Rebecca Johnson says she hasn’t always had the best luck. She would enter drawings for raffle prizes and would come away with no prizes. “I don’t win stuff,” she said.
Her luck changed since she began her homeownership journey with ACTS Housing. She won T-shirts. She won another competition. She also found the home of her dreams on her first outing to see homes.
“This year has just been my year,” she said.” The home of her dreams would have a kitchen island and a big yard. Her new home on N. 50th St. includes both.
Rebecca, who is currently renting, heard about ACTS Housing by accident. She was looking for a referral to complete an 8-hour homebuying course, and someone told her about the program.
She attended orientation, scheduled her intake, and completed action items—clearing up two credit-related items–with ACTS’ Director of Homebuyer Counseling Maria Santos.
She then worked with ACTS realtor Jenean Shorter to find a home to purchase. “I only saw two homes,” she said. “I saw the second home and fell in love.”
She was a bit deterred by the competitiveness in Milwaukee’s homebuying market.
“I just claimed it. I wasn’t going to be scared. It was everything that I wanted,” she said.
Because of her luck in the past, she was expecting to be devastated and was dreading an update.
To her surprise, Jenean called her—during her birthday week at that—and told her she had the house. “That was the best part,” she said.
Rebecca, who works as a captioning assistant for the hard of hearing, is expecting to move in to her home next weekend. Although she has a few repairs to make to the home: updating the electrical work, repairing the basement steps, and the sump pump there’s nothing that will stop her move.
In the meantime, she’s telling everyone who wants to buy a home to use ACTS’ services.
“Everyone was patient. Everyone was nice. It’s definitely worth the wait,” she said.
