Steps in Purchasing Your Home at Oak Glen

Step 1: Contact the Wisconsin Partnership. If you want to know more about Oak Glen, you will first talk to Mindy Allen, a licensed real estate salesperson in our Madison office (608/258-5560). She will answer preliminary questions and send you more information if you wish. Mindy will also let you know about the models available at Oak Glen.

Step 2: Check on your eligibility for down payment assistance. Eleven of the condominiums at Oak Glen are reserved for households with incomes at or below 80% of the Dane County median income. The Partnership can help you make a preliminary determination of whether you qualify. We’ll be happy to send you our Home Buying Guide, which describes the down payment assistance programs available to Dane County residents, or you can read the guide online on our website (www.wphd.org).

Step 3: Choose a mortgage lender and pre-qualify for a loan. The Partnership’s Home Buying Guide provides a list of local lenders we have worked with in the past. You are welcome to contact one of those lenders, or to work with another lender of your choice. Once you choose a lender, a loan officer will review your credit score, income and assets. If it appears, based on the information you provide, that you would qualify for a mortgage loan to purchase an Oak Glen condominium, the loan officer will issue a “pre-approval” letter. (NOTE: The pre-approval letter is not a commitment of mortgage financing. You will secure a firm commitment later in the process.)

Step 4: Reserve your Oak Glen condominium. Oak Glen is now in the pre-construction marketing period. Completing and signing the reservation form allows you to choose a particular condo at Oak Glen and select some of the interior finishes before the home is built. To ensure that your condo will be yours when it is completed, you will make a small payment when you sign the reservation form. However, your payment will be refunded in full if you later decide that the condo will not meet your needs.

Step 5: Prepare your offer to purchase. When construction of the condo you have reserved is almost completed, the Partnership’s broker will help you prepare an offer to purchase. The offer locks in the purchase price and other details about the purchase process, such as the date of the closing on your mortgage loan. When the offer is drafted you will also be provided with copies of the documents governing the condominium association. (Note: If you are represented by your own licensed real estate agent, that person will also be involved in negotiating the final offer to purchase.)

Step 6: Secure your mortgage loan. Your offer to purchase will be contingent on your ability to secure a mortgage loan at the terms specified in the offer. You will most likely return to the lender who pre-qualified you to obtain a firm commitment.

Step 7: Secure down payment assistance. If you qualify for down payment assistance, Partnership staff will work with you to put together a package of assistance that meets your needs. The processes of preparing your offer to purchase, securing your mortgage and securing down payment assistance are interrelated. We will guide you through the steps necessary to ensure that you are ready to purchase when your condominium is completed.

Step 8: Close on your Oak Glen home. This is the day that you sign all the paperwork and begin moving into your new condominium.

For more information, contact the Wisconsin Partnership for Housing Development (608-258-5560 myaffordablehome@wphd.org).