By the end of last year, the door to a dream had begun to crack open for Lilli Rayne.
She'd spent about five years building her dog-walking and pet-sitting business into a profitable venture in Asheville, N.C.
"My whole life had been entirely where I wanted it to be at that point," she recalls.
As she built her business, Rayne also left behind her history of less-than-stellar credit.
"For the first time in my life, I had a credit score that I could have finally bought a home with," she says, a dream she'd had her entire adult life.