For 11 years, Shennen lived in the same rental house.
It had three bedrooms, two bathrooms, archways, a front garden, and a backyard she had turned into an oasis. Her children had room. Her rent remained $750 per month. The house had character, and it held memories that mattered deeply to her.
Then her landlord sold it.
Shennen was given 60 days to leave.
“My landlord sold the house I had lived in for 11 years and gave me 60 days to get out,” she told me. “I didn’t want to experience that again.”
That was the moment renting changed for her.
Shennen had always rented. She had also avoided homeownership because she did not want to carry the responsibility for repairs alone. But after 11 years in one house, she learned that time, care, and emotional attachment did not give her control over what happened to it.
The landlord could sell.
She would have to leave.
And renting was no longer an option she was willing to accept.
From Buy Back Your Life, Episode 3
This article is based on my conversation with Shennen Scott, owner of Soulflower Naturals Boutique, about losing her long-term rental and navigating a difficult 91-day journey to homeownership.
The house was more than an address
Shennen’s connection to the rental was personal.
The home held memories of her daughter, whom she had lost. Keeping the house mattered to her because her daughter had lived there.
At one point, purchasing it appeared possible. Shennen paid for an appraisal, which valued the property at approximately $85,000. But the owner ultimately chose to sell it to someone else.
She had paid rent, maintained the house, and built a life there for more than a decade. None of that gave her the right to decide whether it would be sold.
That is the part of renting we do not always discuss honestly.
You can be a responsible tenant. You can pay on time and take care of the property. You can stay long enough for the house to feel like your own.
But it still belongs to someone else.
The owner’s financial decision can become your housing emergency.
She did not move directly into another home
After leaving the rental in November 2022, Shennen’s housing situation became unsettled.
She purchased land and an RV. She lived in the RV during warmer months, stayed with others during the winter, and spent periods living in Belize. Because she was not a citizen, she could remain there for only 30 days at a time.
Her work kept bringing her back to North Carolina.
Shennen is a natural-hair specialist and the owner of Soulflower Naturals Boutique. She also guides women through what she calls sacred alignment—helping them navigate the transitions that come with motherhood, menopause, marriage, loss, and personal reinvention.
Her clients were primarily in North Carolina. Her son was here. She needed a home base.
“I still want a home base in other places,” she explained, “but I needed my first one.”
She was not looking for a large house or a picture-perfect property.
She wanted stability, enough land to support her work, and something she could eventually leave to her son.
She had started looking, but she was doing it alone
Before Shennen and I met through a referral, she had already worked with other real estate agents.
The experience left her frustrated.
She was finding the homes, researching the options, and requesting the appointments. She did not feel that anyone was helping her understand how the pieces fit together.
By the time we spoke, she had been preapproved for approximately $140,000.
That gave us a price range, but a preapproval alone does not make every property within that range a good purchase, or even a property that can be financed.
The first house Shennen considered needed extensive work. One room had been gutted so severely that the structure was open beyond the studs.
Shennen hoped to use down-payment assistance, but the condition of the house did not meet the requirements for the financing she was pursuing.
The price may have fit her approval.
The property did not fit the loan.
Walking away was the right decision, but Shennen was tired. She called me and said she was done looking.
I told her to call me when she was ready.
She called back within a week.
One question helped her start again
Shennen spoke with her mentor and said she was giving up.
Her mentor asked:
“What would you do if you were looking for a house for me?”
Shennen knew the answer.
If someone she loved encountered one unsuitable property, she would not tell them that homeownership was impossible. She would regroup and continue.
So she called me back.
The next house we toured sat on approximately 1.87 acres.
It was small, which Shennen preferred. It had a front porch, enough land to support her work, and an outbuilding she immediately saw as a future space for her hair business.
The roof, HVAC system, and water heater had already been addressed. The interior could be changed over time, but the major systems were in place.
Most importantly, she could move in without first taking on a major renovation.
The house was not elaborate.
It fit her life.
Her credit needed attention
Shennen was honest about her credit.
For much of her life, she had not considered it important. When she decided to purchase, she used a credit-building program and a secured credit card with automatic payments to begin establishing a stronger history.
