Iris Glass has firsthand experience with the effects of the Great Recession: first, her son lost his job and moved back in, and then her landlord sold her rental property giving her less than a month to move. Not only did Iris need to find a home for herself, but also for her son and grandson as well. Iris began asking her co-workers at the AZ Department of Housing about any programs that could help her purchase a house and was told about the Neighborhood LIFT program and the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. “I thought, why rent again?” say Iris. “I didn’t want to be forced to leave my property ever again.”
Iris then started the process of qualifying for downpayment assistance. She attended her 1-on-1
counseling session with a Neighborhood Housing Services of Phoenix (Trellis) Pre-purchase
Counselor. During the session, they went over her finances and created a budget and
action plan. After that, she attended Trellis’s Homebuyer Education Course which taught her
everything she needed to know about the home buying process.
“All that was left was to find a house,” says Iris. “That was the hard part.” The first house she put a
contract on had several other contracts, however, Iris was not discouraged. “I checked the website
every day,” she says. “And then one day there was a house on the website I had never seen before. Of
course I called my real estate agent right away and we put a contract on it almost immediately.”
The home she purchased was a City of Phoenix “Move-in Ready” rehabbed home, which meant that it
had been thoroughly updated including new carpets, new appliances, and numerous inspections. “It was
like buying a new home,” Iris recalls. ”I felt confident that I was getting a quality home. Even my home
inspector had trouble finding things to report.”
Iris has been in her home for 2 weeks now and by her own report “it’s heavenly.” She has big plans for
her house in the coming months, including painting her bedroom and adding a border of irises to the
walls. “My son and grandson love it,” she says. “It’s a two-story house with stairs and the 3 year old just
loves going up and down all day.”
The process wasn’t easy; it required perseverance on Iris’ part and dedication from all of the staff
members who worked on her case. For Iris, it was the exposure of all of her financials that she found
difficult at first. “You are a little exposed. Someone looks at every tax return and every credit report, but it is well worth it,” she says. “In examining my finances, I learned a lot and even managed to pay off some debt during the process.”
All in all, Iris couldn’t be happier in her new home. “The main thing is that I never have to move again,”
she says. “When I say that I get all warm and fuzzy! It’s a wonderful thing.”