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Casandra Workman relaxes Friday in the living room of the model home she and her fiance have selected in KB Home's Brentwood community of North Las Vegas. Workman went through a homebuyers' assistance program provided by KB Home. The program helps potential customers qualify for mortgages and organize their budgets. Photo by JERRY HENKEL/ REVIEW-JOURNAL

Saturday, July 28, 2001
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Help for home buyers

KB program assists participants with proper strategies

Casandra Workman and her fiancé, Jason Wescoat, are in their mid-20s with no established credit history and just embarking on their careers.

She recently graduated from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and begins teaching English at Green Valley High School in the fall. He's working his way through accounting school.

When they decided to buy a home in Las Vegas earlier this year, they faced a number of challenges to qualifying for a mortgage.

Through her Internet search of Las Vegas home builders, Workman came across the Web site of KB Home and a program geared toward home buyers who need help.

The KB Homebuyers Club is designed to assist potential homeowners with all stages of buying a home, said Phyllis DeVaull, a financial counselor and KB's program coordinator in Las Vegas.

It includes everything from preliminary steps such as credit cleanup and development of a savings plan for a down payment to selection of a residential community and home floor plan.

"They pretty much educate you on what it takes to get a house, especially for us being so young, to qualify for a home," Workman said.

"They helped me negotiate payoffs on some credit cards and get it changed on my credit report. I had to bring in some letters with my student loan and car payments."

She met with DeVaull three times over the course of about two months.

DeVaull said most of the program's participants fall into four major categories: those with credit issues; those who were never taught how to manage a budget; people with too much debt; and home buyers who want to make informed decisions about upgrades and design.

The Las Vegas division of KB Home has provided the free service to 172 households since it started in May, and 52 have "graduated," or gone on to select a home, DeVaull said.

"There is no such thing as you can't buy a house," she said. "They just have to have the proper guidance and assistance to reach that dream."

Graduates aren't obliged to buy a KB Home, although DeVaull said she hopes they recognize the "one-stop shopping" convenience and develop loyalty and commitment to the company.

Workman said she and Wescoat looked at homes in several areas in the valley before deciding on the 1,700-square-foot Aztec model in the KB Home's Brentwood community near Martin Luther King Boulevard and Craig Road.

Construction of their $135,000 home is scheduled to begin in September, with completion set for January or February, Workman said.

KB Home is the No. 1 builder in the Las Vegas Valley with more than 3,000 closings in 2000, and is on track for about the same number this year, said Leah Bryant, president of the Las Vegas division.

Homes in its Morningview community in the east valley started at about $99,000, but that development has closed on the last of 200 homes. KB's best-selling division is Monaco in the southwest, around Buffalo Drive and Desert Inn Road, where only 400 of 1,200 homes remain.

Sales have also been strong in the Bella Terra subdivision at Southern Highlands, with prices ranging from $131,000 to $189,000, Bryant said.