The down-payment-assistance program she was pursuing required a credit score of at least 640 at that time. When she began working with her lender, she was approximately seven points short.
Then the lender noticed that her credit history included several versions of her name.
Shennen contacted the credit bureaus and had the information corrected. She reported that her score increased by approximately 16 points, moving her above the program’s minimum requirement.
That does not mean correcting a name will cause everyone’s credit score to rise. Shennen had inaccurate and fragmented information within her reports.
But her experience shows why reviewing your credit before applying matters.
She had applied with several companies while trying to find answers. Each application did not bring her closer to purchasing. It created more confusion and additional credit inquiries.
The right first step was not another application.
It was understanding what needed to be corrected.
Being self-employed created another layer
Shennen also had to resolve issues involving her tax records.
Because she was self-employed, the lender and down-payment-assistance program needed documentation that verified her income. She had to file several years of taxes and provide the information in the required format.
That became one of the most difficult parts of the process.
Self-employment does not prevent someone from buying a home, but the documentation matters. Buyers may need filed tax returns, business records, and a clear history of income.
Waiting until you are under contract to organize that information can place the purchase—and your earnest money- under unnecessary pressure.
If you are self-employed and considering a future purchase, ask a qualified lender what documentation will be required before you begin shopping for homes.
Preparation may not eliminate every challenge, but it can keep paperwork from becoming the reason you lose the house.
The appraisal created another problem
The home inspection did not end the transaction.
The appraisal nearly did.
The appraiser identified repairs that needed to be completed before the loan could move forward. The seller did not have the money to complete them, and Shennen should not have been expected to pay for repairs on a house she did not own.
The transaction could have stopped there.
Instead, a contractor with whom I had an established relationship agreed to complete the required work and receive payment at closing.
That contractor was taking a risk. If the transaction failed, the expected payment through closing might not happen.
This is where experience and relationships matter.
An agent cannot guarantee that every problem will be resolved. But knowing the financing requirements, understanding the options, and having relationships with professionals who can help may create a path forward when a buyer would otherwise hear only “no.”
The process took 91 days
Shennen had initially been told that closing might take 30 days.
Then she heard 45 days.
The complete process took 91 days.
During those 91 days, she dealt with credit requirements, tax documentation, assistance-program rules, an appraisal repair, and repeated deadlines.
She described it as an emotional roller coaster.
There were days when she felt as though every new phone call brought another problem. She had never purchased a home before, so she did not know which delays were manageable and which ones could end the transaction.
That uncertainty created its own pressure.
Shennen did not move through the process with perfect confidence. She became overwhelmed. She questioned why it had to be so difficult. At one point, she had to stop trying to control every outcome and trust that she had done what she could.
The process did not suddenly become perfect.
But she continued.
Down-payment assistance helped close the gap
Shennen reported borrowing approximately $132,000 and receiving $15,000 through a North Carolina down-payment-assistance program.
Her monthly payment was approximately $1,032, and her interest rate was slightly above 6%, although she did not recall the exact rate during our conversation.
The assistance included occupancy and repayment conditions that she had to understand before accepting it. This was not free money without requirements.
Programs vary. Credit-score requirements, income limits, eligible properties, assistance amounts, occupancy periods, and repayment rules can change. Buyers must qualify for both the mortgage and the assistance program.
For Shennen, the assistance made the purchase possible.
But assistance did not replace preparation.
She still needed qualifying credit. She had to document her income, resolve her tax issues, select an eligible property, and make it through underwriting and the appraisal process.
Down-payment assistance helped with the financial gap. It did not remove the rest of the home-buying process.
Buying cost more than her old rent
Shennen had paid $750 per month for 11 years without a rent increase.
Her new payment was approximately $1,032.
Buying did not cost less than the rental she lost.
But the $750 house was gone, and comparable rent in the current market would likely cost more. More importantly, another rental would place Shennen back in the position she had decided never to experience again.
“I don’t want to be in that position again where somebody could wake up and decide, ‘Okay, you have to leave,’” she said.
She was not comparing $750 rent with a $1,032 mortgage as though both options were still available.
