Follow-up from the First Appointment.

Day 101 on my way to homeownership.

As soon as I got back to my office I began following up on the things our counselor asked for.

I emailed Pat the the Name, phone number and email address of KL's HR contact at his place of employment.

Our First NACA appointment with our counselor

Day 101 on my way to homeownership.

KL and I arrived at the appointment roughly 15 minutes early. When we arrived there was a man having words with his someone (I assume his counselor) regarding some delay in closing on his house. I felt bad for him and a little disturbed about his experience. I hope this sort of thing doesn't happen to me when I am close to getting my new home.

Kevin and I sat down to wait for our counselor to be available. Around 9:10 am we we were called into the office of Pat Baker, our NACA counselor.

I think the appointment with Pat went really well, except for a few glitches. Pat explained to us that the "Upload from your computer option" doesn't work. So the time I had spent the previous night uploading documents since April was wasted. My counselor did not have those documents.

Pat was new to NACA and explained to KL and me that not just anyone can be a NACA counselor, that it required skills that the average person doesn't have. We were among Pat's first NACA clients and she was processing us using a colleagues log-in because she didn't have her own log-in to the system yet. She also mentioned that she didn't have a working NACA telephone line which got me wondering how do I contact my counselor in the future.

During the meeting with Pat, she scanned into the computer

1. a copy of my and KL's drivers license,
2. our voter's registration form,
3. and our most recent bank statements.

We went over our budget with her. When I had done the budget online, it was only signed by me, so we printed the budget out, and Kevin Leary signed it and Pat scanned it in to the system. The budget showed our payment shock of $352. The budget showed our mortgage at $2500 a month with a mortgage of $362,000.

We both signed a "NACA minimum Required Funds Form"

We created a NACA task list which Kevin and I both signed that asked for the following

• KL - Employment - member to provide HR Contact
• KL - Pay Stubs - pay stubs to be provided monthly during process
• KL - Rent - address to be provided for rental verification form.
• KL - Bank Accounts - bank statement every month during process any cash withdrawals over $199 needs an explanation during process
• JB - Credit explanation - Submit letter regarding late payment for Chase of 60 days
• JB - Credit explanatino - Submit letter regarding late payment for Victoria Secret of 30 days.

Our meeting with Pat took almost two hours. I didn't get back to work until around 11:30 am. Kevin, with Pat's permission left around 1 hour and 15 minutes into the session.

The scramble before the appointment.

Day 100/101 on my way to home ownership.

My husband and I went to a wedding in England and just got back Monday July 5 at 8:30 pm. we had to scramble a bit to get ready for our NACA appointment at 9 am on Thursday, July 8.

On Wednesday, evening July 7 I went to www.naca.com, clicked on Webfile/Status from the home page, logged into my NACA file. It was late, but I needed to update my file before my appointment tomorrow.

Copied below is the option for uploading your documents:

D. Documents:
You can submit additional document to NACA. The documents would also be sent to your Servicer once your file is submitted to the Servicer. The options to submit documents are identified below.

a) Fax using your personal cover sheet. Click here to get the fax cover sheet.

b) Email using your personal email and send documents to:

c) Upload from your computer. Click here to upload documents.

I chose option "c" as it seemed like a no-brainer.

I uploaded my bank statements, credit card statements, etc. updating everything I had sent since May 13.

After that, I went about the task of creating the online budget.

My husband and I track all our expenses to the dollar in quicken. Prior to going to England we had filled out in pen the budget that came with the NACA handbook.

So very late on Wednesday, evening July 7 I was filling out the online budget based on the numbers Kevin and I had discussed. By the time I finished updating everything it was well... already July 8 and our appointment was 7 hours away.

Getting my NACA Appointment

Day 52 on my way to home ownership.

I have been trying to contact NACA to schedule an appointment, but am having no luck.

On May 10 --- 10 days ago --- I requested an appointment on the NACA website. Online there wasn't any available appointments for the next month so I filled out the form to be contacted to schedule an appointment.

After 10 days of waiting to hear back from someone, I am starting to feel frustrated.

I went to my member profile online and "Click here to send an email to your Servicer. Be as detailed as possible." and posted the following note today (5/20/10)

I am trying to get an apt with a counselor but haven't heard anything. I have submitted all my documents (except budget) which i am finishing up this weekend. Can someone please call me? I am really ready to get this appointment and begin the process.

I call Meg Wiggins (my friend who had recommended me to NACA and completed the program) to ask her what she recommends as a best way to get the appointment scheduled. She said to call the DC office and schedule an appointment.

I then set about calling NACA and after 30 minutes or so I got a real live person on the Phone who worked with me to set an appointment. The first available appointment unfortunately isn't until July 8, 2010. 49 days from now....

Getting ready for my NACA appointment

Yesterday and today I have been faxing all the material I think NACA will want in anticipation of my appointment that I am trying to schedule. I have sent 10 faxes totaling 107 pages. I am using myfax.com which lets me fax pdfs to the fax number (877)329-6222 given to me by NACA.

