Unconventional Key to Landing Minority Buyers
(November 11, 2004) -- Churches, employers, and nonprofit housing counseling agencies are some of the means through which practitioners can tap the homeownership wave from minority and immigrant households, executives from the country's secondary mortgage market entities and credit unions said.
The executives addressed attendees of the 2004 REALTORS® Conference & Expo, which ran Nov. 4-8, in Orlando, Fla.
Research shows African American households overwhelmingly view their church as their most reliable information source. So practitioners must learn to work with these institutions to become "trusted advisers," said Brian Murphy, a senior products manager at Fannie Mae, at a seminar on emerging markets.
To get started, form a relationship with African American churches experienced in offering social services and position yourself as someone who can link church members to no- and low-downpayment mortgage products and products that don't require a conventional credit history or that are targeted to buyers with impaired credit, speakers said.
It's clear from research that many minority and immigrant households don't see themselves as able to buy, even if in many cases they're well-positioned to do so. Minorities and immigrants also are often uncertain about the homebuying process, mistrustful of financial institutions, or have misconceived notions about whether they can get financing, said Murphy and Craig Nickerson, vice president of expanding markets at Freddie Mac.
—By Robert Freedman, REALTOR® Magazine Online |
