The way to become a homeowner with Habitat for Humanity Greater Orlando & Osceola County isn’t easy, but it’s designed to help future homeowners develop the skills necessary to succeed as homeowners.
The work starts with ensuring that you’re financially ready to own a home and continues with fulfilling our partnership agreement – all of which ideally leads to the finishing line: a safe, affordable home.
Interested in learning about how a local person can become a homeowner with Habitat Orlando & Osceola? Read on for a guide, thanks to this graphic inspired by our Path to Homeownership wall, a feature in our main office.
Application approved
Habitat Orlando & Osceola applicants are asked to meet certain requirements before beginning their homeownership journey with us. Those requirements include:
- Having a need for affordable housing. This may mean that your current home may be inadequate, overcrowded, transitional, government subsidized, or unaffordable.
- Meeting a monthly and annual minimum income. The income amount varies on the size of your household. Your income must be verifiable, reliable, and likely to last for three years.
- Meeting a certain credit level. We ask that a homebuyer has a credit score of 640 in order to show she or he can meet credit obligations.
- Agreeing to partner with Habitat Orlando & Osceola by attending Habitat U and participating in sweat equity – two other “stops” on the path to becoming a homeowner.
Read more about how to become a homeowner with Habitat Orlando & Osceola with this blog.
Habitat U
Future homeowners are asked to attend eight classes that cover different aspects on homeownership, such as home maintenance and finances.
Lot/Color Selection
Two communities are currently being built by Habitat Orlando & Osceola: Juniper Bend in Apopka and Silver Pines Pointe in Orlando. Besides the difference in location, these two communities offer home designs unique to each neighborhood as well as different price points.
Regardless of the community they choose, future Habitat homeowners can customize certain aspects of their future home, such as the outside color palette and the inside cabinetry.
Visit our Home Features page to learn more about our homes.
Construction Start
Building homes costs money. Only 30% of what is needed to build a new home is provided by generous donations of products and services. Habitat Orlando & Osceola still pays for most of the subcontracting services and products needed to build a home.
Delays in construction can sometimes be attributed to budgetary concerns. Donate to Habitat Orlando & Osceola today – and help us continue to build safe, affordable homes for our community.
Sweat Equity
Depending on the number of adults in a household, future homeowners are asked to contribute 75-150 hours of sweat equity to Habitat Orlando & Osceola. Sweat equity can mean everything from constructing homes to sharing their story with our audience.
By fulfilling their sweat equity, future homeowners have a bit more of a stake in the construction process and often can learn home maintenance in practice, especially when volunteering on our build site.
Construction finished
From the start of construction, Habitat homes take a few months to be completely built. Habitat Orlando & Osceola strives to build energy-efficient, environmentally friendly homes, considering the appliances used and the landscaping planted.
Become a homeowner
When future homeowners buy a home from Habitat Orlando & Osceola, they partner with a builder who walks them through every step of the house buying process, including finding financial options to make buying and closing on their house more affordable. This hard work from Habitat staff, coupled with the hard work from our homeowners, makes the final step, closing, possible.
The home closing process involves a lot of paperwork (to be expected), but also a lot of celebrating. Once complete, homeowners finally achieve their dream of owning a safe, affordable home.
You can help more local families experience the peace and freedom of owning an affordable home. When you donate to Habitat Orlando & Osceola, every dollar helps us build homes and work toward a world where everyone has a safe and affordable place to live. You can make bring hope home through homeownership; please give today.
Recent Comments