When Dora Loeven wanted to buy a house in 1986, she turned to a new nonprofit organization called Tri-Churches Housing Inc. The nonprofit was so small it had to borrow an expert from another homeownership counseling organization to help guide Loeven through the financial intricacies of home buying.
The 10 1/2 -foot-wide rowhouse she bought doesn't offer the alpine vistas that she'd prefer, but it does deliver a great view of Pigtown.
"It gives me my freedom, independence and a little bit of property," said Loeven, 74, a native of Holland who moved to the United States in the late 1960s. "I have flowers here in my little front yard at the moment - tulips - and people often look at them and they say, `Isn't that nice.'"
Since Loeven moved into her Pigtown rowhouse 14 years ago, the Tri-Churches staff has grown to five, and the nonprofit organization now advises 500 people per year. Free homeownership counseling in Baltimore has enjoyed similar growth. Now, housing counseling is provided in the city by 25 organizations, 10 of which have started in the past decade. But along with that growth have come problems.
The groups, generally funded by a mix of federal, state and local grants as well as support from banks and other mortgage lenders, educate first-time buyers about the home-buying process. Buyers, some of whom have never had a checking account, learn everything from how to choose a loan, to what to look for in a house, to how to prepare for the responsibilities of homeownership.
In the ideal situation, counselors talk with prospective buyers before the customers even begin looking at homes. At larger organizations, participants might first attend a home-buying overview seminar and then take classes on how to look for a home, the loan process, and what happens at settlement.
This education can be followed by individual counseling for prospective buyers on such subjects as improving bad credit, determining the amount of the monthly mortgage they can afford and setting aside money for home repairs. Bolstered with this knowledge, they then can seek a home.
While most first-time buyers gain free, valuable information from the counselors, some local housing experts question whether the current state of homeownership counseling reflects more quantity than quality. The 25 groups offering homeownership counseling have different qualifications for their counselors, resulting in a wide disparity in experience and abilities from one organization to the next.
