Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago

This service was very beneficial to me having never been a home buyer. The classes as well as the instructor Mrs. Draper was very interesting and informative. I’m still going through the process. I believe this will work for my good and in my favor. Thanks NHS!

First let me say, this place is the real deal. For me personally anyway.
Yes, you have to attend home buying classes (Four two hour classes) which i actually enjoyed because the classes were very informative and I learned a lot that i wouldn’t have known If I hadn’t taken the classes. You need at least a 580 credit score i believe for this program to work with you and you need to make sure you don’t have a lot of debt. I see peoples negative reviews that they weren’t helped, that is probably because they had a bad credit score or had a lot of debt. I wouldn’t want to loan someone any money if they had debt either. Only common sense. Yes, you also pay an application fee, AS WITH ANY BANK but it goes toward your down payment anyway so don’t let the negative reviews discourage you.
Yes, they are EXTREMELY unorganized and take FOREVER to return emails and calls and it took SIX whole hours to close on my place which was extremely nerve wrecking. I am not sure why but the loan process takes longer than a regular bank BUT I did get my condo out of it. They helped me with my down payment, closing costs, no PMI, low rate, etc. My mortgage is cheaper than it would be to rent any apartment in the city and I found it in a nice area and I got such an amazing deal. I highly recommend this place to anyone who is low income or just starting out. I was a single mom on only one income and honestly if it wasn’t for this place I would probably still be paying an arm and a leg to rent.
My best advice is to just be patient– This was my first time buying a home and the home buying process is so stressful so just make sure you have a good Realtor, like i did, who knows what they are doing and understands how the home loan and real estate processes work. I honestly did not know the city offered anything like this but this is a hidden gem that no one knows about. Even though the process sucked a little i would absolutely do another home loan through this company in a heartbeat.

This service helped receive and administer the Hardest Hit Fund. Later Bathsheba Wyatt-​Draper assisted me in receiving a Loan Modification from Chase. She even met me where I live. She was very supportive giving me support during the long modification process. It was really nice to have her advise. I would highly recommend this service and Bathsheba Wyatt-​Draper.

My experience with NHSCHICAGO was very professional and efficient from start to finish. I worked very closely with Ms. Sterling to complete my file and I must admit that I was surprised by the timeliness in responses and resolution of any issues that arose. The level of customer service was just as pleasant and efficient when I went in for my closing. Ms. Sterling was well prepared and professional, all of my documents were thoroughly explained to me as I went through my contract with Ms. Sterling and she readily answered all of my questions. Kudos to NHSCHICAGO for their wonderful work and such a pleasant experience.

1^st you can take the free home buyers course or you can pay 50. Dollars for the online course. As I don’t have a vehicle and wasnt interested in traveling 1.5 hours on CTA to take an 8 hour course I chose online .
You are truly informed about myriads of people and terms needed to buy a home.
Was It worth it, yes.
The only problem is that CityLift the 15,000 dollar forgivable loan and selling point doesn’t t exist.
You will never get an appointment and when you do as I did two days after closing you will be told that your ineligible.
NHS has no knowledge of the 7500 matching down payment programming from Well Fargo administered by the State of Illinois.
Let’s just say this I am gong from 1050 rent to a 550 Mortgage plus assesmnets and because I had my ducks in a row I bid, won and bought in about 5 weeks.
Take the course. Remember your credit needs to be excellent and job history solid and you will pay for everything. Nothing is free.
CityLift doesn’t exist.

I attended one of NHS’ first-​time home buyer education classes and was very impressed. I came across NHS through a Google search and was skeptical when they claimed to offer the class for free. Seemed to good to be true. But it wasn’t. Didn’t have to pay anything and wasn’t given the hard sell on using any of their other services. My fiancé and I have been hoping to buy a house for some time, but we had no idea just how much goes into the home buying process. The instructors for the class were very helpful and took the time to answer everyone’s questions. I feel far more prepared to buy a home now than I did before I attended. I would definitely recommend this to anyone thinking about buying a home for the first time.

This is the most disorganized organization I have ever dealt with. I live adjacent to a property they own. We share a water main with their property and they neglected to keep the heat and electric on during the winter. Even after us proactively alerting them to this issue. Needless to say the first snow caused the pipes to freeze and left us without water. Over the course of the first week they blundered every possible solution including overlooking the fact that thermostats need batteries and in the process broke every pipe in their own property. It’s been one week without water and no end in sight. Pray for me.

Absolutely positively would not recommend anyone to get a mortgage loan here. Here is a brief overview of what I experienced. So Wells Fargo had grants that they were giving away, but you first had to be pre-​approved for a mortgage. So, I began my search for a lender and somehow I landed on NHS’s website. They sounded great, non for profit feeling, «community based» Great right? Wrong.
They charged you $ 50 to submit your application upfront, so of course I paid, and here’s what I received: A counseling session highlighting everything wrong with my credit and nothing RIGHT. Umm I know what was on my reports, but did you ever look to see the positive history over the recent years? Ms. Cherly or Sandy or just S. Smith came in the meeting with an absolute attitude, not very friendly, and just looked to be bored. Mr. Pletz the originator rushed with my paperwork because he had to run to Mexico, never received some of the documents requested and later sent my file RUSHED! If I knew I would’ve received this poor customer service I would’ve spent my $ 50 else where.
So I was later approved by Wells Fargo, got the grant, and during the mandatory workshop held by NHS, was recommended by Flo and Pat Ware to contact Versi Garrett about my poor experience. Contacted her and was received with another poor customer service experience, her and Pat never returned my phone calls! All and all if you are looking for great customer service while shopping for a mortgage I DO NOT recommend NHS, only of course if you want to pay $ 50 for a counseling session! Go Figure!