IHA’s Newest Homeowners: Zam Pau and family!

Zam Pau and his wife Vung Sian recently became IHA’s newest first-time homebuyers!

“We took this family picture on the first day we moved into our new home. We have found peace of mind and happiness and the kids are able to play freely. I would like to thank Carol (IHA). She is so kind and it has been very easy to get in touch with her. We also received a lot of help from USDA-RD, IHA, and our agent Khai. Thank you everyone!” – Zampau’s Family

Immigrants from Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), they escaped the horrible violence and ethnic cleansing that has been occurring there and came to the US for a better life and are not US citizens. Zam is a welder at Canam Steel and he is the sole wage earner for his family of four. They have two sons, Soloman age 3 and Moses age 1.  Zam’s income is just 28% of the Area Median Income (AMI) – 30% of the AMI is considered extremely low.

They had attended one of the Credit Cafes that IHA holds in partnership with the United Way and the Housing Authority at the Prosperity Center in Frederick and heard about IHA’s Purchase Repair Homeownership Program which is designed to help very low income families to become homeowners.They made an appointment to get started and learned how much they would need to save and how to correct the problems on their credit report.

The loan product IHA’s program uses is the USDA-RD 502 Direct and after IHA helped them to bundle their loan application, they waited to get their loan approval.  Once they were approved they didn’t hesitate and quickly found a wonderful home in Frederick that needed a lot of repairs.  However, they only have to do some of the repairs themselves (125 hours) and the rest of the work, such as a new roof, updated electrical, etc. is done by licensed contractors.  Once the repairs are completed, which should only take two or three months at most, the home they purchased will be worth more than $12,000 than what they borrowed, which was the purchase price and the cost of the repairs.  They also walked away from the closing table with a check for over $1,600!

Zam and Vung are so grateful for the help and opportunity that IHA’s homeownership program provided.  Hours and hours of assistance from the credit counseling all the way through to the end of the repair process, all at no charge to them.  They feel that without our help, they could never have made this happen by themselves.  We are happy we could help them achieve their dream of finding a home they could afford that they could call their own.  Their mortgage is a fixed rate of just 3.25%, and their monthly payments (which include their taxes and insurance) are $835 a month.  The fair market rent published by HUD for a two-bedroom apartment in Frederick is almost $1,800.