After growing up in Colorado, Hannah Emmons feared she might not be able to stay.
“I was actually thinking about leaving Denver,” she said. “I was to the point where I wasn’t sure I could afford to stay. And then I ended up getting this job at DPS (Denver Public Schools), which was awesome and serendipitous.”
Hannah had been working in human resources in healthcare before taking a position in employee services at DPS, where she helps teachers and staff with pay and benefit issues. It was there she first discovered Landed.
“A DPS employee called in asking about housing assistance,” she recalled. “And I looked it up and saw we had something about Landed on our site.”
With extra time during quarantine, Hannah started researching and set up a call with Landed. Things moved fast.
“We talked in April and I just jumped on it immediately,” she said. “I closed on the home in June.”
The previous path to homeownership for Hannah wasn’t smooth. Four years earlier, fed up with renting, Hannah had begun searching for a home for her and her son.
“It was hard to pay that much and deal with different landlords,” she said. “I moved a lot, and moving is expensive. I felt like I was throwing money down the drain. I’ve lived in places where I didn’t feel safe, where I didn’t have the peace of mind and space to raise my son.”
“It’s hard if you’re a lower-income, single parent. I’ve faced housing discrimination, I’ve had landlords tell me they don’t rent to people with children. That was very discouraging.”
Hannah and her dad, a contractor, set out to find a home so that Hannah could take control of her living situation. They were pre-approved for a loan and searching for a fixer-upper, but it was a bust.
“We couldn’t find anything, and what we could find wasn’t worth it,” Hannah said. “Plus, we barely had the down payment between us.”
After looking unsuccessfully for two years, Hannah felt like buying a home was out of reach until she found Landed. Landed’s team was ready to work at her pace, she said. She was quickly connected with a homebuying team, a Landed partner real estate agent, a loan officer from a participating lender, and a Landed Homebuying Programs Lead to guide her through the whole process.
“It was really big for me to have that team that was really on it and supportive and helpful,” she said. “I felt really taken care of, like nobody is going to let me miss something or let anything get messed up. I have experts; I have a team that has my back. That made a huge difference. I put a lot of trust into the team, and now I own a home.”
Hannah’s mortgage is a little less than what she had previously been paying in rent thanks to the fact she was able to partner with Landed to make a 20% down payment. She also doesn’t have to pay mortgage insurance as a result, an addtional savings of thousands each year.
“Where we are now is perfect for us,” she said, adding her son loves the home too. “Without Landed it would have taken me another decade to get to a point where I could even buy a condo.”
Now they have more space and a backyard, where tomatoes and cucumbers are growing in a garden. And they are rooted in their community, close to family and loved ones.
“We’re super happy.”
