First-time home buyers get help to purchase home Real estate group gives first-time homebuyers some help.
By JAIMEE LYNN FLETCHER
The Orange County Register
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Theirs is a story that seems to be out of a fairytale – the way they met, fell in love and their happily ever after. Her bubbly personality complements his sarcastic sense of humor – a perfect blend of opposites.
She is petite with a warm smile and big, brown eyes. He is tall with striking features and a strong demeanor. But in this fairytale, the young couple ran into trouble when they tried to find their dream castle. They found themselves without enough money and without much hope they could buy a home.
You might expect the villain in this story to be a real estate company.
But …
Enter their Fairy Godmother, a real estate company with the power to help. In this current real estate downturn, Jackie and Brayden Blyleven needed a happy ending.
A happy couple The Blylevens – Jackie is 23 and Brayden is 24 – met three years ago on a blind date and clicked off the bat.
After about two years, Brayden took Jackie to their favorite restaurant for a Valentine’s Day dinner. He slipped a ring on her finger and they began to plan for their future.
They held to their traditional values – they each wanted to stay living with their parents until they married.
Saving money was a big part of their decision. “I didn’t really feel like paying rent so why leave?” Brayden says. As the day they would say “I do” drew nearer, the Blylevens were swept up in more than the stress of choosing the color of their bridesmaid’s dresses, and whether to pick steak or salmon or something else for their reception.
They didn’t have a place to live. Although a house was what they dreamed of, it was a fleeting thought. They knew the difficulties of being first-time homebuyers in Orange County.
“Of course we would drive past a house for sale or see it in the paper and think, ‘Wouldn’t that be nice?’ but we weren’t actually considering it,” Jackie said.
The Blylevens – Jackie works in Cal State Fullerton’s Student Health Center, and Brayden works for his father’s plumbing company – focused on townhomes and condominiums. The couple was adamant about finding a family-oriented neighborhood.
“With a lot of the places we found the neighborhoods were not good,” Jackie says. “We wanted to live somewhere safe and we didn’t want someplace that backed up to railroad tracks.”
As they continued on their quest for a place to call their own, the couple became discouraged – they had been looking for a place for more than eight months.
But in May, a door was opened for the Blylevens that they never expected.
Opening doors
In a phone call to their real estate agent, the Blylevens found out about the Opening Doors program. More than four years ago, Mike DeLeon, the President of the Pacific West Association of Realtors Charity Foundation, had asked about 7,500 realtors for contributions out of their own pockets.
Money was collected from yearly dues paid every November, about $10 for each realtor. Some also opted to donate a portion of their paychecks to the charity fund.
Additional money came from corporate sponsors such as Wells Fargo Bank and the Housing Affordability Fund. Since 2003, DeLeon and his contributors had collected more than $200,000, but they hadn’t decided how to use the money.
Then, earlier this year, DeLeon figured out what to do with his charity fund. His group of benevolent realtors could help first-time home buyers in this nightmarish housing market.
“Price values have gone up so much it’s so hard for somebody to qualify for a house,” he says. “They need extra help.”
To qualify for the program, applicants have to be considered “low income” – they can earn a maximum of $90,000 combined family income in a year. They have to find a house that costs no more than $564,000, DeLeon says. And, they have to come up with one percent of the cost of the house.
Buyers have to agree not to refinance or sell their home for at least three years. “The money is a gift,” DeLeon says. Giving the money to a newlywed couple had its charms – a perfect wedding gift for a deserving couple.
Home buyers can apply for a grant up to $15,000. Thirty people applied and 15 grants were given away this year, DeLeon says.
Jackie and Brayden in May were on a routine weekend house hunt when the good news came. Their eyes met, they high-fived and Jackie leaned over the center console to plant a kiss on her fiancé. The grant was theirs.
“You can call us low-income and we’re proud of it,” Jackie beams. One more thing: They had to find their house in 90 days. The Blylevens were one of the last couples to receive this year’s Opening Doors grant. “We realized we had to find a house quickly, and there were times it was very frustrating,” Jackie says.
Every weekend the couple hit the streets on a house search – the grant’s deadline looming in the near future.
Home sweet home
It was June – warm and sunny the Blylevens remember. They were driving with Brayden’s parents on another scour of local neighborhoods. They pulled into the quiet Placentia neighborhood. The a-frame houses painted in subdued beiges and grays welcomed them in. SUVs parked in the driveways and basketball hoops in some front yards signaled children lived on the block.
The off-white house with the burgundy door didn’t look like much, they remember. They stepped inside. The tile was old and the cabinets needed replacing. The walls needed painting and the bathrooms needed remodeling.
“Definitely a fixer-upper,” Jackie says.
The Blylevens saw this home as an opportunity to make the place their own. “If it weren’t for the grant we would not be able to buy this house,” Jackie says. “We were really, really fortunate.”
Escrow on their three-bedroom home closed in mid-August and, up until the day of their wedding, the two worked on getting the place ready for their arrival.
They moved in officially in late October, after their honeymoon. The Blylevens continue to work on their house – they’ve repainted, remodeled the bathroom, installed air conditioning and put in new floors.
“It feels like home to me,” Brayden says. A big obstacle for many newlywed couples is out of the way for the Blylevens. Now they can focus on their next step – raising a family.
“I want ten kids,” Jackie says as Brayden’s eyes widen.
The couple laughs as they cozy up to each other on the plush couch in the living room of their very own home.
