Didn’t Expect to Own

A single woman living in high-priced Ventura County on $35,000 a year, I never expected to own a home. That is, until last May, when a newspaper ad caught my eye:

“Two-bedroom condo for sale. HUD repo fixer-upper. $85,000. $100 down.”

The address was in the same complex where I rented. It sounded too good to be true, but I called and walked through the condo with the agent.

The condition shocked me: bare concrete floors, dirty walls, no stove, drywall damage around all the windows and a large ceiling hole caused by a plumbing leak. Every fixture needed replacing.

Still, I could see beyond the cosmetic damage and dirt, and a building inspector friend said it was structurally sound.

Now a real hurdle: I had no savings and a “problematic” credit history caused by 10 struggling years of single parenthood without child support for my two children.

But I gave the real estate agent the required three years of income tax returns and two most recent paycheck stubs anyway. Imagine my shock when he later reported, “My loan officer says your income qualifies you for the purchase.”

The next step was to submit my offer. HUD properties are sold on the Internet at https://www.hud.gov. I bid full price but expected to lose. But 48 hours later, the call came. I had won! And HUD would pay $2,000 of the $4,000 in closing costs. The balance could be rolled over into the home loan.

But now a snafu: The $100 down payment was no longer applicable because HUD had changed property management companies. I had to come up with a $2,000 deposit-down payment in 24 hours. My mother lent me the money.

The real estate agent knew an escrow officer who specializes in FHA loans, which require massive amounts of paperwork. I waited through a 45-day escrow, credit report mistakes, correction of the report, an escrow extension and then, finally, I was a homeowner.

Since I bought, the real estate market in Ventura County has gone crazy. Townhouses like mine are selling for $105,000, and my mortgage payment is only $40 more a month than I was paying for rent.

GLENDA J. JACKSON

Ventura