From Renting to Owning: Esmeralda's Journey to Homeownership

"If we can dream it, we can achieve it."

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From Renting to Owning: Esmeralda's Journey to Homeownership

After ten years of renting in Etzatlán, Mexico, Esmeralda now stands in a living room she owns. Her four-year-old son Zaid plays on the floor. No more six-month leases. No more wondering if the landlord will renew. For the first time, they have security.

As a makeup artist and stylist in this small town 90 minutes from Guadalajara, Esmeralda spends her time making other women feel beautiful: pageant queens, quinceañeras, brides, and graduates. While running her growing business from a rental, she was coping with the insecurity of short rental cycles, wondering if the landlord would renew, if the rent would spike, if she'd have to pack up her son's drawings from yet another wall.

The Hope of a New Program

Las Fuentes, a land ownership program by UR+PA, offered something different: transparent financing with affordable monthly payment options, financial education courses, and construction support. Unlike traditional lenders who offered Esmeralda impossible interest rates, this program is designed specifically for people like her: hardworking people who want to own a home but have been excluded by exorbitant home prices and rejections or unreasonable terms from banks. 

"People in the community said that the program was trustworthy," she recalls, and she felt a glimmer of hope.

The Call

When Esmeralda first applied, she wasn't selected. But that wasn’t the end of her journey. Another family opted out of the program and her phone rang. The call came while she sat in a hospital corridor, her father ill in a room nearby. Her family rallied, helping with that first payment while she stayed by her father's side. 

Over the next 24 months, Esmeralda made payments diligently by minimizing her spending and using the funds from her small business. During that time, she also attended a session to learn about construction finance. "I wish more people like me had financial education," she reflects. "People are intimidated, but it's more possible than they think to own an asset."

When she finally held her land deed, she said, “It may seem like this is just a piece of paper, but it’s so exciting to finally say, 'I own a piece of land.’”

Building a Home

Shortly after she held her land deed in hand for the first time, Esmeralda was ready to build, declaring, "I want to build my house, I want to make that dream come true."

December 2, 2024, construction began, and with it came the common challenges of building: materials that ran short, contractors who vanished, her own knowledge gaps that left her vulnerable to setbacks. 

It was Zaid who kept her going. “I can’t wait to invite my friends here,” he said, giving Esmeralda the push she needed to see through the challenges.

New Story and Construye con Confianza, an architectural service provider fostered by New Story to make home construction safer and more affordable, helped Esmeralda navigate construction's maze of decisions, connecting her with a credit union in Guadalajara where she was approved for a loan with a fair interest rate and payment terms. Access to professional architectural advice helped Esmeralda make sure her home met her functional needs within her budget.

Two Stories, Infinite Possibilities

Today, her home rises two stories above land that she owns. The ground floor holds space for Esmeralda’s side business, which is constructing party crafts. Upstairs, Esmeralda and her son have added personal touches to their bedrooms.

She said, “When organizations take care of and support the right people, we realize we are not alone. We just have to focus and be very clear about what our reasons are, and well, here is my greatest reason, my greatest motivation (holding Zaid). Today, here I am, able to give him that house that I dreamed of.”

Zaid is preparing for primary school, already planning which friends he'll invite over. 

The Ripple Effect

When we visited Esmeralda for her home completion ceremony, she was thinking about other people still trapped in six-month rental cycles. Talking about home ownership, she tells them, ”If we can dream it, we can achieve it.”

But she knows it's more than dreaming. It's family members who help with initial payments while you sit in hospitals. It's organizations that see you as a person with dignity, not charity. It's a four-year-old's faith that Mamá will figure it out.

Her home stands as testimony to determination and what becomes possible when systems shift to include those they've historically excluded. 

Now, Esmeralda is encouraging others like her to join New Story’s program. 

“Families all want to have a home for their children. It comes with mixed emotion—joy, sadness, remembering everything you went through—but it’s all truly worth it. Every sacrifice has its reward. You finally have the satisfaction that it’s your own house that no one will ever kick you out of.” 

This is the new equation we’re creating together: one woman + one child + countless supporters = a generational change. In Esmeralda's living room, where makeup brushes share space with coloring books, where dreams were built one payment at a time, the equation finally balances.