Home Is Where the Card Is

That the Fieldses didn't complete his program is no surprise, Zabawa says. "Here's what I'm guilty of: working with people with bad credit. All those organizations that do credit counseling have people bomb out of their programs. It's like a fat person joining a gym. You can't make them want to lose weight; only they can. I'm probably stupid enough to dive in with these people, but you'd think the people I try to help would support that."

Stephanie Jimerson of Kansas City regrets she ever got involved with HomeBuyers. During more than a year in Zabawa's program, Jimerson spoke to the owner twice. Their second conversation came after what seemed a merry-go-round of unreturned phone calls and unanswered questions about a property Jimerson wanted to buy after HomeBuyers got her approved for a loan.

"He told me I needed to be patient and calm down," Jimerson recalls of Zabawa. "But I was being given listings that had been on the market for a while, and I would get on the computer and find out they were not the type of houses I was interested in. I had told [HomeBuyers] I wanted three bedrooms, a basement and a garage."

Jimerson figured that being approved for a $70,000 to $90,000 loan with HomeBuyers should have gotten her the house she wanted. Zabawa says Jimerson, a 29-year-old single female, was being too picky. Jimerson, he says, wanted a $69,000 HUD home that eventually sold well above market value.

"She was less than a year out of bankruptcy, and now she's got an attitude.... That says a lot about Stephanie Jimerson and why she filed bankruptcy."

But it also says a lot about David W. Zabawa. The truth is that, like Jimerson, many of his customers could get FHA loans from other nonprofit and government agencies without having to fork over $795 in fees for credit counseling.

Jarod White, an Omaha-based spokesman for Creditor Advisors, a national nonprofit organization specializing in debt consolidation (charging a monthly fee based on the amount of debt), says there is nothing magical about what Zabawa's HomeBuyers Assistance Foundation offers.

"You can rebuild your own credit by making arrangements and settlements with your creditors and giving it enough time for your credit rating to be updated," says White. "What he's doing is not illegal, that's true. But sometimes people are taken advantage of. You should examine all of your options before you go to [HomeBuyers].... People can apply for grants and aid themselves. Shit like that is free."

Government agencies and local real estate agents confirm White's assessment. What Zabawa does might not be illegal, but it proves that desperate people are willing to take desperate measures if they don't know what alternatives are available in the housing market. White calls Zabawa "a buffer" -- a middleman who knows how to lead the uninformed through the forest of home buying for a price that can be steep for some.

Jimerson, who filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, quit calling HomeBuyers and found the lost business card of a St. Louis real estate agent she had met three years earlier. She called the woman and explained her situation. The next day, she was preapproved for a $95,000 loan at 6.5 percent interest with a first-time homeowners' grant. Jimerson is scheduled to close later this month on her new home.

"I lost $700 with HomeBuyers," Jimerson says, "but I'm going to come out on top."

Zabawa and his family are living in a rented Lenexa duplex while he battles his own credit problems.

As of March, Zabawa was indebted to the Internal Revenue Service for $31,628.15 in tax liens (not including interest). Zabawa cleared those liens last month after taking five years to pay the government.

"I resolved them on March 15," Zabawa says. "After going through five revenue offices -- them misplacing papers and losing files -- I have prevailed. They're paid off, and I'm quite satisfied I've resolved that.

"I think I have gone over some mountains," Zabawa adds, "but I have been doing all I can -- maintaining a steady income and a job."

Zabawa says that, through following the advice he gives his customers, he has re-established his own credit. "I'm renting, but I will be a homeowner soon."