‘Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true.’
~ Leon Joseph Cardinal Suenens
Who does not dream of owning a piece of land, a house, of saying, ‘I am going home,’ and really meaning it? Yet as we all know, home prices in the Tahoe Truckee area are essentially out of reach for the ‘normal’ working family, leaving the classic American Dream a seemingly impossible one.
Yet, here is the story of a Latino family who made a life here and had the dream of owning a house. Although they are not yet American citizens, with effort, dedication and hard work, they made their dream come true.
The Muñoz family – Elena (mother), Benjamin (father), and three kids, Mauricio (14), Juanita (13) and Edgar (4) – and a hard-working local realtor are the main characters of this story.
‘In Mexico we had no money, no nothing,’ Elena said. Benjamin’s brothers, who lived in Tahoe and knew of the family’s hardship, helped him to come to the area. Benjamin says he saw immediately that here the family could make a good living. He convinced Elena to come and she walked into the United States of America 13 years ago with one baby in her arms and another on the way.
To make ends meet, both Benjamin and Elena worked full-time plus, while living in rentals around Kings Beach. Juanita, who had been a two-pound premature baby, was a sickly child. Public health officials told the family that the trailer in which they lived was not healthy for her and threatened to take Juanita away. The family constantly looked to other options, living in a variety of trailers and sometimes with extended family. ‘That is why we were working so hard here,’ Elena said.
Benjamin, who had worked ‘in the fields’ in Mexico, traded in the plow for tool bags, and worked on construction sites. Elena’s first job was at the Lodge at Squaw Valley, hitchhiking from Kings Beach to Squaw, carrying Mauricio, Juanita, and a heavy backpack. She worked from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., five days a week. The remaining two days of the week, she worked with a woman who ran her own housecleaning business. ‘She taught me English and I taught her Spanish,’ Elena said. ‘She also told me that ‘someday you can run your own business.’’ It took countless hours knocking on doors to find clients, but today, Elena’s Cleaning Service has been in business for 11 years.
In addition, Elena is the ‘Jill of all trades,’ making extra money by selling homemade tamales, babysitting, sewing, and doing flower arrangements.
They squirreled money away and eventually were able to move from trailers to a three-bedroom rental house. Olivia Palomino, Elena’s long-time friend, said, ‘You make good money, why don’t you buy a house?’
They started to look for a house, primarily looking in the more affordable Reno and Carson City markets. Although they had an adequate down payment, they had no luck in finding a lender; since they do not have social security numbers, nobody would help them.
‘I would call a lender, tell him about our story, and he would never call back,’ Elena said. She and Benjamin had heard of others buying homes under other people’s social security numbers, but the family wanted a home in their name. ‘When people told us we could not do it, we always kept trying, we knew our dream would come true.’
Olivia knew Elaine Durazo, a local Latina realtor who has lived here for 34 years, and suggested Elena call her. From the first moment of meeting the Muñoz family, ‘I knew I had to help them to find a house,’ Elaine said. ‘Their commitment was phenomenal.’
Elaine had heard about a loan program that didn’t require a social security number, but instead based its approval process on an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (or I-TIN, a special number granted by the I.R.S to those individuals, foreigners or not, that fulfill the requirements to file the taxes, but do not qualify for a Social Security Number). The I-TIN loan through a mortgage office in Pleasanton, Calif., was possible, but not easy, with strict guidelines, Elaine said. Applicants must be residents for at least two years, have a history of reported income and take three special classes in Sacramento. The downside of the I-TIN loans is that they are considered ‘high risk’ and come with higher interest rates, she said. It would be the first real estate transaction with non-American citizens that Elaine undertook. ‘I wasn’t sure we could pull this off. I knew we needed to burn a lot of candles and say lots of prayers,’ she said. ‘But every time a new condition came up, the family rose to the challenge and when we were able to achieve each new step, I felt stronger.’
The family continued to work hard, sometimes more than 12 hours a day. Often Elena would leave home at 6:30 a.m. and return after 9 p.m. ‘We also told the kids that they needed to help, to go to school, work hard, and cause no problems,’ Elena said.
Without the normal FICA score to go on, the loan approval process was arduous. The government verified the family’s employment, VOR (Verification of Rents), bank statements, and payments on utilities. The Muñoz had to amend their taxes back to 2004, paying back taxes and fees. Each document had to be translated to ensure the family knew what they were signing. They drove to the classes in Sacramento after work, twice sitting in a snowstorm for hours on I-80.
Then, even after a commitment letter guaranteeing a loan, the lender came back to say the family couldn’t afford it. Elaine protested and successfully persevered with the lender. Upon hearing the news, the Muñoz children shouted on the phone, ‘We did it, we did it.’
With pre-qualification, the family found a home in Sierra Meadows with three bedrooms, two baths, and a garage. ‘They wanted a house with these commodities in Kings Beach, but the prices next to the lake are much higher for a house like that,’ Elaine said. In their price range, Elaine could only find Kings Beach homes she describes as ‘junk.’
‘They came one day to my office, took a look at the listing of the houses on the computer, and they liked the one in Sierra Meadows,’ Elaine said. ‘It was good that from the first moment they had a vision of the house they wanted – you just need to plant the seed and the house comes.’
The deal was sealed. After moving in, it took the family only two weeks to do a remodel (with many pizza dinners). Elaine is still in contact with the family, helping them with translation, with papers and any other matters they might need.
Despite all the trials, ‘I would do it again,’ Elaine said. ‘We learned so much together…The Muñoz family is a great model for other families. God have given us all the same opportunities, you just need to work hard.’
After sitting in on the first Moonshine Ink interview with the family, Elaine said, ‘I was kind of stunned to hear Elena’s story yesterday, I thought I had heard it, but wow, when she told her story last evening, I almost wept for her and her struggles to make a better life for herself and her family. She is an incredible woman, and this family represents hope, and teaching others to keep their dreams alive!’
lena and Benjamin already have their second dream in line: citizenship.
~ Mayumi Elegado contributed to this story.
~ Elaine Durazo works with Prudential California Realty in Tahoe City. The office has just added a Spanish-only phone line, 530-581-2764.