Using myfax.com I know that all the pages are sent and none get stuck together in the fax machine. Also, I have confirmation report from Myfax.com that the pages are sent and I check in my Member Area on NACA and can confirm that the same number of pages is received, which thank god, they say they received them.

In order to keep track of what I have sent to NACA I have build a spreadsheet. Below is the summary list of what I have sent. It starts with the date, number of pages, and a short description of what I sent.

1. 5/12/2010 21 JB - Bank account statements (4 months) January to April
2. 5/12/2010 19 KL - Banking account statement (4 months) January to April
3. 5/12/2010 5 JB &KL combined Credit Union account (2 months) March and April
4. 5/12/2010 6 JB - Payroll Stubs (5 months) Dec-April
5. 5/12/2010 11 JB- Documents showing debt reduction over 2009 - copies of student loan bill with payment until paid off.
6. 5/13/2010 19 JB & KL - Most recent credit card statements for our 6 credit cards held with Chase, US Bank, Bank of America and Citibank
7. 5/13/2010 9 Current landlord and rental history, list of rent transactions for last 12 months, transaction details for rent paid Jan-May 2010.
8. 5/13/2010 9 Transaction details for Rent paid May-December 2009
9. 5/13/2010 5 KL - 4 most recent payroll stubs reflecing last 8 weeks of work.
10. 5/13/2010 3 JB - W2s for 2008 and 2009

NACA Workshop Graduation

Day 42 on my way to home ownership.

Today we received the following email from NACA

From: memberservices@nacalynx.com
To: [removed personal information]
Subject: NACA Workshop Graduation - Next Steps
Date: Mon, 10 May 2010 12:04:01 -0400

Congratulations on attending the NACA workshop and completing the first step to homeownership or to save your home. Please complete the *workshop evaluation. Your input is very important in ensuring that NACA can most effectively assist you and provide the best membership services, so please be very honest.

While the next step is to meet with your Mortgage Consultant, you can quickly proceed through the NACA process by completing the following through NACA’s website. The information and documents you submit will be received by your Mortgage Consultant who will process your information.

Go to the NACA website at *www.naca.com select the Member section (on the top right of the home page) to complete the below. To log-in and complete the following you will need your Member I.D (removed personal information), your social security number (or Tax ID Number), and your e-mail address.

*Membership - Sign your Membership Agreement and Authorization on line.
*Budget – Complete your budget identifying your income, debt payments and regular expenses. Include your desired mortgage payment based on the anticipated housing price. You need to be as detailed and accurate as possible.
*Employer – Input the information on your employers for at least the past two years, the more years the better to show income stability.
*Landlord – Input your landlords for at least the past two years.
*Bank Accounts – Input information on all of your bank accounts. Click “Submit” after each account until all accounts have been entered.
Use your personalized fax cover sheet to fax your Mortgage Consultant the below documents. You can access your *fax cover sheet by email or on NACA’s website.
Paystubs – last 30 days
Bank Statements – last three months for all of your accounts (you may need to convert document to single sided to fax)
W-2 – for all employers for 2008 and 2009
Latest mortgage statement for all loans
If you have any concerns, comments or complaints about any NACA services go to the *Feedback/Complaints. We look forward to your successful purchase or homeownership assistance through NACA and your long-term Membership.

Sincerely,

Bruce Marks
CEO

P.S. Welcome to NACA's best in America homeownership program.

* Clickable link to input your information on NACA's website
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This email is the property of NACA and/or its relevant affiliate and may contain confidential and privileged material for the sole use of the intended recipient(s). Any review, use, distribution, or disclosure by others is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient (or authorized to receive for the recipient), please contact the sender and delete all copies of the message. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, except where the sender specifies, and with authority, states them to be the views of NACA.

I am so excited, I logged into the website and signed the NACA membership Authorization and membership agreement online. I also made our first "Member Payment" of $20 per household.

Attending my first NACA Workshop

Day 40 on my way to home ownership.

Kevin and I attended the NACA workshop this morning. We arrived a few minutes early and got a seat in the middle of the audience. The room was huge. I'll bet there were at least 150-200 people in the audience. It is impressive that they are able to get so many people there so early on a Saturday morning.

The main presenter, Amber, didn't smile much, but she laid out the program in a straight forward manner. I got the impression from her that if you do everything your NACA counselor asks of you, your dream will come true.

The guy who shared his experience about becoming a homeowner wasn't very interesting. He did seem happy about having a home though.

The Real Estate Agent who spoke seemed very nice. A pretty black woman in her late thirties (I am never good with age). She made me feel very excited to start looking for my home.

Listening to the presentation, I couldn't help but think I am ready now! I can do everything they ask for. This is so exciting. I can go in their office next week and give them everything they want and then we'll be approved.

Kevin and I left that session feeling very optimistic and excited about going forward with the NACA program.