and thank you for taking time to learn about our home ownership program. Our process is nondiscriminatory, serving all types of households and families. Let's take a moment to learn about Habitat Broward's home ownership process. The Habitat Broward Home Ownership program is not for those seeking immediate housing. It can take at least a year and a half. To complete the Habitat program. This program is exclusively for first time homeowners, which means applicants cannot have previously owned a home or been named on a deed. To be eligible, applicants must have been residents of Broward County or have worked in Broward County for the past 12 months. Applicants need to demonstrate a steady employment history of at least two years with verifiable income that falls within our guidelines. The process for the homeownership program is broken into a number of steps. Just applying to our program takes at least. Four months. It is important applicants take it upon themselves to learn about the eligibility criteria for a Habitat home, which includes demonstrating a housing need, willingness to partner and ability to pay an affordable mortgage. During the pre qualification and application review steps, we want to make sure you have the income to pay for a home loan. We will ask for your financial records to verify that you are mortgage ready. Documents include pay stubs, credit reports, tax forms and other official documents as you make your way up the steps of the process. The work begins once you have been approved for the program. We have broken our program into three stages with each stage having a different area of focus. Let's learn more about each stage. Stage one is all about financial literacy and getting started on your sweat equity. You have six months to complete this stage. During this stage you will work one-on-one with Habitat staff and financial coaches to fine tune your budget and make plans for your future. You will begin to work on your required sweat equity completing at least 60 hours. During this stage you will also take. Workshops in person and online to build on your financial literacy and learn how to work safely on the construction site. Stage two is the longest stage of our program. It can take up to a year to complete. During stage two, you will continue to take classes in person and online, this time with a focus on housing and how to care for your new home. You will continue to work on your savings goals. Also during stage two, the Youth Empowerment program commences and we typically begin building your new home. By the time stage two is complete, you should have at least 250 hours of sweat equity completed. Stage 3 is the final stage of our homeownership program and takes three to four months to complete. You will finish your sweat equity hours, learn about the closing process and what will go into the home loan. You will resubmit all of your financial documents and complete your escrow payments costs.