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Press Room
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Building Trust in Troubling Times
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July 22, 2008
With times the way they are, the clearance rack is a popular gathering spot for shoppers these days. And with prices at all-time lows and a large stock available, the housing market should be no exception.
But staff at J.C. Marshall Financial Services, Inc., sees the opposite happening. So they want to educate wary potential homebuyers about the realities of the market and get them into their first homes.
Broker-Realtor Jesse Colome, owner of 1st Universal Executive Properties Inc. and his sister, Catherine Colome, a senior mortgage consultant, started the Real Estate Education Laboratory with attorney Andrew Boyer, appraiser Curtis Newsom, insurance agent Loren Burkey and home inspector Loran Schonbachler. The laboratory offers information and assistance to the Hispanic community.
And after spending some time among the area's Latino community, Catherine Colome says that fear is especially true for minorities.
"Being a member of the LBA (Latino Business Association), I've tried to reeducate the consumer public that just because other people have troubles, doesn't mean you can't buy a house," said Colome, senior mortgage consultant for J.C. Marshall Financial Services.
'A concerted effort'
Colome has discovered that most people who have not owned a home before, have done so out of fear. "They don't even know they can afford it. It may take a year to get this whole program off the ground, but I'm trying to make a concerted effort through Joliet organizations (such as) the chamber and Latino Business Association," Colome said.
Along with her brother, Jesse, a local Realtor, they formed a group made up of an attorney, a home inspector and an appraiser.
They want to get out in the community to local churches and organizations to offer advice.
This way, they can answer questions any potential or interested home buyers may have, and inform them of the step they need to follow.
Colome and her group had documents translated into Spanish to provide people with the necessary paperwork. She is also bilingual so she can take applications in Spanish and can even explain the process in Spanish.
"The Realtors that I work with are mostly Latino, so there is a comfort level there where they can talk to them and say, 'This is what I want, this is the kind of home I want,'" said Colome.
Creating a relationship
Tuck Marshall, president J.C. Marshall Financial Services, said comfort level is important. "What they are trying to do is to recreate that type of relationship within the minority community where somebody trusts somebody," he said. "Because what we have discovered is that people by ethnicity pick on other people of the same ethnicity. If you are going to rip somebody off you rip off your own kind, which is what happened during the housing boom."
Optimism in a negative market
If you have a decent credit score, Colome said, it is possible to own a home. And, she said, you don't need 20 percent down. After the Realtors talk to potential buyers, they go to Colome so that she can do a prequalification letter, which is like a mini application. She receives permission to run their credit score, find out where they work, how long they have been there, what their income is, what assets they are using, and the amount of debit.
From that information she can do a quick analysis to get the pre qualification letter including credit approval.
Jesse Colome, owner of 1st Universal Executive Properties, said "We want to provide real time information about Will County and the area. We want people to be optimistic about the housing market and let them know that now is the time to be buying."
Sellers also need to be informed. He said, "Sellers need to be realistic about how to price their homes and property."
Fannie Mae has a loan program called My Community, and Freddie Mac has one called Home Possible to make it even easier for first-time homebuyers.
The goal with minorities is simple: putting them in their own homes. Help them understand that owning a home is very different from renting. Catherine Colome wants them to understand the responsibility of owning a home, the pride of owning a home, the expense of owning a home and to reduce the fear of owning a home.
And she wants them to understand that their name and reputation that will get them in that home.
"It is going back to old-fashioned lending the way it used to be," she said. "... If you could write your name and say you had a job, you had a loan."
Source: Erin Biesen, Special to the Herald News
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