Michael’s Story: How Truehold helped him regain financial stability

The Truehold team talked to Michael, a Truehold resident in Oklahoma City, who used a sale-leaseback to get back on his feet after a sudden job loss.

Michael is a family man. He has a daughter who recently got engaged, his girlfriend has four adult children, and they’re proud grandparents to three grandchildren. Michael shares his house with several family members, two dogs, and two cats, and stays busy with work, ball games, and babysitting. 

A Sudden Change: Michael's Job Loss

Michael's life took a turn, however, when his company was acquired by another. Even though he’d been at the company for 14 years and was a well-trusted manager, he lost his job. His meager severance package was not enough to cover his expenses, so Michael had to rely on unemployment income, which was only a third of his previous salary. As his savings dried up, he fell behind on his debt payments. He needed a way to free up some cash. 

Searching for a Solution: Michael Finds Truehold

Michael knew his home equity held significant wealth that could support him during this financial emergency, but selling his house didn’t feel like an option: “I didn't want to have to uproot my girlfriend, my animals, her daughter, and my granddaughter.” Michael started looking into potential home sale-leaseback options. He researched various companies that offered sale-leasebacks, doing his “due diligence on it,” but he was wary of the “pitfalls” and “gotcha clauses” that some companies had. “I was in the mortgage business for 14 years, and so I've dealt with enough people to know when people are on the up-and-up.” Michael wanted to work with a reputable company that could meet his needs, and that's when he discovered Truehold.

“I'm a firm believer that your reputation makes a difference.” Michael found that Truehold had the best reputation among all the companies that he researched. He was impressed by their positive reviews and, “felt like Truehold was the best option for me to work with.”

Michael “got a good offer immediately, and they moved quickly through the process.” 

He appreciated the amount of “personalization and contact that I had with everyone at Truehold that I worked with. I got quick responses. I got responses that I knew personally were accurate. The knowledge base that I interacted with made the process much more comfortable for me.”

“I'm a firm believer that your reputation makes a difference.”

Michael's Financial Comeback 

Completing the sale-leaseback process with Truehold has brought a sense of relief to Michael's life and given him the much-needed financial stability he was seeking.  He caught up on payments and raised his credit score by 20 points, a necessary step for him to be considered for competitive jobs in finance and IT. “Completing my process with Truehold allowed me to get caught up and clear up everything that I needed so that I could actually get back to work. It's definitely made things a lot easier.”

Back at work and filled with renewed confidence, Michael appreciates the peace of mind that his remaining equity provides. “Truehold helped put me in a position to be more prepared in the event that something did happen again.” 

Michael's story is an inspiring testament to how home equity can serve as a safety net in case of emergencies.  Truehold's sale-leaseback played a pivotal role in helping Michael regain his financial security and regain his footing. If you're a homeowner looking to access your equity, Truehold's home sale-leaseback program offers a promising solution. It can help you cash out what you've invested in your property while still allowing you to stay in your home and take some of the financial stress off your plate.

“Completing my process with Truehold allowed me to get caught up and clear up everything that I needed so that I could actually get back to work. It's definitely made things a lot easier.”

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.