Believe it or not, the rotation of your planet means what you Earthlings refer to as spring is right around the corner for the northern hemisphere. In just a couple days, an over-sized rodent you call a groundhog will provide the upcoming seasonal forecast. I about flipped my flying saucer the first time I heard about this hairy creature and how everyone is captivated by the weather determinations it provides. Personally, I’ll stick to the Doppler radar!
Nevertheless, spring means that the kickoff of the traditional home buying season is here. Through the last several posts, I’ve prepped you for making a plan for the upcoming year. And the groundhog says it’s time to put that plan into action.
For this post, I wanted to drill down a little deeper and look at a specific segment of your credit union members who need to be a part of your plan: first-time home buyers. Fortunately, we’ve already addressed a big segment of your membership that falls into this category when we looked at millennials. If you missed that series of four posts, you can revisit them by starting HERE.
For your millennial audience, we discussed how communicating in the manner they desire is of the utmost importance. That holds true for all home buyers as well. Traditional communications have been ejected into deep space; it’s time to be innovative and think outside of the box.
I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to get some insight from one of the experts who has already capitalized on helping first-time home buyers become home owners: AurGroup Financial Credit Union in Fairfield, Ohio.
AurGroup, which has 16,000 members and over $165 million in assets, approaches and address first-time home buyers for two primary reasons:
- First-time home buyers are simply a viable audience! Surveys show that 34% of the market consists of first-time home buyers—that number tells me that we need to be making them a big part of our plan.
- AurGroup wants to help members, period. No matter if they’re first-time home buyers or not, AurGroup firmly believes that it’s their duty to help their members with home ownership.
They recognize that first-time home buyers are a particularly vulnerable audience who can be misguided by other sources. In talking to Lisa Peter, the Retail Mortgage Manager for AurGroup, she said, “Often, due to their lack of knowledge around buying a home, they fall victim to mortgage products that are not in their best interest and can be financially destructive to their future.”
This is why member education and advocacy is of the utmost importance. After all, as Lisa pointed out, this is the most important financial transaction of their lives!
So how does AurGroup accomplish this? The first step was to look at the major hurdles these buyers face. For first-time home buyers, down payment is clearly an issue, for example. To address this, AurGroup tailored their first-time home buyer program to require no money down and no private mortgage insurance (PMI). This, said Lisa, is an example of the power of YES and trying to do all they can to provide value to their members.
The goal of the program is to help increase the home ownership rate in their community and provide a solution that promotes home ownership to members. To communicate this program, AurGroup employs multiple marketing tactics to reach potential first-time home buyers:
- They hold regularly scheduled First-Time Home Buyer Seminars and publicize them through social media and its consumer lending staff.
- They also use these outlets to inform members about the program itself.
- Finally, they incorporate traditional flyers into the mix and provide program information for Realtor presentations.
Since the rollout of the program in mid-2017, AurGroup has seen great success and helped the credit union attract and meet new real estate partners who are vital to the success of their mortgage program. Plus, Lisa gave props to their relationship with myCUmortgage:
“Without such a partnership, a credit union mortgage operation would be hard-pressed to dedicate their focus to first-time home buyers and other borrowers in their communities. myCUmortgage has enabled us to do that.”
So what’s next for AurGroup? With the success they’ve realized, they see the program growing and expanding, particularly around building relationships with everyone involved in the home buying process.
But the bottom line is living the credit union way of people helping people. Lisa said it best when she commented, “We focus on building relationships, not accounts and transactions. Whether we help a first-time home buyer with a home loan today or help them start a saving program and repair their credit for a home loan years from now, we are simply honored to be a part of their lives.”
Those are words to live by, my fellow credit union advocates. Take them to heart, incorporate first-time home buyers into your strategic plan and start helping more members fulfill their dreams of home ownership.