General Manager…………Todd McCauley…………..208-938-4032
Office Manager ……………Tricia Gibson ………           208-938-7938
Credit Repair……………..Karl & Alicia Malone……208-736-0600, 208-280-0166

Welcome to The HELP Program.  We appreciate you choosing us as your partners in helping you repair your credit and purchase your own home.   The following is an overview of what you can expect.   

Initial Screening:  Before meeting with us in-person

If you are interested in working with The HELP Program, we will pull a credit report.  This will allow us to verify that there are no outstanding liens or other factors—other than low credit scores—that will prevent you from qualifying for a mortgage within the next 12 months.  If we determine that there are no other issues and that your credit is “repairable”, we will invite you to meet with us to discuss your situation and qualify for inclusion in The HELP Program.  (As a general rule, credit scores of 520 or higher typically qualify candidates for an in-person meeting with our staff. 

In-Person Meeting

Once you have passed the initial screening, we will invite you to meet with us at our office.  This meeting typically takes about 1 ½ hours.  In this meeting, we will explain the program in detail, walk through the contracts with you, and outline the credit repair process.  We also discuss what you are looking for in a home and provide information about the current real estate market.  Clients usually report that these meetings are extremely educational and helpful, not only in setting expectations for the program, but for understanding mortgages and credit. 

You will be asked to bring:

IDENTIFICATION: 

• Driver’s License (enlarged and color copied)

AND

• Social Security Card (enlarged and color copied)

OR

• Current Pay Stub with Social Security Number on it
• Recent W2 Form

CURRENT ADDRESS: 

• Utility Bill (electric, water, cable, residential telephone bill)

Within 24 Hours of the In-Person Meeting

  Make initial contact with your HELP Real Estate Agent (identified at the meeting) and outline your objectives.  When contacting your real estate agent, please be prepared to answer the following questions: 
Desired location or neighborhood
Number of bedrooms, bathrooms, and/or square footage
Garage specifications
Price range
                Special needs or requests

Ideally, you have already done some shopping and have some specific homes that you are interested in seeing.  If so, please provide the MLS # or other pertinent information to your agent so he/she can set up an appointment for you to see the home.  

What To Expect:  Purchasing Your Home

Specifications:  Your home must be a single family home (no condominiums, townhouses or duplexes) within Ada or Canyon County.  We cannot purchase manufactured or mobile homes, raw land or custom build jobs.  HELP cannot finance construction loans.

While we strongly recommend that you purchase a new home, you are not required to do so.   

Time Constraints:  You have a maximum of three weeks from today’s date (and up to 10 hours of face-to-face time with your realtor) to make an offer on a home. 

Choosing a home:   It is primarily your responsibility to find and choose a home that meets your expectations, (with some help from your agent).  Your real estate agent will search the Multiple Listing Service and provide you with a list of homes that meet your criteria.  If you want to look at other homes not listed on the MLS, you will need to identify them and provide that information to your agent so he or she can set up an appointment for you.  In short, it is your agent’s responsibility to get you into homes you want to look at and to write, negotiate, and finalize your contract.  To a lesser degree, your agent will also help you identify homes (primarily via the MLS), but additional research beyond that is primarily your responsibility.   

Making an Offer:    Once we have submitted an offer, we should know within 48 hours whether that offer has been accepted.  Occasionally, there will be a second or third round of negotiations until we settle on a final price and specifications. 

Negotiations will take place between your agent and the seller’s agent, but you will be notified about the developments.  Do not attempt to contact the sellers or their agents directly.  

In the event that an offer is less than the asking price, the following is a breakdown of how the difference of the asking price versus the selling price is split amongst the parties involved: 

40% goes back to the client, which is taken off of the base price

40% goes to the HELP Program

20% goes to the realtor for making the transaction happen

Here is an example:

                Asking price-$100,000.00
                HELP’s negotiated price-$98,000.00
                Total Savings-$2000.00
                Client’s final home price-$99,200.00

Typically, you can expect to be able to take possession of your home about 30 days from the day your offer is accepted.  If applicable, provide your current landlord with 30-day notice and comply with all other terms of your current lease.  

