The manufactured home was placed on its concrete pad and connected to electricity just the day before. The porch and stairs hadn’t even been built yet. No matter. Isabel zoomed through the empty house, her footsteps echoing as she discovered “her” bathroom and finally opened her bedroom door to a pile of birthday balloons and presents.

Her dad reminded her that she had helped design the house months earlier, selecting the flooring, the cabinets, and dozens of other details (“She took complete charge."). Now those details were real, their home was real, and dad and daughter were ecstatic.

It was a welcome lift from weeks earlier, when John felt like “the most homeless homeowner ever.”

Stuck between two losses—a breakup with Isabel’s mom and a house purchase that fell through and cost him $3,000—John decided in May to order a new manufactured home. Having a new home built, delivered, and installed takes several months, so John spent most of the spring and summer of 2023 sleeping on a hammock, on friends’ couches, or folded into the back seat of his Toyota Corolla.

He worked as many hours as he could, hung out with Isabel as often as he could, and saved as much money as he could.

Though stressful, John’s decision to buy a new home and place it in Tanglewood Cooperative in Keene had huge financial advantages. He had already prequalified for a mortgage from our Welcome Home Loan program, but now he was eligible for an additional $25,000 homeowner’s assistance loan, plus a $10,000 credit from NH Housing.

Combined, the $35,000 enabled him to put just 2% down, pay no closing costs, and borrow less money. It was the equivalent of a $30,000 down payment, which lowered his monthly mortgage payments to a fraction of what he’d pay to rent a similarly sized apartment.

His earlier attempt to buy an existing house failed when the home was appraised for less than the asking price and the seller wouldn’t budge. This time, his new home was appraised at about $6,500 more than he paid for it, giving him instant equity.

John says that once he cleaned up his credit, the loan process with the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund was “ridiculously easy.”

Over the course of a year, “The Community Loan Fund helped me clear up everything and put myself in a position to buy,” he says. After paying off his student loan and other debts, he was prequalified for a Welcome Home Loan and “checked in every couple of months, wanting to make sure I was still on the path.”

The home arrived at Tanglewood in early August. Just in time to celebrate Isabel’s birthday.