Fairfax County has one of the strongest real estate markets in the country right now, with prices going up, availability going down and multiple offers coming in on houses in unprecedented numbers.
This trend is not expected to turn anytime soon, Realtors say, but how does the average person go about buying a home?
Fairfax County officially opened the Homeowners Resource Center last week, inside the office of the Department of Community Development and Housing, to answer those questions and help prospective homeowners.
“More and more people are becoming eligible and ready to become homeowners, and by providing this space, we’re able to allow our staff more time and space to dedicate to the people coming in,” said Stacy Patterson, a spokesperson for the Resource Center.
“The new office has a meeting space, a conference room, a smaller meeting room to allow for one-on-one meetings with our consultation services,” she said.
The Resource Center is to first-time homebuyers what a guidance counselor’s office is to high school students, Patterson said. The office is being run in conjunction with the First Time Home Buyers (FTHB) program through Fairfax County, which helps moderate income families and individuals begin the process of buying a home through seminars, individual counseling services with lenders who will help secure a mortgage when the time to purchase a home comes, and will also provide a range of homes priced between $70,000 and $160,000 to place bids on and purchase.
“Sometimes, the homes are brand new but that’s really rare,” Patterson said. “There are usually three homes available at any given time to bid on, and if you don’t like any of the homes you don’t have to bid on them. The voucher a person gets when they enroll in the program and go through all the classes is good for a year and is renewed each year.”
THE CENTER USES a selection process for the 100 candidates that enroll in the program every month to determine the ranking of eligible participants and who gets to bid on the houses first, she said. Points are given for those living and working in Fairfax County, the size of the family and whether the applicant has participated in the FTHB program for no more than three years, she said.
“In order to start on the program, a person needs to register with our office and attend an organizational meeting,” Patterson said. “Our next class right now is scheduled for March 17 at the Resource Center.” The center offers at least one class per month for new members, and classes are also offered in languages other than English.
“The purpose of the Resource Center is to provide access to the programs the county has available for first-time homeowners,” said Barbara Silberzahn, chief of the Homeownership and Relocation Services Branch of the Department of Housing and Community Development.
“We have who come to us through a Affordable Dwelling Unit portion of the zoning ordinance, houses that are provided by developers for the program,” she said.
A variety of financing tools are available, ranging from low-interest mortgages to down payment and closing cost assistance, up to $20,000 for participants.
“There is some funding also available from the Virginia Housing Authority through the SPARC [Sponsoring Partnerships and Revitalizing Communities] program,” she said.
The First Time Homebuyer program has partnerships with local lenders and credit counselors to provide a basic education in homeownership prior to the closing date, Silberzahn said.
“Here in the center, there is access to all these programs and classes that can help people make the process easier and more understandable,” she said. “People can come in to register for the classes, or to attend an orientation class, they can pre-register for an application session and enroll in the program.”
Additionally, people do not need to enroll in the first-time homebuyer’s program to participate in the classes, she said.
“We have one-to-one counseling available for those who would like it,” she said. “Eventually, we hope to offer classes on budgeting, credit information and other issues to help get people ready to purchase a home.”
HOUSES PURCHASED through this program are resold within the program when the family is ready to move out, Silberzahn said.
“Homeowners are responsible for all costs of repairs," she said. "They’re the ones buying the home and we make that as clear as possible. They’re responsible for reselling the home too.”
Currently, two staff members operate the Resource Center during business hours, one to answer phone calls and one to provide information, answer questions and some counseling, she said.
In addition, the Housing Department is in the process of sending out bids to organize a permanent roster of lenders to work with the program.
“The list we have right now is informal," Silberzahn said. "Ideally, we’d like to have about 10 lenders that we can work with, but we need to make sure the ones we do have really understand the program.”
ONE OF THOSE lenders is Scott Barr, from 1st Mariner Mortgage, who has worked with Fairfax County’s housing program about a year and a half.
“The Fairfax County program is providing ways for borrowers to get financing depending on their needs and the level of income,” Barr said. “Lenders pre-qualify the buyers to make sure they meet the guidelines for the program, and match them with the financing available through state, county or federal programs,” he said.
Some assistance is available through the Virginia Housing Development Authority, he said, but most of the financing is through the county.
Currently, Barr said he sees an average of 20 to 30 potential clients a month, or as many as 300 in any given year, but only helps about 25 individuals or families secure funding for their homes.
“The Fairfax Affordable Dwelling Unit program has a lottery system and we talk to people to make sure they’re eligible to be in that system,” he said. “From there, if their names come up for a house, we help them with financing. Sometimes a name won’t come up for a year or two and people leave the program, sometimes they decide to buy a home independently.”
Working with families and individuals going through the home-buying process can be trying, Barr said, confronting obstacles and challenges that may make the dream of owning a home seem out of reach.
“In Fairfax County, we tend to see a lot of immigrant families, so there’s a lot of English as a second language issues and all that come with it,” he said. “There are also individuals or families who have credit challenges, a mistrust of banks and financing. These people are trying to assimilate what they know with the American Dream, and that’s what makes this job so rewarding.”
Also, because each individual or family is treated on a case-by-case basis, the amount of “hand-holding” provided by the lender is up to what the person wants and needs, Barr said.
But the end result can still be an emotionally charged experience.
“I got to a lot of settlements, it’s something I’ve been doing for a long time and there’s a lot of satisfaction that comes from that,” he said. “We like to think those people who completed the program will either come back to us again in the future or will refer us to others.”
EVERY SO OFTEN, Barr said, clients will shed a tear or two when receiving the keys to their home.
“Occasionally, I do need a camera or some tissues or something, different people react to the situation in different ways,” he said.
Barr encourages people living in Fairfax County, regardless of income and need of assistance, to look into the program for the valuable information it provides.
“People get discouraged with the current market, and yes, there are challenges,” he said. “We might not be able to get a person into a single family home with a garage, for example, but there’s no reason they can’t buy a town home or condo.”
Robert Boland has been working as a Housing Service specialist with the county for many years, spending two mornings a week in the Resource Center since it opened.
“This program really does make it possible for people to own a home,” he said.
Pictures of units sold through the county program adorn the walls of the office, many with photos of happy homeowners in the bottom half of the frame.
“People are pretty happy to talk about how great they think the program is and how much we’ve helped them get into their homes,” Boland said.
With the new center assembling different kinds of information and resources in one area, he said plans are in place to bring in Realtors and loan officers on a rotating basis into the center to allow for even more personalized information in one place.
“What often happens is people will go to one bank or one mortgage company and not go anywhere else, either because they feel comfortable with that one place or because they get discouraged,” he said. “There are many more options available and hopefully we can get that across.”