Mortgage Success for Single Moms

Mortgage success for single moms can be difficult. Single mom Tamy-Feé Meneide was shocked when the landlord of her apartment - in an area of Boston she and her son had grown to love -- told her with very little notice that she would not be renewing her rental lease.

The housing insecurity that moment created made Tamy-Feé realize she never wanted to experience it again. And that opened up another avenue she had never considered before: Homeownership.

Once Tamy-Feé made the decision that she wanted to buy a house, the next step was to secure financing for a mortgage. She wanted to work with a mortgage company that could relate to her story as a single, Black mom.

“I interviewed five mortgage companies and the last one I interviewed was Fairway,” says Tamy-Feé. “I knew almost immediately after getting off the phone with Amy and Sarah that this was the team I needed.”

The instant connection happened with Fairway teammates Amy Wortzman and Sara Davis because they listened to her story. Finding mortgage success for single moms is a passion these two loan officers share. The fact that Sara herself was also a single mom, was key to her decision, said Tamy-Feé. “Immediately, they connected with me as being a mother first,” she says. “So they got that I had no time and that I needed a solid team that was going to look out for me.”

Mortgage Success Action Plan for Single Moms

That meant Fairway loan officers mobilizing quickly and getting Tamy-Feé the mortgage financing she needed in the short time window she had, before losing her apartment. Tamy-Feé had no problem getting in all the required forms on time and she was even able to find the perfect home but she ran into a real hurdle just as she was about to close on the loan.

The problem: this first-time homebuyer had been instructed to save up as much cash as possible for closing costs which led to her inadvertently increasing credit card charges. Little did Tamy-Feé know that leaning on her credit cards would change her credit score and negatively impact her preapproval.

“I didn’t have anyone to turn to,” says Tamy-Feé. “I remember breaking down with both Sarah and Amy on the phone and just saying ‘I don't have anyone that I can call to say, hey I need this right now, and this was money at the time.”

The challenge was figuring out how to pay off debt and still preserve liquidity in a matter of hours. Amy and Sara did it by identifying extra ways in the interest rate to come up with lender credit, so that Tamy-Feé could use the cash at closing to wipe out the credit card debt.

Tamy-Feé thought the deal had fallen apart until she got a call from the Fairway duo who broke the unexpected, and welcomed, news that she had in fact been approved for her mortgage loan. Fairway took on the task of how to get this single mom the financing she needed to move into her dream home and did not abandon her at the first sign of trouble.

“These two strangers and I became family in less than ten days,” Tamy-Feé said. “It was a feeling of relief, of triumph. A feeling of somebody who's got your back for once -- and that felt amazing.”

Mortgage success for single moms is possible at Fairway Independent Mortgage.

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