You’ll Never Finish if You Don’t Start!
Leslie is a member of Burnett Avenue Baptist Church, one of the institutions that partners with the Louisville Urban League to increase home ownership in the Black community. Leslie had always wanted to own a home. She’d rented all of her adult life, but she knew home ownership was on the horizon. When the Louisville Urban League’s homebuyers program was mentioned during church announcements one Sunday in 2023, she thought “Maybe this is my time to go ahead and start.”
Leslie did more than start; she set a goal and made a plan. Shortly after hearing about the announcement, Leslie contacted the Urban League to enroll in the Financially In Tune (FIT) class. The class, taught by LUL’s Financial Empowerment Counselor and HUD-certified housing counselor, serves as an orientation to home buyer’s education. It covers (among other topics): goal setting, creating spending plans, improving credit, and determining housing affordability. Leslie took notes and was determined to work toward her goals. .
At the same time that she started the homebuying process, , she began a Master’s program in business administration. Although much of her attention was trained on completing her degree, she also started to incorporate the lessons she’d learned during the FIT class– building a savings, improving her credit score, establishing a budget that would prepare her for home ownership. Leslie worked her way through the notes she’d taken from the FIT class. “At the end of 2023, I said to myself, ‘2024 is going to be the year I meet this goal.’” Leslie continued to work toward two goals at once: completing her Master’s degree and preparing for home ownership. “At the beginning of March, I reached back out to the Urban League. I didn’t want the year to expire.”
Leslie began working with a financial empowerment counselor, Bianca Blakely, in April. At their first meeting, Bianca was surprised to find a client so prepared for home ownership. “It felt like I was meeting someone at the end of their home-buying education, not the beginning,” Bianca said. In the months between her FIT class and her first meeting with a financial empowerment counselor, Leslie had raised her credit score to 760, saved money toward her downpayment, and started working with a realtor. Bianca enrolled Leslie in LUL’s Homeownership Training Program, a three-part home buyer education class taught by LUL’s HUD-certified counselors. The class prepares clients for home ownership while giving them access to HUD-sponsored downpayment assistance programs. By July, Leslie closed on her new home.
Leslie became a homeowner and a Master of Business Administration within weeks. Both journeys started with a goal. Leslie has advice for future clients who dream of homeownership but don’t feel prepared: “Set a goal and stick to it. Sometimes you just have to start the process. I knew I would never finish if I didn’t start.“
