Lori and her family outside their New Bedford home

For most of her life, Lori lived in the multifamily home owned by her parents with their extended family living under one roof.

When Lori took custody of her three grandchildren, however, the living space was compressed and Lori decided it was time to move. The question was, should she try to continue to rent or buy her own home if she could afford to do so?

"I had lived for my whole life in a tenement that my dad owned and then I had custody of my three grandchildren, ages 13, 11 and six, and it was tight. There were a lot of us," she said.

Knowing what rent would cost for the space she needed, Lori thought, "Should I look for a house? Why not try?"

Lori, who works in accounting for an assisted living community in the southeastern part of the state, took two important steps to gauge if she could be a homeowner.

"I got pre-approved (with a lender) and took a homeowner class," said Lori. "It teaches you what you need to know, about things like homeowners' insurance, about all the [first-time homebuyer down payment assistance and grant] programs that are out there. All the [financing] options were explained to us. You have to do your due diligence but it's so worth it."

Lori knew she needed to make sure her credit was in order and to have some savings. “You do have to put down some of your own money and you have to prepare,” she said.

Lori found two important resources in Susana Neves-Coito from BankFive and Kevin Sullivan, an Affordable Housing Specialist with the City of New Bedford Department of Planning, Housing & Community Development. Both Susana and Kevin are also members of the Fall River New Bedford Housing Partnership, which is comprised of local stakeholders including local lenders, city and state representatives, and social service agencies, and played a role in Lori's success story.

Through BankFive, Lori obtained a MassHousing Mortgage and used the Agency's Down Payment Assistance (DPA), some grant funding available at the time as well as DPA through the City of New Bedford.

"BankFive was great," said Lori. "Susana found all the down payment options I had available and everything went very smoothly."

Susana said Lori's success in buying her first home was a team effort between her, Lori and Kevin Sullivan to make sure she got the best financing and down payment and grant assistance available to her.

"MassHousing mortgages are made to help the first-time buyer get into their first home with products that they can afford," said Susana. "Lori needed down payment assistance in order to make her monthly loan payment affordable since she was at a lower income and raising her grandchildren alone, which was not easy. I was able to help her get down payment assistance and some grants. Her monthly mortgage payment came out to what she was paying in rent at the time. She was not looking for a high-priced home but a comfortable home where the children could play in the back yard. She stayed in the budget of where she wanted her monthly payment to be.

"By layering MassHousing, City of New Bedford assistance and grants, Lori was able to get what she needed," Susana added. "The major thing was all of us communicating and working together. Lori was a pleasure to work with and Kevin and I have worked together for years. We need to work as a team to help customers reach their goals."

BankFive Executive Vice President Patrick Deady said MassHousing is an important partner in helping the bank create success stories like Lori's.

"For 170 years, BankFive has been dedicated to assisting our customers and neighbors fulfill their dreams of building a strong financial future, and homeownership is a major step in helping families achieve this goal," he said. "Susana embodies our values by working tirelessly to ensure our borrowers receive every benefit possible. We know she is one of the best in the business."

Kevin Sullivan said the down payment assistance Lori received from the city helped close her affordability gap.

"She was a lovely woman and super easy to work with," he said. "Susana pulled all those (financing) pieces together and it was nice to help someone who was taking care of her grandkids and providing them with nice home. We had a lot of back and forth because we wanted to get her as much assistance as we could. If we asked Lori for something we got it right away. When it was finished, it felt so good to be able to help someone like Lori."

After looking at several homes for sale, Lori settled on a house in New Bedford. Until she started her home search, she didn’t realize all the details that went into finding the right home.

"You look around, but you have to look at everything," she said. "There are things you have to pay attention to that you wouldn't when you weren't a homeowner. Is this what I want? How will this be if we buy this house?"

Eventually she found the house that was best for her and her family. "It was something we found. It had character to it. It's an older house  but there was something about it. It also turned out that our neighbors are great."

When she first put the key in the lock of her new home, "I was very nervous," said Lori. "I thought, 'oh my goodness, we own this now. It belongs to you.'"

While Lori was nervous, her grandchildren were "very excited to have their own rooms. They didn’t have that. There were six of us in a two-bedroom apartment."

Now, the family is enjoying all the benefits of homeownership.

"You can go in your own backyard, and we have everything that comes with homeownership," said Lori. "We have a deck, we put a fence up, and for the kids to have their own rooms is really great."