Anthony and Destiny Cook were raising two small children in California when layoffs stripped away their income. Rather than wait for a recovery that wasn’t coming, the Cooks took a deep breath, made a life-changing decision, and packed up to start over in Springfield, Tennessee.
“My motivation was to be able to better support my wife and children in an area with a lower cost of living,” Anthony says. “I wanted to buy a home and put down roots for my children.”
The Cooks worked to build a new life in Tennessee, landing new jobs, paying down debt, and rebuilding their credit. But when Anthony reached out to mortgage lenders, he thought their dream of homeownership might not be possible. The employment gap from the layoff in California was still impacting the family from 2,000 miles away.
Then the Cooks’ realtor introduced them to Hope Credit Union. HOPE’s Affordable Housing Program offered 100% financing at competitive interest rates. More importantly, HOPE wanted to work with the Cooks.
“HOPE offered a product that no other realtor or finance company could match. Even when they made a point to try, they couldn’t beat HOPE’s offer on the interest rate or the money down,” Anthony says. “The Affordable Housing Program was the blessing and the opportunity we’d been waiting on. When we walked through the door of our new home, I hugged Destiny and told her, ‘We did this. We’ve finally got a place of our own and our new life here in Tennessee.’”
“It was breathtaking, to know this space was our space. I love that it’s mine,” Destiny says. “To be able to give our kids a home and a yard to play in has been an absolute gift.”