What Kayce Says:

For those who may remember, my DBF and I started our house hunt in January of this year (2007). Our biggest roadblocks were BF being self-employed, and middling FICO scores.

On top of this, I had to coordinate our purchase with the sale of my condo, as that would be the source of our down payment.

I listed my condo for sale in February, after a few months of de-cluttering and touching up and received a full-price offer my second day on the market. Needless to say I was ecstatic. I ignored the pessimists who said I should have asked for more. My neighbors listed for more and ended up selling for $10k less than I did (and spent months on the market).

With a sale pending on my condo, DBF and I started looking seriously for our own place. We had our eyes on a 2/2 townhouse funnily enough, in the same building I was selling in. Yes, I moved upstairs (and four doors to the left).

We initially talked to 3 local brokers/bankers, none of whom felt "right". One told us our rates/fees would have to be subprime. One told us DBF had to have 3 years as self-employed (he only had 2). The last promised us a rate of 6% with "no fees" (and that smelled pretty fishy to me).

Now, we understood we weren't ideal borrowers. We are not married. One of us has been self-employed for two years and (at that time) had yet to file any taxes. Our low average FICO was 635. Our down payment, though not small (10%) was dependent on the sale of my current condo. We did have reserve cash, maybe our only positive.

We knew we needed someone who could find us the best possible solution for our situation and after turning to these [message] boards time and again for advice, I decided on our very own Dave Donhoff to represent us. From the get go, Dave helped relieve a lot of the stress and confusion I was feeling about our purchase. Every question (and I have lots!) I had was answered in a timely fashion, even late into the evening and on the weekends. Krystle and Michelle did a fantastic job coordinating everything with my Real Estate Agent and my two title companies, most evident when, four days before our scheduled close, our underwriter was fired! Even with that glitch we were only delayed a few days.

As for the "deal" we got, let me just say, we are more than happy with it. In fact, I think it's safe to say it surpassed my most optimistic expectations. I honestly thought DBF and I were going to have to put our dream of owning a home together on hold and instead we are happily settling into our home of two months.

Thank you Dave, Michelle and Krystle and everyone here who gave me advice and encouragement to get me through this process!

Kayce