WHY

A REAL SECOND CHANCE. A REAL HOME.

URHS Home Ownership Success Program
Urban Roots Home Solutions

WHY I CREATED THIS PROGRAM

I created this program because I believe in second chances. I believe in them because I have needed several of them myself. I know how quickly life can change. A person can be on top of the world one day and standing in the middle of the wreckage the next, wondering what in the hell happened.

Addiction. Incarceration. Bankruptcy. Divorce. Job loss. A medical emergency. Sometimes it is a decision we made. Sometimes it is something we never saw coming. Either way, people can recover. People can rebuild. They can return to work, establish stability, keep their commitments, and create a future that looks nothing like their past.

But rebuilding your life does not automatically reopen the doors that closed behind you. A credit score can keep telling an old story long after your circumstances have changed. It does not show everything you have overcome, what you earn today, or what you are financially capable of sustaining.

I wanted to change what happens when someone is ready to move forward but the usual answer is still no. Saying we believe in second chances means very little unless we create an actual opportunity.

WHAT I WANTED TO CHANGE

I wanted a person’s documented financial capacity to matter. Can the household afford the home? Does the complete housing payment fit the income and everyday expenses? Is there enough room in the budget to sustain ownership? Those are meaningful questions.

URHS evaluates documented income, affordability, and current financial capacity. Credit scores and prior credit history do not determine program qualification or mortgage terms.

I wanted people who have worked to rebuild their lives to have an opportunity to purchase a home through an actual mortgage. A home they own. A home where they can establish stability, build equity, and create something worth passing down.

That meant bringing the home, financial qualification, payment performance, mortgage origination, education, servicing, and continued support together into one coordinated program.

WE EMBRACED THE STRUCTURE

We did not run from the Dodd-Frank Act. We embraced it. We did not run from requiring a Residential Mortgage Loan Originator—an RMLO. We ran toward it. I wanted this opportunity built around professional mortgage origination, documented financial capacity, and the protections that belong in the process.

The URHS Home Ownership Success Program uses an actual, fully amortizing 20-year mortgage. Twenty years. Not thirty. The housing payment includes PITI—principal, interest, property taxes, and homeowners insurance. The mortgage has a fixed interest rate, no balloon payment, and no prepayment penalty.

At purchase closing, the buyer receives the deed and becomes the homeowner. The mortgage is professionally serviced by a company that reports payment history to all three credit bureaus. That is the structure I wanted people to have access to.

NOT QUALIFYING AT FIRST DOES NOT MEAN NO

Sometimes someone finds the home they want before they initially qualify for its mortgage. I created the optional pre-buy to give that person a way to establish the payment performance needed to move forward.

The participant lives in the home they intend to purchase and makes rental payments for six to eight months. That documented performance becomes part of the financial qualification for the mortgage. Those rental payments are credited toward the purchase price of the home.

The pre-buy connects the beginning of the process to the purchase closing: initial review, in-home payment performance, mortgage qualification, origination, and closing. At purchase closing, the rental phase ends. The buyer receives the deed, the rental payments are applied as purchase-price credits, and the home purchase closes with an actual 20-year mortgage with PITI.

Someone who qualifies initially can proceed toward mortgage origination and closing. Someone who does not qualify initially has the optional pre-buy route to establish performance and complete that same path to ownership.

Not qualifying at first does not mean the answer is no. It means there is an opportunity to demonstrate financial capacity in the very home they want to own and close the loop from preparation to purchase.

A HOME AND THE SUPPORT TO SUSTAIN IT

The opportunity also has to include a home that is ready. Participating homes must meet URHS property-readiness standards, with required work completed, essential systems evaluated, and known conditions disclosed.

The program includes homeowner education, preparation for unexpected repairs, and continued support through Beyond the Door. Those pieces belong together. The mortgage establishes the purchase financing. Education, preparation, and continued support help people sustain the ownership they worked to reach.

I wanted the opportunity to continue beyond closing.

DESIGNED TO BE THE FIRST OF ITS KIND

I designed the URHS Home Ownership Success Program to be the first of its kind in this country. The innovation is how the entire process works together.

Documented financial capacity establishes the foundation. The optional pre-buy provides an in-home payment-performance route to mortgage qualification when someone does not qualify initially, with rental payments credited toward the purchase price.

Property readiness and homeowner preparation support the purchase. An RMLO originates the fully amortizing 20-year mortgage with PITI. The buyer receives the deed at closing. Professional servicing reports payment history to all three credit bureaus, and continued support carries the relationship beyond the closing table.

Each part serves the same purpose: create a real opportunity to become a homeowner, complete the path to ownership, and provide the structure to help that ownership succeed.

THE FUTURE I WANTED TO MAKE POSSIBLE

The goal is bigger than a closing. It is a home where someone can rebuild, raise a family, celebrate birthdays, gather for holidays, know the neighbors, and become part of a community.

Family is not always defined by blood. Friends can become family. Neighbors can become family. A community can become part of the support that helps someone keep moving forward.

It is equity built over time. A mortgage paid off. A property maintained, improved, and protected. It is something that can eventually be passed to the next generation.

I want people to succeed. I want their homes to become lasting sources of security, pride, and family history. I created this program because a difficult past should not erase a workable future.

A real second chance. A real home. A legacy worth building.

Chad Bowlin
Program Creator
URHS Home Ownership Success Program