00:10kristin welcome to 10 minute talks thank you so much so i'm so excited to sit down with you
00:18we talked about how i've been seeing all of this conversation on social media in person there's
00:26all these resources coming out where we're hearing more parents talk about teaching their kids and
00:31young adults about financial literacy where do you think as an industry we should really start
00:37connecting financial literacy to homeownership well i think it is i mean it's obviously connected
00:45there's so many pieces that you need to understand about financial literacy in the process leading up
00:51to buying a home and most people are so confused about all of it so they're trying to learn about
00:57credit and budgeting and all these basic components to financial literacy at the pump at the moment that
01:03they are buying a home which is why i'm really interested in engaging this industry on how we
01:08teach financial literacy because it is the moment that people are actually learning these things
01:14i feel like there's a lot of conversation not just anecdotally but that we see online around this
01:21misconception that young americans have that the dream of homeownership is unrealistic for them
01:27what do you think is driving that disconnect between aspiration and confidence and how much of it do you
01:34think fundamentally comes down to really not understanding the home buying process yeah no it's actually i mean
01:42it's interesting especially in the last few years we've seen the percentage of people that say
01:47homeownership is a good investment drop in our data from i think it was like 87 percent to 41 percent
01:54or
01:54some something like that it was pretty dramatic um but we're also seeing skepticism continue to rise
02:00not just around buying a home but also around working with industry professionals um loan officers or real
02:07estate agents and so there's a lot of fear and anxiety and yet there's high um belief that they that
02:15homeownership does equal security in some way so what we've i haven't even released this data yet but
02:21we found some data in a new study around how um people believe that homeownership is where they want
02:27to put their money like there's a sense of security there and that home ownership specifically creates that
02:33security but that they feel that having a mortgage is a trap in some way so there's like this conflicting
02:39feeling that i think a lot of people have um and in our last report we talked about how homeownership
02:45is very much still connected to the american dream for the next generation um so there's a lot of i
02:52think
02:52anxiety confusion overwhelm and all of that around what homeownership means for them and that in and of
02:59itself combined with the lack of financial literacy is actually preventing people from going through the process
03:05you just mentioned how research that you've done at first home iq has shown that younger buyers are genuinely
03:13overwhelmed by the amount of information that is available to them and about the whole process in general
03:18we've seen increasing trends from information consumption an information consumption
03:24standpoint where they're increasingly turning to non-traditional sources like youtube or in social media for answers
03:33how do you think the housing industry can better meet first-time homebuyers where they are instead of
03:40sitting on the back end and expecting them to figure out the system on their own
03:45yeah i think for one we have to understand that youtube and social media and all of that is now
03:50a
03:50traditional source of education especially for the next generation but i think for everyone i mean
03:55year after year i think it's been the last four years that we've seen youtube come up as the number
04:00one
04:00source people go to for um home ownership education in our next gen home ownership um series so i you
04:08know
04:08i think there's that there's ai there's uh more comfortability in in going places where they are not
04:14going to feel stupid asking questions and i think that there's you know there's the overwhelm but there's
04:20also this like shame which does connect back to what are their early experiences around money and how has
04:27money been talked about in the home or not talked about um so going to places like youtube or ai
04:34can
04:35help relieve some of that anxiety in some ways where they are building some confidence um it also can
04:41create some overwhelm so as an industry professional i think you showing up as a guide to say hey why
04:48don't
04:48you watch this series of videos you can always direct people to our non-profit first home iq's videos or
04:54some other third party source where there's education that is going to feel safe for people
05:00to consume um also i think showing people that it's like giving people calculators things that allow
05:07people to play around with the numbers for themselves so that they come out feeling empowered
05:12um i always go back to there's a framework we used in in social work or that people use in
05:18social work
05:18called trauma informed care and it's for people who are particularly skeptical so it works really well here
05:25um but one of the the components of that is creating a sense of safety and so first and foremost
05:31you want
05:31people to feel that they are safe asking questions that there's transparency around the process um
05:38and ultimately all of this is leading to empowerment so you want the consumer to feel that they are empowered
05:44and that you are a guide in that process so i think it's great if people can create social content
05:50youtube content all of that but i think more important it's about you guiding them through that
05:54that's such an interesting point because i think of my friends and the questions that they have about
06:02things and they're definitely more interested in playing around with resources before they go talk to
06:08someone so that they don't feel like they're misrepresenting themselves or so they're not
06:14disappointed when they go in that they have a good expectation of how those conversations are gonna go
06:21yeah i have a very very intelligent friend who had saved plenty for his down payment and he had asked
06:28me
06:28um you know like some questions and i was like it's time for you to talk to a loan officer
06:33let me introduce
06:34you to somebody and um and he pushed back really hard he was like no no no i i need
06:39to play around
06:39with the numbers some more and i thought this is this is exactly the situation that so many people are
06:45in they're nervous about starting that conversation and so i actually sent him some of the first home
06:50iq resources that um you can like make a plan at learn.firsthomeiq.com he played around with the
06:56numbers and then he said okay now i can talk to somebody and i i think that is actually a
07:02really crucial
