Owning a house was not an immediate goal of mine. Renting waseasy and convenient. If something broke, I submitted a maintenancerequest and it was fixed. Home maintenance in an apartment requiredlittle effort and even less stress. 

I've also always enjoyed flirting with the idea that if I wantedto pick up and move to Europe or some other far-off location, Icould, and with no strings attached. In my head I was a nomad, freeto roam the world as I pleased and I was enjoying the minimalresponsibility that apartment living provided. In reality, I was a34-year-old with nearly 10 years under my belt of Washington, D.C.living. So if history was any indication, I knew I probably wasn'tmoving any time soon.

So after a decade in the city, I had graduated out of thefinancial starvation that plagued my 20s and I was leasing anapartment that was costing me nearly the same amount that amortgage payment would on a $300,000 loan. My year lease was set toexpire in a few months and so was the special rate that gave me anearly $300 per month rent reduction. There was no way I was payingmore for that apartment, so I started my condosearch. 

However, I had one problem – because of working for nothing inmy 20s, I didn't have a 20% down payment saved. Apparently, Iwasn't alone in this predicament. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, home ownershipfor those below 35 years old is especially low, hovering just below34%. “There are many factors affecting this trend – rising rents,student loans, and delayed marriages,” according to arecent article by Apartment List.

I fell into the “all of the above category”. I wasn't married, Ihad student loan debt and I had rising rent. 

I did what any obsessive-compulsive journalist would do, I usedall of my spare time to research options for people who didn't havea 20% down payment. The fruits of my OCD labor paid off, I found adown payment assistance program offered by the Virginia HousingDevelopment Authority. If I qualified, VDHA would give me a 3% downpayment and I wouldn't have to pay private mortgage insurance. Iwas essentially getting free money; my entire down payment would bepaid for by VHDA. There were rigorous qualifications I had to meet,but luckily I qualified.

For me, this made sense. I went through the numbers with anaccountant and we determined that the down payment I was receivingwould offset the closings costs and I essentially would break evenif I purchased a home. In the short-term, I wouldn't be saving aton by purchasing a house, but I also would no longer be throwingaway money by helping to pay off someone else's mortgage. Inaddition, because I have freelance income, the tax breaks fromhomeownership would also offset that taxes I pay on thisincome.

With renting, I had to worry about my rate going up every year.However, with homeownership, I'm building equity; I have a fixedmortgage for 30 years and my earning potential will likely increaseover time (God willing).

Let's be clear here, I'm not pushing homeownership on anyone. Ifyou can't afford it, don't do it. My point is, you haveoptions. 

As I mentioned in my last column “Capitalizing on Millennials' Financial PlanningNeeds”, personalized service is absolutely essential to anyfinancial process. I did my research and found a mortgage brokerwho answered every email and every call within a few hours or less(usually much less). Without her, I would have been much morehesitant about purchasing my first home.

So what can credit unions do? 

Stephanie Zuleger, chief lending officer at the $920 millionY-12 Federal Credit Union in Oak Ridge, Tenn. says it's importantto look the beyond the black and white. 

“If a credit union is just looking at loans in black and white,they might as well have robots working for them,” she said. “Thegrey is really important in lending. People have lives and theirlives happen to them and we have to remember that when we'reconsidering different decisions,” Zuleger said. 

Zuleger says Y-12 Federal Credit Union offers multiple productsthat fit the needs of our borrowers including 100% loan to valuefinancing, a 97% loan to value product, and anything below. Thecredit union also offers these portfolio products with no PMI,which helps make the loan even more affordable for members. Inaddition, Fannie Mae's Home Ready product is excellent as ithelps members who want a lower down payment but may have a higherdebt to income ratio or who require more flexible down payment orincome considerations.

Y-12's mortgage loan officers are also trained to identifyadditional needs of borrowers and are incented on doing so. If amember doesn't qualify at the time, the mortgage loan officers areexpected to help them create a plan to get into their firsthouse. 

“We also work with third parties who they can refer borrowers toin order to provide more options like U.S. Department ofAgriculture or the Federal Housing Administration loans that we donot do in house. Overall though our portfolio loan requirements arefocused on helping borrowers and finding ways to say yes, so we tryto do that first in each interaction,” Zeleger said.

Zuleger confirmed what I already thought to be true –personalized service is key. “I have found from talking with myfriends and listening to borrower feedback that in our market,millennials still want personalized service with mortgage lending.They want to understand the process, and they want to talk face toface in many cases. After the mortgage is complete, the membersdefinitely want all the technology they have to service theirloan,” Zuleger emphasized. 

Stay tuned for updates on my financial journey and more tips onreaching millennials.

Tahira Hayes is a Correspondent-at-Large forCU Times. She can be reached at [email protected].