Work & Live College Park Provides Help for Buying Foreclosed Homes

In June of this year, foreclosure filings were placed on 38 homes in College Park, according to RealtyTrac, a firm that publishes data on foreclosures. But the Work & Live College Park program aims to make constructive use of the foreclosed homes on the market.

Funded primarily by a grant from the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development, the program provides College Park residents financial incentives to purchase foreclosed homes in the city. One of the primary caveats, as the program's name suggests, is that the prospective buyer must both work and live in College Park. 

The program has two possible tracts, said Amy Neugebauer, one of the program's coordinators. The original tract offers assistance with down payments and closing costs to buyers. The other, which is just getting underway, involves the program actually purchasing, renovating and selling foreclosed homes to College Park residents at a below-market value.

Shamila Hashim, an administrative assistant in the accounting department of the Al-Huda School, used the assistance tract of the program to purchase a home on Edgewood Drive.  She and her husband had been living with family in College Park but always dreamed of owning their own home. Lack of savings had prevented them from doing so, until they heard of the Work & Live Program.

"When I heard about it, I thought, 'Oh! That would be a good opportunity for us!'" she said.

Because the house the Hashims purchased was in relatively good shape, they were able to move in immediately and have been living there since the end of June, she said.

The condition of foreclosed homes can vary wildly, and while the Hashims were lucky, the house still needed some work. Though the program itself proved extremely beneficial, Hashim said, dealing with the outside agencies necessary to complete the process has been difficult.

"We moved in because the main portion of the house was fine, but the basement is still getting done," she said. "I'm still dealing with the contractors, which has not been easy at all."

Mark Garrett, the pastor at Church of the Nazarene, also had a good experience with the Work & Live Program, but like Hashim, faced challenges when it came to some of the other organizations that had a hand in the process.

"The bank we used didn't recognize the stimulus program, so we definitely had some problems there," Garrett said.

Without the bank difficulties, Garrett said, acquiring his home would have been a straightforward experience.

"It took two or three months longer than it was supposed to," he said, "but I was very pleased with how much work [the Work & Live Program] put into it. They bent over backward for us."

One way of relieving participants of the headache of dealing with outside agencies is the second tract, wherein the Work & Live Program handles every aspect of the home themselves, from buying it to renovating it to selling it.

The program has recently purchased two houses and one condominium, all located in the North College Park neighborhood, according to Neugebauer. She performed site visits of 20 properties, bid on six or seven of them and wound up with three.

"We were really looking for properties where they wouldn't necessarily get picked up by the market but were a shape that we, with our budget, could renovate them into a high-quality home for someone," she said.

The three homes will be available for purchase in the coming months, after the necessary improvements have been made and each has undergone an inspection.  

"There are some limiting factors, like permits, and one of the properties is tied up in a legal issue," Neugebauer said. "We have to clear that before we can close."

In spite of the hassle often associated with foreclosures, participants are grateful for the program.

"I don't know whose idea it was, but whoever came up with it, it's great," Hashim said. "Without the program, I wouldn't have been able to buy a house."

Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that there had been 38 foreclosures in College Park in the last year as of June. There were, in fact, 38 foreclosures in June alone.