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Good morning everyone. It's an honor to be here today and to be able to share my
family's story and experience with neighborworks. If you had told my wife and I a year ago
that I'd be here this morning talking about buying our first home, we would have never
believed you.
last month. Anyone who has ever bought a house knows what an amazing feeling it is
walking in for the first time knowing that it's yours. Right now, it's a house, but in time it's
going to become a home our home.
We first moved to Lincoln just over 2 years ago so I could pursue a career in video
production. Lindsay was a stay at home mom with our two kids, Judah, who is 4, and
Olivia, who is 3. Our apartment was nice...but we couldn't paint it the colors we wanted.
My kids didn't have a backyard to play in. My wife couldn't have a garden and she loves
gardening! At the end of the day it wasn't home. It was just building 8640, unit A.
We thought about buying a house, but when it came down to it, we just didn't know
anything about what it took. The whole process intimidated us, and in our minds it
seemed unattainable. We had some savings but not what we thought we'd need to get
into a place that was any better than our apartment. We felt stuck.
So Lindsay and I got frustrated and said, "Forget it!" Our 5th anniversary was coming up
and we decided the most logical thing was to blow through our savings and go on a crazy
anniversary trip, anywhere we wanted to in the world. There was a major issue though,
and that's that I don't actually like spending a lot of money.
We started out by looking at going to Europe or Australia, which was really expensive.
Then we started looking at California or New York, which was still really expensive. We
ended up going to Denver! It was an amazing trip, and most of our savings stayed in tact.
When we got back we decided to give this homeownership thing another look. As I
mentioned, I don't like spending a lot of money. We did some simple math at realized that
if we stayed in our apartment we'd be spending $45,000 on rent over the next 5 years.
That's $45,000 dollars we'd never see again. If you could all visualize with me for a
second, a pile of $45,000 in cash in your front lawn. Then imagine that pile being set on
fire. When I started thinking about it that way I knew it was time to get out of our apartment. I
realized that if we could afford to buy a house it would be a really wise investment over
time.
We had no clue where to begin. But then a coworker told me about a program called
Neighborworks. Everything she said sounded good, but I kept thinking that it all sounded
too good to be true. There had to be a catch. But the more I looked into it, the more I
realized that there wasn't a catch, and that it was a program that was genuinely all about
helping firsttime homebuyers like us.
That's when the whirlwind began. We met with a realtor in June and he suggested
neighbor works as well. We signed up and took the classes in July. The classes were
phenomenal. There was a ton of information, but we needed a ton of information! We
walked into our first class knowing almost nothing about the process of buying a house,
and when we walked out of our last neighbor works class we felt like we were ready to
buy a house that day...if only the bank would have let us.
As soon as we finished classes we started looking at houses. Neighborworks not only
helps new homebuyers fix up old houses, but they also build brand new ones. We started
by looking at those first and saw one we really liked. It seemed like a perfect fit and we
didn't even need to waste time look at anything else. All we had to do was wait for it to be
finished.
That was in August, and on October 15th we officially closed and moved in. Without
Neighborworks, we probably would have waited a few more years to buy a house when
we were actually ready now and didn't know it. Since we moved in we've already painted
the walls the colors that we selected. My kids have their own back yard to play in and they
love it. My wife can start a garden next spring. I'm even making plans for a man cave in
our basement.
We love our neighborhood so far, and we hope that as we turn our house into a home we
can also get to know our neighbors and help make our neighborhood a better place. You
know, Lincoln is an amazing community, and great communities start with great
neighborhoods. Neighborworks isn't just about fixing up old houses and building new
ones it's bigger than that. Neighborworks is helping families like mine have a home, and
in doing so they're improving neighborhoods and ultimately our community. Thank you!
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