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Have you heard about Housing Education Resource Organization (HERO) certificates? They are awarded after completing homeownership education from HERO partner organizations like Lutheran Social Services, Sioux Empire Housing Partnership and Sioux Falls Thrive.
Through these classes, people learn how to evaluate their finances, understand the timeline and agents involved in the home closing process, and about lending options to make homeownership more affordable. It gives people confidence in the process and sets them up to become successful, knowledgeable homebuyers. Even if someone is not yet ready for homeownership, the class can help renters learn about options for securing decent rental housing and how to manage tenant-landlord issues.
A HERO certificate also benefits Habitat Homeownership program applicants when they are assessed for ability to pay and willingness to partner. Habitat uses a scoring system, and a recent HERO certificate can earn an applicant extra points!
In the past several years, we’ve seen a significant number of applications get denied in the initial financial screening stage of the application process. As many as 50% of each year’s applications have been denied for one or more of these reasons:
- Monthly debt burden is too high
- Unpaid balance of collections, judgments and liens is too high
- Income is too low
- Credit issues
By incentivizing HERO education classes, we hope that applicants will take steps ahead of the application process to make sure they meet Habitat’s financial requirements.
