CHWC offers a lease to purchase program that helps rentals into becoming homeowners. All homes are single family. We have two sites: Bethany and Riverview/Escalade
House to Home Resident Selection Criteria
Download this document to understand the selection criteria for our House-to-Home program.
Owning a home takes time and hard work and it is perhaps the greatest financial investment you may ever make. It’s essential that you protect your new asset through home safety precautions, sound household budgeting, and regular home maintenance. As you pay down your mortgage over time, you have the satisfaction of knowing that you are building equity for the future. You also will gain pride in ownership, personal stability, potential tax benefits and be a part of building a stronger community.
Practically, you should expect to spend time and money on maintenance and house-related tasks –cleaning, repairs, improvements, landscaping/yard work, and more. Please see How do I maintain my home?for a detailed list of common maintenance items that will likely need attention on an ongoing basis.
Owning a home takes time and hard work and it is perhaps the greatest financial investment you may ever make. It’s essential that you protect your new asset through home safety precautions, sound household budgeting, and regular home maintenance. As you pay down your mortgage over time, you have the satisfaction of knowing that you are building equity for the future. You also will gain pride in ownership, personal stability, potential tax benefits and be a part of building a stronger community.
Practically, you should expect to spend time and money on maintenance and house-related tasks –cleaning, repairs, improvements, landscaping/yard work, and more. Please see How do I maintain my home?for a detailed list of common maintenance items that will likely need attention on an ongoing basis.
The amount of money you can afford to pay for a home depends on many factors, including your income, your debt, your monthly expenses, the amount of money you can contribute to the purchase up front, among other factors. The maximum dollar amount that a bank will agree to lend you should be the upper limit; in most cases, it is advisable to borrow less than this amount.
There are many calculators available online to help you get a general sense of what you can afford on sites like Zillow, Bankrate.com, and others. At Community Housing of Wyandotte County (CHWC, Inc) we use the financial information you provide to create a home purchase package that is unique to you. The Affordability Range that is shown on your Dashboard is calculated based on your current gross monthly income and your current monthly debt. At Community Housing of Wyandotte County (CHWC, Inc) we consider a monthly housing payment to be genuinely sustainable as long as it is no more than 28% of your gross monthly take home pay. But realistically, most families are usually also making monthly payments on some other kind of debt besides their housing payment (such as a car note or paying down credit card debt).Because of that, we also take a look at your TOTAL debt when calculating what your maximum home purchase price. When looking at your total debt (your house payment plus any other monthly debts you might be paying), we consider your total monthly debt to be sustainable when it is 36% or less than your gross monthly pay.
Here’s an example – if your gross monthly pay is $4,000, then your monthly housing payment should be no more than $1,120, or 28% of $4,000, and your TOTAL debts shouldn’t exceed $1,440, or 36% of $4,000. Let’s say in addition to your housing payment, you have a monthly car note of $400. We subtract that $400 from the total debt payment allowable ($1,440) to come up with a monthly housing payment that shouldn’t exceed $1,040. So, even though your gross monthly income can support a housing payment of $1,120, once you combine your housing payments with your other outstanding debt (car note), you need to lower your housing budget down to $1,040 in order to stay below the 36% sustainability range for total debt payments. Remember, this is just an example - your homeownership advisor can provide a person-to-person perspective in addition to the financial one. This is designed to give you a personalized recommendation for the mortgage amount you can afford and sustain.
If you are considering becoming a homeowner, ask yourself the following questions:
Have you had steady income and stable employment for the past 2 years?
Do you plan on remaining in the area for the next few years?
Have you created a budget so you know how much you can realistically afford for a monthly mortgage payment?
Do you have an established credit history or records of payment to previous landlords and utility companies?
Do you consistently pay your bills and your debt payments on time?
Do you have some money saved for a down payment and the fees involved in home purchase?
If you have had a bankruptcy, was it discharged more than 3 years ago?
Is your monthly debt low enough not to limit your ability to qualify for a mortgage?
Are you ready to care for and maintain a home?
Have you been pre-qualified by a lender, so that you know how much you can borrow based on your income and current debt?
Have you looked into the benefits of special financing programs that are available to moderate income, first-time home buyers?
If you answered “yes” to the majority of questions listed above, you are probably near-ready to buy a home. If you answered “no” to the majority of questions, you probably need more time to get ready to buy. You should consider engaging with a Community Housing of Wyandotte County (CHWC, Inc) homeownership advisor to develop a plan that will help you to get to a position where you can buy a home.
