Not all Home Buyer Classes are the same

Home Buyer Classes or Seminars are popping up every where. They are often taught by a Mortgage Originator paired with a Real Estate Agent, both with hopes they will earn a chance to help students with the purchase of their home. Sometimes home inspectors or escrow officers may take part in teaching as well. Class content can vary as well as the length of the class. Some classes will even help students become eligible for down payment assistance programs and/or tax credits (MCC).

How do you know which home buyer class is the right one for you?

If you are buying a home in Washington state and are interested in down payment assistance programs, you will want to attend a class that is sponsored by the Washington State Housing Finance Commission (WSHFC). This free class is 5 hours, per WSHFC requirements. Students who attend are eligible for down payment assistance (DPA) programs and MCC (tax credits). Many are surprised to learn that you do NOT have to be a first time home buyer to qualify for many of the mortgage programs and that the income limits for many of the DPA programs are $97,000 statewide. The home buyer classes that I currently teach ARE sponsored by the WSHFC.

Classes that are shorter time periods and not sponsored by the WSHFC may be a good resource for learning about the home buying process, or may at least give you a good overview. However, if you are wanting more than an overview of the home buying process, I highly recommend seeking out a WSHFC sponsored class, where WSHFC has set the curriculum. Here’s a complete list of classes that are currently sponsored by the WSHFC.  If your class is not on this list, it is more than likely not a WSHFC class where you may eligible for down payment assistance and/or MCC tax credits. In addition, when you attend a WSHFC sponsored class, the mortgage professional and real estate agent who are teaching the class are not allowed to actively solicit your business…of course they’d love to work with their students and help you buy a home…however, your contact info should not be going into a database to be marketed by the instructors after the WSHFC class.

Before you dedicate two to five hours of your time to a home buyers class, find out if it is a WSHFC sponsored class and what the benefits are for attending the class. You may also want to ask if you will be receiving solicitations or marketing after attending the class.

If you would like to attend a class that I am teaching, click here to rsvp.