Home Start, Inc., A Member of The Affordable Homes Group


Program Description Home Start, Inc. offers pre-purchase counseling and education services to low and moderate-income families who are preparing to purchase their first home. Home Start offers a comprehensive program, encompassing all aspects involved in buying a home. We work with clients through all stages of the home purchase process. Through our partnering company, Delta Real Estate, we are able to accompany homebuyers all the way to the closing table. Our program begins with the most important step - education. Clients attend first time homebuyer education classes, 10+ hours of a curriculum covering everything from first considering the option to buy a home through to post-purchase finances and home maintenance. Classes are a series workshops where topics are covered from the very early question of, "Is owning a home right for me?" through to post-purchase maintenance - and everything in between. We teach from a curriculum that we have developed ourselves and continue to modify as the markets change. Clients attending the classes receive a copy of this curriculum to keep. It is a useful reference tool all throughout the home purchase process. Next, clients attend one-on-one counseling with Home Start to evaluate their eligibility to purchase a home. During counseling we answer any questions remaining after the homebuyer education seminar. We look at an individual's employment, income, credit, and savings and determine where a person stands in relation to where they need to be to qualify for a mortgage. Once we know where problems exist, we work with our clients to develop ways to tackle these issues and work toward the goal of becoming qualified. We help clients to develop a reasonable time frame for their home purchase process and create a Plan of Action, or list of steps, to take in establishing or improving their position for mortgage readiness. A great deal of counseling involves helping clients learn to read and understand their credit reports. Those clients with negative items are addressed in two ways. If the negative items are less severe, it is recommended that the client start by trying to address the issues on their own. We include the necessary items in the Plan of Action. Many clients have successfully contacted their own creditors and cleared up derogatory items appearing on their credit reports by taking initiative and making contact on their own. If the negative items are excessive, we may recommend a licensed credit counselor. We also discuss lending and grant options, as we want clients to be aware of the loan and grant opportunities that are available to them as lower-income, first-time homebuyers. A number of families who could not otherwise purchase a home are able to do so because of the financial assistance offered to them by local municipalities, county governments, state & federal governments, and individual lenders. We are a Fannie Mae approved counseling agency, and so our education seminar not only provides buyers with knowledge and tools, but also satisfies a required step for many of these loan and grant programs. Once a client has completed counseling and is fully qualified for a mortgage, our services don't stop there. We operate a fully licensed real estate brokerage through Delta Real Estate, and are the only non-profit organization licensed as a real estate broker in the State of New Jersey. Clients who come through our education and counseling program choose us to represent them in the real estate market, in large part because we have developed a trusting, working relationship in the months during which they come through our program. Our agents are the same people working with clients during education and counseling, and have valuable knowledge about the loan programs and grant opportunities first time buyers are trying to use. We have taken many successful homebuyers all the way to the closing table, and are proud to say we are able to do so.
Back to Home Start, Inc. Delta Real Estate Homes of Hope People First The Salt & Light Co., Inc. Contact Us

Program Description

Home Start, Inc. offers pre-purchase counseling and education services to low and moderate-income families who are preparing to purchase their first home. Home Start offers a comprehensive program, encompassing all aspects involved in buying a home. We work with clients through all stages of the home purchase process. Through our partnering company, Delta Real Estate, we are able to accompany homebuyers all the way to the closing table.

Our program begins with the most important step - education. Clients attend first time homebuyer education classes, 10+ hours of a curriculum covering everything from first considering the option to buy a home through to post-purchase finances and home maintenance. Classes are a series workshops where topics are covered from the very early question of, "Is owning a home right for me?" through to post-purchase maintenance - and everything in between. We teach from a curriculum that we have developed ourselves and continue to modify as the markets change. Clients attending the classes receive a copy of this curriculum to keep. It is a useful reference tool all throughout the home purchase process.

Next, clients attend one-on-one counseling with Home Start to evaluate their eligibility to purchase a home. During counseling we answer any questions remaining after the homebuyer education seminar. We look at an individual's employment, income, credit, and savings and determine where a person stands in relation to where they need to be to qualify for a mortgage. Once we know where problems exist, we work with our clients to develop ways to tackle these issues and work toward the goal of becoming qualified. We help clients to develop a reasonable time frame for their home purchase process and create a Plan of Action, or list of steps, to take in establishing or improving their position for mortgage readiness.

A great deal of counseling involves helping clients learn to read and understand their credit reports. Those clients with negative items are addressed in two ways. If the negative items are less severe, it is recommended that the client start by trying to address the issues on their own. We include the necessary items in the Plan of Action. Many clients have successfully contacted their own creditors and cleared up derogatory items appearing on their credit reports by taking initiative and making contact on their own. If the negative items are excessive, we may recommend a licensed credit counselor.

We also discuss lending and grant options, as we want clients to be aware of the loan and grant opportunities that are available to them as lower-income, first-time homebuyers. A number of families who could not otherwise purchase a home are able to do so because of the financial assistance offered to them by local municipalities, county governments, state & federal governments, and individual lenders. We are a Fannie Mae approved counseling agency, and so our education seminar not only provides buyers with knowledge and tools, but also satisfies a required step for many of these loan and grant programs.

Once a client has completed counseling and is fully qualified for a mortgage, our services don't stop there. We operate a fully licensed real estate brokerage through Delta Real Estate, and are the only non-profit organization licensed as a real estate broker in the State of New Jersey. Clients who come through our education and counseling program choose us to represent them in the real estate market, in large part because we have developed a trusting, working relationship in the months during which they come through our program. Our agents are the same people working with clients during education and counseling, and have valuable knowledge about the loan programs and grant opportunities first time buyers are trying to use. We have taken many successful homebuyers all the way to the closing table, and are proud to say we are able to do so.

Back to Home Start, Inc.

Delta Real Estate Homes of Hope People First

The Salt & Light Co., Inc. Contact Us