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Lorenzo Littles, Dallas Director of EHOP

DALLAS -- There are thousands of houses in Dallas-Fort Worth with the potential of becoming someone's first home. A national non-profit organization has an "enterprising" program to make it happen.

"This is one of the properties that EHOP was able to purchase at a significant discount from HUD." said Lorenzo Littles, Dallas Director of EHOP.

EHOP stands for: Enterprise Home Ownership Program. For those struggling to realize the American Dream, it's like warm milk.

"What you'll see, with the work we're putting into it, it will make a tremendous purchase opportunity for the homebuyer," Littles said about a house we were touring in a Pleasant Grove neighborhood.

The program is non-profit house flipping for the benefit of moderate to low-income first-time home buyers.

"That is exactly right. That's an easy way to explain it," Littles said. EHOP is all about sustainable homeownership.

Littles explains, "Sustainable homeownership is putting people into a home that they can afford - that won't end up back on the foreclosure roles in three to five years."

For example - a house in Pleasant Grove was a practically new three bedroom that appraises for $115-thousand - and will be sold to a qualified applicant for less that $85K.

On the flipside of town is another flip. This one is in an Oak Cliff neighborhood.

"This is a much older neighborhood. The houses here are in poor condition and it's more of a challenge to rehab these homes. We're spending a lot of money to pretty much bring it up to the same standard of the other house you saw." said Richard Pine, VP, Enterprise Community Partnership, Inc.

Pine said that they don’t technically choose the home – that they chose the areas - and are required through contract with HUD to purchase all the homes in that area.

"We're doing homeownership opportunities plus we're also doing neighborhood revitalization. So, hopefully this house will become an asset to this neighborhood and help encourage redevelopment of other properties and improve values throughout the neighborhood," said Pine.

Potential buyers have to take a homebuyers course. The courses don't qualify you: income does. You have to make less than 80% of the Dallas-Fort Worth median -- so less than $53-thousand annually.

"Actually with this program we are permitted to sell the homes up to 115% of the area median - which would be about 67-thousand dollars in annual income. And that income is adjusted for family size," Littles said.

Income qualifications are adjusted depending on family size. Teachers and law enforcement offices are encouraged to participate in the Enterprise Home Ownership Program -- income restrictions are waived.

For more information on EHOP, log on to www.enterprisefoundation.org, or call (214) 651-7789.