All of Us at Every Hero Housing Assistance Fund would LOVE to hear your story, and so would many other families who hope to own a home. If you’d like to send a photo and share your story of home owning success, use the comments section below.
You can write in the box below to leave a written testimonial. You can even attach an image of you in front of your home.
Please include your full name(s) [note: it’s okay to just use your last name initial or leave out your last name(s) entirely for privacy reasons], your rank and branch of service, as well the city and state where EHHAF assisted you in achieving home ownership.
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I recently closed on my house with the help of EHHAF. They made the process easy and explained everything to me. The relator that I was matched with was amazing she went to every house and gave me her honest opinion. Grace was amazing throughout the process and made the house hunting process much easier then I have heard. Michael was my loan officer and he was amazing! He explained everything to me and always kept me up-to-date about everything. I never thought that I would own a home, but they made my dream com true and for that I will always be 100 % grateful!
My experience with Mike Demarato and his team at Mortgage Financial Solutions has been a good one. As a first-time home buyer, I was looking for a special program that would help with down payment or closing cost (cash to close) assistance for healthcare workers (I’m an RN). After much researching online, I found one called Everyday Hero Housing Assistance Fund (EHHAF) found at https://usehhaf.org/
Errol was the primary agent who gathered my information for mortgage pre-application and was very patient with my questions. This was back in September 2019 when I was planning to relocate near Orlando about an hour drive from where I lived. At the time I eventually decided against moving there (due to change of employment, high cost of property tax) and chose to remain where I was living. Errol kept my file until I was ready to move forward with property searching. To add an important detail, I had filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy two years prior, and this was a big reason I went looking for housing assistance because I knew that my credit wouldn’t hold water when applying for a mortgage, even as a first-time buyer.
Turned out with my credit score being hit from the bankruptcy, I needed a co-borrower in order to be credit-worthy for the mortgage, and my father came to the rescue for this! So after submitting the initial papers and required documents, I was introduced to the mortgage company affiliated with EHHAF (Mortgage Financial Solutions) and to my local RE agent at Remax Elite, Theresa Friend. By now I was serious about going through with the program, but had some doubt about being able to afford a nice house and if I could find one with an affordable property tax. Also to consider would be the home insurance payments and the escrow items added on to my monthly payments since I was applying for an FHA loan and not a conventional one. That is why Theresa was the right agent for me, because she was very knowledgeable about the market in the area, and confident the EHHAF program would greatly benefit me. Because of her encouragement and insight, I stayed on course.
Theresa was good about keeping me on my toes, letting me know what the “road signs ahead” would be, as in what to expect to pay for the home inspections, septic inspection, insect and termite inspections, and the house appraisal. During this time of Covid, she advised me to view potential homes by driving by houses to limit exposure with sellers. Almost daily via text or email she would check on me to see if I have any questions, which I appreciated because it showed her care and professionalism in seeing that everything was done properly in a timely manner. She was the liaison between everyone involved and myself, from contract to closing – and the process went smoothly.
The required paperwork was very important to promptly submit to the MFS team members who worked diligently to have everything in place for the underwriters. Not long after while I was saving up for the down payment, I received the terrific news that I was approved for the mortgage! To add to the delightful news, Michael Demorato was able to lock in a low interest rate (lower than initially proposed), thanks in part to the global pandemic which saw mortgage rates plummet to all-time lows! So tell me I didn’t purchase at the right time! 😊
I really did not have too many questions along the way, as I trusted that the entire house-buying process would go well, that I selected the right assistance program for me along with a top-notch mortgage company and RE agent who “made it happen”. MFS reduced my closing costs with lender credits; in my case lender credit was reduced by $1800 when the interest rate was locked at a lower rate. That was fine by me!
My RE agent negotiated with the Seller to agree to 3% finance of purchase price. Another nice incentive of the EHHAF program was that it did not require me to get the first-time home buyer course which is mostly required here in Florida with other assistance-type programs. I could not be more pleased with the outcome.
My recommendation: if you are looking for the same or similar professional and excellent service to assist you, especially if you are a first-time home buyer, go with these pros! Thank you Michael and company!