I've been in the U.S. Marine Corp. for 12 years and my wife is in the military too. We transferred to Michigan from Minnesota and had been renting apartments while we looked for the right home. I often leave on short tours and it's important for my wife to be safe while I am away. Instead of throwing my money away on yet another apartment, I just made the final decision to purchase a home.

We started looking at homes and we'd heard about a Lombardo community. We looked at some of the homes that they had and they looked perfect for us. We don't have any kids right now, but it looked like a great community if we ever wanted to start a family. The people are friendly and there is a school in the subdivision.

My wife had to go to California and while she was gone, I went back to Lombardo to surprise my wife with a home. The sales consultant was great. She sat down with me and showed me what our payments would be for the house and all the expenses that owning a home can bring. She helped me see that we could afford it and worked with me to make sure the payments would match our lifestyle. They've been really, really tremendous.

I bought the house and didn't say a thing to her about it. She was coming back for Christmas so I wanted everything moved and set up for when she arrived. We moved everything into the new house and tied a big red bow on the front door. When she arrived, on Christmas Eve, I told her we were looking at a couple of homes to that we might buy. I brought her to our new home and she was shocked. She saw all of our furniture and it hit her that this was our new home.

I've never seen my wife that happy and it's been a great experience to own our first home. It's just, just an overwhelming feeling of joy and happiness. There's no feeling like the feeling you have coming into your own home and being able to kick back and just relax. I would definitely recommend to my fellow Marines and military members out there to go to Lombardo for a home purchase.

The first Christmas was messy but enjoyable. It was very memorable for the both of us being first time homeowners. We had a little Christmas tree and presents. It's definitely home.

- Jose