Inspection and Appraisal:  Every offer will be contingent on an acceptable appraisal and inspection.  The inspection protects you from purchasing a home with major damage, but is not a license to demand every little detail to be addressed.  If the seller is unwilling to fix a major defect in the home (per our inspection contingent) we are released from our obligation to purchase the home.  Once the inspection contingent has been met, you agree to purchase the home “as-is” with no further expectations of repair from the seller or from HELP. 

Moving in to your home
 
Because we do not receive keys until the seller has actually received money from the title company, you should expect to receive keys to your home two business days after the closing date.  You will need to come to our office to pick up your keys from us.  At that time you will need to: 

• Provide a partial rent check for the remainder of the current month.
• Provide a full rent check for following month. (It will not be cashed until the first of the following month.)
• Sign and receive a copy of the lease and purchase option agreements.
• Sign up for auto-withdrawal (to be deducted on the 5th of each month)
• Receive your keys.  HELP will also keep a copy in your file.  

What To Expect:  Leasing from HELP

Rent payments are due on the first day of each month.  Payments are considered late (and are charged at $15 per day) after the 5th of the month.  Any rent payments over 30 days late will constitute a breach of contract and will result in your eviction. 

Please note that HELP reports rent payments to all three credit bureaus.  On-time payments provide a substantial boost to your credit score.  Late payments will substantially lower your credit score.  Please make sure your payments are on time.  We strongly encourage you to take advantage of our automatic withdrawal program.  If you choose not to do so, please send rent payments to

The Help Program
P.O. Box 1543
Eagle, ID  83616

Or bring rent payments to our office at
1488 East Iron Eagle
Eagle, ID  83616

You will be solely responsible for all maintenance, upkeep, and repairs.

What to Expect:  Credit Repair

We cannot emphasize enough how vital this part of the program is.  Failure to complete the credit repair process will not only prevent you from qualifying for your own home loan, but also put you in breach of contract with us.  

As indicated above, we will need some identification and address information.  These items are mandatory and we cannot start the credit repair process without them.  Please bring them to your initial meeting. 

In addition to providing this information, please remember that the success of this program depends on you promptly forwarding all credit-related materials to Karl and Alicia as soon as you receive it.  Thank you for your careful attention to this matter.

What to Expect:  Pricing

The HELP Program will pay for ALL buyer closing costs when we purchase the home for you (including, but not limited to, title insurance, appraisal, tax and insurance escrow, doc and recording fees, and loan origination fees).  We also cover tax, insurance, home owner association and irrigation fees during the time you lease the home from us. 

Your monthly lease and your purchase option price will depend on the price of your home.
For your information, we have tried to estimate (probably a bit high) what your own mortgage will be when you purchase from us at the purchase option price. 

The following is provided for your reference.    Please note that columns A, B, and D are known.  Columns C and E are estimates. 

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION?  What if the home is not worth the Purchase Option Price when I am ready to buy? 

Answer:  The home will be appraised by your lending institution—not The HELP Program—in preparation for your loan.  If the home appraises for less than the Purchase Option Price, HELP can exercise its option to sell you the home at LESS than your purchase option price.  (In this case, the appraisal price is the lesser price).  YOU WILL NOT PURCHASE THE HOME FOR MORE THAN ITS APPRAISED VALUE.  If the home appraises for more than Purchase Option Price, you will purchase the home at the lesser price. (In this case, the Purchase Option Price is the lesser price.)  Either way, The HELP Program bears the risk of the market fluctuations.  In short, you pay the LESSER of the Purchase Option Price and the Appraised Price. 

Pricing effective July 1st, 2006 and subject to change based on market conditions.

**   Estimated mortgage when you own the home is just that—an estimate.  Depending on your individual situation and interest rate fluctuations over the coming year, your payment may be higher.  If you opt for more aggressive loan options, you may be able to get lower monthly payments than those listed here.