Financial Fitness
IMPORTANT! Get started by downloading and COMPLETING our Intake Documents for Homebuyer Education, Financial Fitness, and Credit & Budget Counseling. You must complete the Intake Documents to receive your Certificate of Completion.
Once completed please email your Intake Documents to housingadvisory@homeportohio.org or call 614-221-8889 with any questions.
Interpreter services are available for Homeport consultations. Please call for guidance.
Financial Fitness Class Information
Who should take Financial Fitness?
First-time homebuyers with a credit score of less than 640 and/or any one of the following situations:
Needs assistance with creating a spending plan/ budget
low credit score or unaware of credit score,
limited savings,
less than 18 months of steady income,
bankruptcy not yet discharged/dismissed or its only been 1-2 years since it’s been discharged/dismissed
Length: 6 Hours
Schedule: Saturday mornings
(2) three-hour sessions
9:00am – 12:00pm
Check register link for current class dates
Topics Covered:
Budgeting
Financial Planning
Savings
Banking
Credit
Taxes and Insurance
Financial Fitness
Total Length: 8 Hours
Financial Fitness Workshops are virtual sessions held via ZOOM
This month’s Financial Fitness Class Series
Kathy Carter, second from right, celebrates closing. Left of her is Homeport's Brenda Moncrief. On the far left is real estate agent Melle Eldridge of King Thompson. On the right is Gail Blizzard, Vice President & Mortgage Lender at Park National Bank.
Greater Linden Homes resident Sherry White, second from right, at her closing in December.
Since 2012, Kathy Carter has been eligible to purchase the Northeast Columbus home she had leased from Homeport since 1997. But wanting it and making it happen are definitely different, Carter said.
“I had a lot of financial hardships, not even knowing how to pay rent at times let alone buying a house,” the Framingham Village resident said.
That changed on Dec. 29, the final business day of 2017, when she signed paperwork that made her 4-bedroom, 1 ½ bath residence her home.
The end of year closing was the eleventh in 2017 for Homeport in its lease option program that, under terms of the construction financing, require the homes to be rented for 15 years before a sale can take place to the person or family in it the 15th year or beyond.
While Carter’s story is heartwarming by the length of time – twenty years -- it took her to transition from renter to owner at her home, it is not unusual in terms of the work homeownership requires – income, credit scores and general homebuyer education.
“We tell them, ‘we’ll be there to help you but it is up to you to cross that finish line,’” said Homeport Lease Option Program Manager Brenda Moncrief. “We’ll give you the tools (counseling, courses), but it is up to you to do the work.”
Also closing on a Homeport lease-option home in December was Greater Linden Homes resident Sherry White. After leasing her home seven years, White came home after the closing and said to herself, “‘This is my home.’’’
Her message: “Clean up your credit and get what you want. That is the most important thing. And have faith in your Realtor, Lender and the Grace of God. Learn what to do and how to do it.”
Homeport’s Moncrief said there is a message about the last two sales from 2017.
“Both of these residents put in the work and made it to the finish line. They did not stop when they got that first ‘no.’ We want to encourage other residents when you get to that first roadblock … don’t stop. Keep working and you will get that American Dream.”
Homeport has sold 24 lease-option homes since 2013 and has a total of 142 homes eligible for purchase in its Framingham, Greater Linden, Kingsford, Joyce and Southeast Columbus single family lease-option communities. The 11 homes sold in 2017 was a record for a single year in the lease-option program.