Online homebuying course is helpful tool

Are you currently looking to buy a house? Or, perhaps, were you in the market before the prices and interest rates started jumping up?

Home ownership is still within reach and we here at NeighborWorks of Grays Harbor are here to help!

Amy Hemple once said, “Luck is where preparation meets opportunity.” You might think your timing might just be bad luck. However, interest rates and housing demand change, so one thing you can do is get yourself ready to buy by taking a simple online home buying course that is accepted (and often required) by lenders!

Homebuyer education needed!

If you’re a first-time homebuyer, you’ll need to get some education in order to qualify for certain types of financing. This is the preparation part. We’ve mentioned this before, but it bears repeating – our online course on homebuyer education is easy, convenient, inexpensive, and required for many different lending programs, including ours.

eHomeAmerica.org

For just $50 – you can complete the eHome course at your own pace, at the time that’s convenient for you and in the privacy of your own home or anywhere there’s an internet connection.

Created by Venture and our parent organization, NeighborWorks of America, this course is recognized throughout the industry and takes about six to eight hours to complete.

It includes animated videos, easy-to-read content, and module quizzes throughout to ensure your complete understanding of the home buying processes. It also includes a one-on-one advisory session with our HUD-certified housing counselor – that’s just a conversation with a counselor at our office here in Aberdeen – usually by phone.

The course is also available in Spanish!

It's convenient and unbiased

With crazy job schedules and so many other conflicts to work around, the go-at-your-own-pace format of this online instruction should suit everyone’s individual needs.

The comprehensive curriculum lays out what steps to take when preparing to buy a home, and it tells you what questions to ask and what pitfalls to avoid.

Produced by a non-profit organization, this class is presented with an unbiased approach. The only “bias” it has is to make sure students become well educated potential home buyers.

Based on the NeighborWorks America's “Realizing the American Dream” curriculum, eHomeAmerica.org is the only internet homebuyer education curriculum in Washington that meets the National Industry Standards. It also means the course certificate has more value to HUD, USDA, Washington State Housing Finance and other lenders that require it for some of their loan products.

At the successful completion of this simple, but comprehensive course, you will receive a certificate of completion that will make you eligible for certain HUD, USDA and Washington State Housing Finance Commission funds.

Don’t wait until you are in the process of trying to finalize your financing! Take the course early so meeting this requirement won’t slow you down!

Educated home buyers are more knowledgeable home owners

One of the other obvious benefits of taking the course is that, well, you come out a more educated home buyer!

Learn just what you can afford in a house, how financing works, how much money you should set aside for a down payment, what all those extra fees are for and what home ownership might really cost!

The certificate for the course is valid for a year. So, if you were hoping to buy a house, but have been discouraged by the high prices and low inventory right now, this is one concrete step you can take now to prepare yourself for when a good opportunity presents itself! (That, and saving up money for a down payment!)

Visit our website!

Did you know that on our website at www.nwghc.org, we have many blogs from the past. You can even search by topic!

And, if you haven’t done so yet, check out our Facebook page! That’s another place we like to give housing, maintenance and budgeting tips. Feel free to ask a home-maintenance or housing-related question there or private message us. We are always looking for ideas for what kinds of topics you’d like to see in future columns. Perhaps you have a housing or maintenance question you’d like to see covered.