07:02part of this process now that people need to feel more comfortable um like you said not worried that
07:10they're going to be disappointed or that they're going to say something stupid and um and then they're
07:15going to be relieved when they have a good conversation with you but that interim step is what
07:19is actually going to make or break the deal for a lot of people are they going to get to
07:24the place
07:24where they have the confidence to have a conversation i think that we can agree that the financial
07:30education aspect of this and homeowner education home ownership education needs to happen much
07:36earlier how do you think mortgage and real estate professionals can lean into that educator role
07:43so there's a lot of different ways to do this we have some ambassadors who are actually going into
07:49schools and leading conversations in high schools and colleges but you don't have to do that you can also
07:56leverage just your database i mean that every person that has a kid is trying to figure out how to
08:02teach
08:02them financial literacy i mean none of them learned this when they were growing up and they also often
08:08are making mistakes and and you know i mean they even say that the your um the research shows that
08:13our
08:13money habits are ingrained by the age of seven so it it can't even happen too early you know where
08:20you're at least starting some conversation so where you can step in and say hey let's um do a financial
08:27literacy series for all all of my past customers and bring your kids or let's talk about how to have
08:34these conversations with your kids um no matter what age they are i think that's a great way to bring
08:39value to your community it's showing up with your expertise and then you're re-engaging people that are
08:45going to buy again in the future and um and then probably building a referral base out of that so
08:51i
08:51think that's um you know one way to do that of course just continuing to put out content youtube social
08:57media um that type of thing is also going to be helpful i think that's such an interesting point
09:03because i feel like increasingly especially people under 40 who are really looking to buy their first home
09:12are sort of hesitant to talk to their parents about it but might want to do their own research
09:19and then might want to talk to somebody who's an actual professional and understands things because
09:25i mean if you think about how often one person buys a home you don't remember all of the pieces
09:31it's a
09:32very complex process right so however you're if your parents have lived in their homes for 10 or 15 or
09:3920
09:39years your process could look totally different from theirs yeah and i think we've talked about this
09:45but i mean buying a home 30 years ago is just a different thing than buying a home today you
09:51know
09:51and i think that it's easy to forget that and um and it's important that we we show up with
09:57compassion around um you know the fact that things are different today and saving for a down payment
10:03looks very different today than it did back then but uh but yeah even for someone like i bought a
10:09home just
10:09five years ago and i have been in this industry most of my life and i still feel like oh
10:16you know there's some anxiety if you start thinking about going through that process again
10:21um so i think that having those conversations is challenging for the parents but also for the kids
10:27they are um they're like you said they're wanting multiple sources not just to hear from their parents
10:34they're going to want to hear from experts and other people that have gone through the process like
10:38them um so any way that you can show up in that you know in that circle as a resource
10:46and that's
10:46really important i would say too of just showing up as an educator in your community and kind of framing
10:52your brand around that versus saying you're there for the transaction you know of course you're not
10:59going to have those conversations early and a lot of our data shows that people the majority of people
11:04are feeling that they're going to be taken advantage of by a loan officer or a real estate professional
11:09so they're not going to want to have that conversation unless you have shown up as someone who
11:13they believe they're not going to be taken advantage of in that early conversation
11:18now if you could change one thing about the way that we as an industry of real estate and mortgage
11:24professionals support first-time homebuyers what would it be i think that it's exactly what we've
11:32been talking about around showing up as an educator and um and i think that that means creating this
11:40interim space well before someone is actually ready to buy a home um so that's that's really what i have
11:48devoted a lot of my time and resources around is how do we help people show up for the next
11:54generation before they're ready to buy so that you are um either showing up in their news feed with
12:00resources or in their community um you know with the parents that type of thing but so many people
12:07are just held back because they don't have someone safe that they can talk to um and i think if
12:13you're
12:13able to show up as an educator in your community you're going to unlock a lot of potential homebuyers that
12:18way if you could define what a better path to first time home ownership looks like what would that
12:26path look like a better path i think would look like if someone were able to i mean i i
12:33think we're
12:34building it i i think we're we're close i mean if someone is has a question they can now play
12:40around
12:40on ai and they can go to you know youtube and all of that but where i think this is
12:47broken is that they
12:48stop there a lot of times and so if there is that next step that is before someone is actually
12:55ready
12:56to buy that they are going from okay i'm just exploring this to okay i'm playing around with
13:01my numbers i'm taking some next steps but i'm not actually um you know ready to to make that
13:09transaction happen that's where we start seeing a new opportunity grow for people to unlock first
13:16time homebuyers um so going from exploring this with ai education that's really exciting we're
13:22we're kind of there building that but now let's open that or build a bridge between that and the um
13:28the moment that someone's ready to buy um and that's you know obviously what we're doing at first
13:33home iq but a lot of people out there are building those bridges and i think that's really exciting
13:38well kristin i think that you are absolutely at the forefront of this thank you so much for
13:44spending 10 minutes with me and to our audience for more information about first home iq and
13:51to access all of the resources that kristin mentioned check out the links below
13:55you
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