She was deciding what she wanted her next housing payment to provide.
Rent would provide another temporary place to live.
Ownership would provide a home, approximately 1.87 acres, space for her work, and something she could leave to her son.
She had been afraid of repairs
For years, one concern had kept Shennen from purchasing.
She did not want to be solely responsible when something broke.
That fear will sound familiar to many single women and long-term renters. If you have carried most of your household responsibilities alone, homeownership can feel like adding one more burden to an already full life.
But Shennen eventually recognized something important:
She had already been paying for repairs in her rental.
She had hired plumbers and electricians when work needed to be done. She was carrying some of the responsibility without receiving the long-term benefit of ownership.
Her new home will still require maintenance. A tree needs to be removed, and she wants to renovate the kitchen over time.
If she could prepare again, Shennen said she would keep more money in savings for those expenses.
That is an important part of her story.
Receiving down-payment assistance does not remove the need for emergency savings. Closing on a home is not the end of the financial plan.
It is the beginning of managing the home you now own.
The house gave her room to build something
An apartment could have given Shennen somewhere to live.
It could not give her the land she needed for the way she works.
People can come to the property for meditation and sacred work. The outbuilding can become space for her hair business. The house can be improved slowly, without the expectation that everything must be completed immediately.
And her son will have something to return to.
“I don’t want my son to be in that position again,” she said. “I don’t want his children, when he has them, to be in that position.”
For Shennen, ownership became bigger than buying a house.
It became a decision to give the next generation a place to begin without starting from nothing.
She was the last person in her family to buy
Shennen was the oldest sibling and the only one in her family who did not own a home.
Some members of her family still discouraged her from purchasing.
That is another part of the process people do not always discuss. Discouragement does not necessarily come from strangers. It can come from people who love you but view your possibilities through their own fears.
Shennen had already stopped searching once. She had used savings she originally intended for a home and considered leaving the idea behind.
Then she rebuilt the savings and started again.
“I found out late in life,” she said, “but I wasn’t going to stop.”
She did not need everyone else to understand the decision before she made it.
She needed the decision to make sense for her life.
What Shennen would tell another buyer
Shennen’s advice is not that the process will be easy.
Her process was not easy.
Her advice is to prepare and begin anyway.
Before shopping for a home, ask:
- Is the information on my credit reports accurate?
- Do I know what is helping or hurting my credit?
- Have I filed the tax returns a lender may require?
- Can I document my income, especially if I am self-employed?
- How much savings will remain after closing?
- Do I understand the requirements attached to down-payment assistance?
- Is the property eligible for the financing I plan to use?
- Does the house fit the way I actually live and work?
- Am I choosing based on my plan or someone else’s fear?
The answer may reveal that you are ready now.
It may reveal that you need more time.
Either answer gives you something more useful than guessing.
It gives you a plan.
The 91 days were difficult. The result belongs to her.
Shennen’s purchase required 91 days of persistence.
She corrected her credit, resolved tax-documentation issues, changed lenders, walked away from an unsuitable house, and worked through appraisal repairs on the property she eventually purchased.
She did not close because every obstacle disappeared.
She closed because each obstacle was addressed.
Today, the house is hers.
The front porch is hers. The outbuilding is hers. The 1.87 acres are hers. She can renovate the kitchen when she is ready and shape the property around her work, her family, and the life she wants to build.
After being given 60 days to leave a house she had occupied for 11 years, that ownership means something.
It means no one else gets to wake up and decide that she has to go.
Could down-payment assistance help you buy?
Start by understanding your credit, income, savings, and comfortable monthly payment. Then speak with a knowledgeable lender about the assistance programs currently available and the requirements attached to them.
Use Westchester Realty’s affordability calculator to begin exploring what may fit your budget.
Hear Shennen tell the complete story: Watch Episode 3 of the Buy Back Your Life Podcast.
Down-payment-assistance programs, credit requirements, income limits, eligible properties, occupancy periods, repayment terms, interest rates and lender requirements vary. Shennen’s experience does not guarantee that another buyer will receive the same assistance or loan terms. This article is educational and is not financial, legal, tax, or lending advice.
