Neighborhood Finance Corporation in Des Moines, IA

It was indeed not a stellar company to work with. Front desk person has a huge attitude. Look, Lady...I didn't disrespect you in any way - there is no need to treat people like they are trash. Also, this company pre-dates some of their documents for you - even if you are not signing on that date. I think that this is probably a violation somehow, so make sure you cross out any pre-filled dates that are incorrect and sign the date you ACTUALLY are signing the form to protect yourself.

Great program and everyone I worked with was extremely helpful and pleasant. I would highly recommend them for anyone looking to buy a home in the Des Moines area.

This company is unbelievably bad. The forgivable loans are not worth the 90 day closing timeline, the lack of communication and their unprofessional practices. 1) The house failed the city inspection. Almost $2,000 of electrical work needed to be done before the seller could sell the house. The NFC inspector told the seller not to worry about it because we (the buyers) would pay for it with the $10,000 home improvement loan we were getting. It is illegal to share financial information with another person without giving explicit consent. When I asked for the inspectors name, NFC refused to give it to me. 2) Make sure you have at least 90 days to close. Their website says they need 45 days to close. The loan specialist told me that they actually need 60 days. It ended up being 75 days only after I contacted the Director of NFC 3 different times. Almost all other banks only need 30 to 45 days. 3) They WILL NOT give you an estimated closing date. They gave me a closing date 3 days before we actually closed (72 days into the loan process). They said that they will not give a date because they didn't want to be legally bound to that date. A different bank was able to give me a closing date 1 week into the loan process. 4) When I confronted the Director of NFC and told them that the seller was going to put the house back on the market in a week and a half because NFC wasn't getting my loan closed in a timely manner, she told us to stop attacking her and that we could call her back later when we wanted to talk. They never accepted fault or responsibility. 5) A comment was made by the director and the loan specialist that other people were in my same situation. I wasn't the only one having issues with this company, so my case was not isolated. I would never recommend this company to anyone, ever. They are very unprofessional as seen above. Not worth the time.

This is a terrific program. Everyone I've worked with has been so helpful and patient. Couldn't have made the needed home improvements without this program and the supportive team from NFC.

We would use NFC again. They have a great program to help home buyers, and it also helps the community. We were able to buy an older home that needed some work, and the loan went to getting necessary updates. That said, the process is long and stressful. Hopefully, everyone you work with is patient. I can't remember the exact timeline we had, but basically we needed to get an inspection done to tell us what we work we needed to do on the house, and then we needed to get estimates from contractors for that work and submit the one we want to NFC. They have to approve it. All of that needs to be done before closing. Then, after closing, you can get the work done. We had ours done in pieces. First was the furnace, I believe, and then we submitted the bill to NFC. The inspector came back out to make sure it was done, and then NFC issued a check to the contractor. It all takes time, and you have to personally be following up on a lot of stuff. For us, the time and effort was worth the forgivable loan.