Jillian and Kyle

Jillian and Kyle had been through a whirlwind six months—getting engaged, planning their wedding (that would be just before Thanksgiving), and setting off on their honeymoon right after. With all these life changes, they also had one more big goal: buying a home and moving in before Christmas.

This couple had been house hunting on Zillow and upon requesting a property showing in October 2024, got paired with expert Philadelphia real estate agent, Anthony Scornaienchi. Anthony led this sweet couple through a buyer consultation, where he learned their goals, needs, and current situation: all important things when helping buyers win in any market, but especially in a seller's market.

Jillian works as Director of Education at a Philadelphia College, while Kyle as a Commercial Electrician at the University of Pennsylvania, and Anthony quickly discovered that both of their employers offered some kind of Home Buyer Grant. Not only that, the state of Pennsylvania offers a First-Time Home Buyer Grant that they could potentially access, too.

Before moving forward with putting an offer on a house, Anthony sent them homework: contact their respective HR Departments and find out if (a) they were eligible for these grants in question, and (b) whether their respective grants could be combined; many grants have restrictions on stacking multiple sources of funding. Homework completed, and they discovered that there were no such restrictions for Kyle and Jillian... stack away!

The total of funding they could access? $15,000 that they could put towards their downpayment and closing costs. With this knowledge, they had a strong financial foundation to work from. It was time to start putting in offers.

The property they had their heart set on was a beautifully-updated 1,600sqft townhome, with four bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms, in West Philadelphia. There was already one other offer on the table, so to strengthen their chances of winning the home, they offered $5,000 over the asking price.

On November 10th 2024, their offer accepted, and Anthony managed to negotiate $5,000 in seller concessions to help further with closing costs (plus a further $3,000 to remediate their repair requests after inspecton). With their Christmas goal in mind, Jillian & Kyle's suggested closing date was end-December, with the possibility to close even sooner if Title and Mortgage worked fast... so it was all systems go!

All parties got on the case to secure this couple their dream home for Christmas, while they enjoyed their wedding and honeymoon, and amazingly everything was good to close on December 13th.

By the time they reached the closing table, Jillian and Kyle had secured a total of $23,000 in grants and seller concessions, completely covering their downpayment and closing costs—in fact, there was a surplus of over $7,000, meaning they actually received a check at closing. This is an incredibly rare occurrence; normally at best a buyer might 'break even' at the closing table when using grants!

The $7,000 was now theirs to enjoy, giving them extra funds to start their life together in their new home (every first time home buyer knows the first back-and-forth Home Depot trips will steal most of that check!). Huge congrats to Jillian and Kyle!