Framework® Homeownership’s core belief is that homeownership should be available to everyone who wants to pursue it.
But we don’t just talk about this mission, we live by it. In fact, many of Framework’s staff members are first-time homebuyers and first-generation homeowners, and we face the same challenges and learning curves as everyone else.
June is National Homeownership Month and to celebrate, we’re sharing our stories.
Jenni S.
Customer Success Representative, Minnessotta
My dad passed away suddenly in 2018 and I’d been struggling to accept it since. We impulsively bought a home in 2019 just to move our family out of my parents’ house but weren’t in love with it. A year later, my mom’s neighbor put a for sale sign in their yard; it’s been my dream home since I was a child. We were crushed when we reached out and learned the sign was for show. They had an all-cash offer that we couldn’t beat. Luckily, the buyer pulled out after an inspection. My mom let us access our inheritance from my dad early so we could match the previous offer and still maintain a reasonable mortgage for our budget. Now I’m in my forever home with the perfect neighbor!
Laura M.
Product Copywriter & Editor, Massachusetts
I’d been thinking about moving to another state but an exploratory trip didn’t go well, so I came home and bought a house. The second one I saw fit all my major criteria: Walking distance to town, on the smaller side, good yard for gardening, open layout, a south-facing roof for solar panels, quiet street, fireplace. Unbelievable. I made an offer almost immediately. It felt meant to be. The day after I closed and moved in, I was heading out the door to hop on my bike and go get something to eat, and there was a woman standing right by my “sold” sign making a call. Turned out she was calling the Realtor to see if the house really, really was sold or whether it might be for rent, because “it’s so nice!” she told me. That was really affirming!
Lyndsay B.
Head of Strategic Initiatives, Massachusetts
It wouldn’t be a big stretch to say that we bought a home so we could have a dog. The home we bought didn’t have a fenced-in yard but the neighbors in the back and to the left had fencing so we only had to fence in two sides ourselves! We also put in a patio ourselves and it has added so much. We did learn the hard way about some of the costs involved, though. We had to break up what had been a paved driveway to add the fence and patio and we wanted to do it ourselves. We had a giant pile of asphalt in our backyard for months while we searched for someone to help us get rid of it at a reasonable price! Turns out, we probably spent more to have the asphalt hauled away after we broke it all up than if we had just had someone come break up the driveway for us. But we did have a family member in the stone business, so we saved on the pavers and labor at least.
Lisa S.
Chief Growth Officer, New York
Shortly after we moved into our home there was an epic storm, a power outage, and a resulting flood in our basement. My husband was traveling abroad for business, the basement was full of things we hadn’t quite unpacked, and I was 8 weeks pregnant. I sat down on the steps and cried, “I want to move back to an apartment.” We got through it and stayed in the house — but homeownership can definitely present some unexpected challenges!
Luke D.
Marketing Automation and Performance Manager, Rhode Island
My first exposure to Framework was in 2019 when I completed the Homebuyer Education Course as required by my mortgage lender to complete my loan process. As the days until my closing were counting down, I can candidly say I wasn’t thrilled to have to sit down and learn during those stressful times. After a while, I realized how valuable the course was. Being a “young” homeowner, there was so much I didn’t realize I didn’t know. Framework is a great tool and not only lead me to own my first home but is now a great place where I am able to work every day.
Steve B.
People Operations Manager, South Carolina
When we bought our first home, my wife and I really hated the kitchen sink faucet, so we bought a new one and I was very confident in my ability to install it on my own. Well, having no idea about the different styles/types of water lines and fixtures, I made a small DIY into a not DIY. I was really struggling to get the line unscrewed from the shut-off valve and so I decided to cut the line shorter to make it easier. Little did I know, it was a pressure-fitted situation and it was not something I was allowed to cut. So I had to have a plumber come and replace the entire shut-off and put in a new line. However, I did replace the faucet on my own after that. But what should have cost me $100 ended up costing me $300. #homeownerfail #notaplumber
Heather S.
Content Manager, New York
Where do I begin? I was a single mom living about an hour north of New York City, where rentals are spare apartments on people’s properties, meaning landlords can (and do) refuse to rent to people with children. I searched for more than a year with no luck, so I stayed with family, in my 30s, with a toddler. Not ideal. I live in a particularly expensive area where the bottom of the real estate market is above what I could afford, so I knew I needed to take whatever I could get and make it work. This mentality is considered foolish, but those who call it that haven’t been in my position.
After months of searching for homes in my price range, which were so rundown it wasn’t safe to bring my son to showings, and sometimes my real estate agent was too scared to enter the premises with me, I went to an abandoned foreclosure with tons of potential that just came on the market that day. It was shown for one weekend and received four offers, one from me and three from flippers with cash. My agent wrote the bank a “love letter” about my desire to give stability to my son and my offer was miraculously accepted.
I experienced a 9-month process to go to closing followed by about six weeks of DIY physical labor in the freezing cold, without any heat or plumbing. When I finally moved in, I had no kitchen for weeks. And I was dropped by five homeowners insurance companies in the first six months.
Flash forward and let me tell you, I am so happy. It was all worth it. I got a new lease on life and despite everything, I don’t have a single homebuyer’s regret. (I do have a killer sense of humor, though. That helps!)
For more from the Framework team, check out these posts:
- Our team members fessed up to their funniest and costliest teenage shenanigans.
- We interviewed our People and Culture team on Framework’s equitable hiring practices.
