Category: HomeSight News

The process of buying a home can feel overwhelming, but here are some tips to help you get started on your homebuying journey.

Q: I want to buy a home. How do I start?

A: HomeSight’s homebuyer counselors will create a personalized road map for you. Ready, Set, Go for your financial dreams today!

Your first step to buying a home is signing up for free homebuyer counseling. Homebuyer counselors specialize in helping families achieve their dreams of homeownership by giving clients personalized financial planning services.

HomeSight’s HUD-certified counselors Pat Montgomery and Wanda Maldonado listen, advise, and help clients make informed decisions about finances and home purchasing abilities. The best part? It’s all free. There’s no cost to our clients. As a nonprofit Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), it’s what HomeSight does.

Below, we’ve compiled Pat and Wanda’s general tips and advice for homebuying. It’s a general gameplan that includes their most common FAQs. To make your own, personalized financial plan for the future, make an appointment with Pat or Wanda by creating an account here. Our HUD counselors will help you achieve your goals!

Ready: Take Charge of Your Credit

• Minimum credit score: Pat and Wanda frequently tell clients to aim for a minimum credit score of 620, as it can significantly improve your chances of qualifying.

• Manage your credit use: Credit use is a key factor in your credit score. Aim to keep your credit use below 30 percent. This means using less than one-third of your total credit limit. For example, if your credit limit is $10,000, try to keep your balance below $3,000.
• Clean up your credit report: A clean credit report is crucial. Ensure your credit report is free of collections, charge-offs, or public records like bankruptcy or unpaid taxes. Remove any charge-offs and collections promptly. Also, challenge any errors on your credit report to ensure it accurately reflects your financial situation.

Set: Prepare Financially

• Keep at it: Improving your credit is an ongoing process that requires diligence and proactive management. Just as you can’t stay in shape by doing one pushup, you must stay vigilant and attentive to your finances and credit.

• Start saving: When preparing to buy a home, it’s recommended you have enough money on hand for the down payment, plus one percent of the home’s sale price, for inspection and appraisal expenses that may come up. Pat and Wanda can help you determine what you can afford and how much you’ll need to save to reach your goals.

GO: Get started!

• Plan for graduation: Once you have created your plan and started to reach your essential mile markers, Pat and Wanda will prepare you to graduate into HomeSight’s lending program, which can offer purchase assistance and specialized loans. There’s no cap and gown: just the knowledge and confidence you need to create a secure, financially sound future. To get started with counseling today, by visiting HomeSightWA.org.

Four questions for Terry

Q: What do you love about volunteering as a board member at HomeSight?

 Everything we do! Our board sets Homesight’s mission and works with the staff to meet the goals and objectives we set to further that mission. We have excellent staff, a great executive director and a committed board. We aim to grow equity in our city—and everywhere. Our counseling, consulting, lending, and building efforts are meeting the constant challenge our expensive city presents. To do this, we work with families to buy and own their homes, provide much-needed reparative lending to support Black/BIPOC developers, build neighborhoods and local businesses, and advocate for housing justice. Through all these efforts, we are helping our neighbors build generational wealth.

Q: When you look back on your term as board president, what makes you most proud?

We can now say, proudly, that our loan programs are available statewide, and we’ve created and developed strong partnerships with government entities as well as private philanthropists. Because of these partnerships, we are able to provide more people with down-payment assistance to help more people reach the financial stability homeownership provides.

We’re also meeting the needs of our neighbors, bolstering local business owners and fostering community development. HomeSight’s Plate of Nations is an incredible example of this. This annual restaurant promotion event has grown every year and has brought millions in economic impact to the community. We have a gift in the diversity of our community, and to celebrate this, we host a number of events to build community connections, inspire community action, and promote inclusion. They’re fun, too. HomeSight rocks. We constantly try to be part of the solution, and it works

Q: What challenges did HomeSight face during your tenure?

Greater Seattle’s exorbitant housing prices, which have generated more need for financial assistance and less housing inventory—think supply and demand—in the price ranges regular, working people can afford. Also, higher interest rates have made it more difficult to borrow—and it costs more to buy less. We’ve been grateful for public and private partnerships that have helped us navigate these rough seas.

Q: How did this experience impact you?

 My volunteer experience has been a wonderful way for me to give back and to learn. I’ve learned about other cultures, and the pressures impacting families who are just trying to live and work in a world that’s gotten too expensive. My interactions with the amazing staff members and the many committees and thought groups I’ve joined have opened my eyes to more than I ever thought I could know. Again, we do good work!

Q: What would you like to see in the future, for HomeSight, and the region?

An equitable world, to quote the guru John Lennon, ‘where all people can live as one.’