Opening Doors To First-Time Homebuyers Among Underserved Populations

This time on the BC CIty Connection Housing Podcast, REALTOR Talia Champlin joins the city's Darcy Schmitt to discuss what “equitable pathways to homeownership” really means and why the hardest part is often stepping onto the path in the first place. 

Episode Resources
City of Battle Creek website

Watch the video of this discussion here or see the episodes on Access Vision in Battle Creek Tuesdays at 6:30 PM on channel 17/917.

The BC City Connection Podcast is produced by Livemic Communications.

Transcript

Welcome And Why Housing Matters

Richard Piet 0:04

I'm Richard Piet. Welcome back to the BC City Connection podcast. You may be seeing us on Access Vision, hearing us as a podcast, maybe on the YouTube channel for the City of Battle Creek, all places where you can check in, use as a resource to know what's happening in the City of Battle Creek. This particular episode focuses on housing, and that's something we're doing in 2026. Some extra episodes focused on the question and things around home ownership and building housing in general in our area. Let me introduce you once again to Darcy Schmitt, planning supervisor at the City of Battle Creek. And with us today is Talia Champlin, who's a realtor with RE/Max Perrett in Battle Creek. Welcome to you both.

Talia Champlin 0:55

Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for having us, Richard.

Richard Piet 0:58

Today we're talking about equitable pathways to homeownership. This is the American dream we're talking about, right? The idea that we, many of us, want to be homeowners. It's perhaps the single most valuable asset that we'll have is our home. Maybe the single most valuable investment that we might make is real estate. Yet the path toward it can be particularly difficult and is uh difficult even more for some folks. And we're here to talk about uh what we're doing about that in Calhoun County to assist. What does it mean, Talia, when we say equitable pathways to home ownership? What are we really talking about?

Talia Champlin 1:51

We want, well, homeownership is a proven path to increased financial security. And we want anybody that should own a home to own one. So let me just say that the pathway itself may feel equitable. You have to have good credit, you have to have uh job stability, you have to have assets, you have to have someone help you in the search, you have to negotiate, you have to close, and you have to move in. So that might sound like anybody can do that, but there have been injustices and inequalities in property ownership that have stood in the way of wealth-building opportunities for some underserved populations for years. And because of that, you and I might live in families where we're the fifth, sixth, seventh, twentieth generation that have owned a home. But there are many families who have always rented and have not had the opportunity to build this financial security. So the path, the equitable pathway really has to do with getting on the path, understanding how important the topic is, how important the process is, and feeling like it's the right thing for you.

Richard Piet 3:20

Yeah, and that is a really interesting distinction that maybe a lot of us haven't thought about. Let that sink in a second. The challenge is getting on the path.

Talia Champlin 3:31

Yes.

Richard Piet 3:32

And by the way, by closing, Talia means signing your name in rapid succession more times than you've ever signed it. So that's part of it too. Darcy, talk about uh the notion that uh we want, I say we, this is a general we, uh as many people as possible to be able to own a home, right? This is why the city's interested.

Renting Versus Owning Long-Term Costs

Darcy Schmitt 3:56

Absolutely. I mean, that's that's good for the entire city, that's good for the population. And as Talia said, there's an enormous population out there that haven't been exposed to what some of us have, and we need tools to provide for these, this population to help them get through the process.

Richard Piet 4:17

So how do we do it, Talia? When we talk about helping underserved populations get on the path, how do we do it?

Talia Champlin 4:25

Probably the most important thing is for people to believe that homeownership is the right thing for them. There are some people that should not own a home. When I'm 90, it's time for me to not be climbing on my roof and cleaning my gutters, right?

Richard Piet 4:40

Oh my.

Talia Champlin 4:41

Yeah.

Richard Piet 4:41

Yeah.

Talia Champlin 4:42

Uh and when I'm a student, uh, even if I'm in my 20s, I don't know that I'm going to stay in that community where I'm getting my schooling. So not everyone should be a homeowner. But if someone's going to stay in the same spot, let's say three to five years or more, then they are going to pay to have a roof over their head, whether they're a renter or an owner. If you're a renter, you are going to enrich your landlord. You're going to pay your landlord's mortgage for them, you're going to pay your landlord's property taxes and insurance for them. And you're going to live in the house covering all of their costs while the house appreciates and the landlord is enriched. And don't get me wrong, I am so grateful to landlords, and there are people that should have landlords. But a lot of people think, oh, I shouldn't own a home because who do I call for repairs? Uh, the landlord pays for the repairs. The landlord pays for the repairs with the rent that you pay them. You pay for the repairs no matter what. So you were asking me, how do you get on that path? The first thing is understanding that you want to step onto the path. The first year that you own a home, your payments might be just the same as what you were paying in rent. But three years from now, if you had continued renting, you would have gotten three rent increases. Whereas if you're a homeowner with a fixed rate mortgage, your principal and interest portion is going to stay the same. And in Michigan, your property taxes are also capped so that they can't change more than 3%. So in the beginning, it might like might not feel like a huge advantage, but five years in, your monthly payment is considerably less than your five rent increases. And you're getting all the benefit of that appreciation. And eventually, you would have had to pay for a roof over your head anyway. Eventually, that house is going to be paid off, which means you're going to be living there just for the cost of taxes and insurance. Now, people say, no, no, Talia, you know, people don't stay in houses for 30 years. Some do. And then just about the time they retire, suddenly they don't have any more payment. Whereas if they rented all that time and then they retire, guess what? They're still paying rent. I could go on and on, obviously, but why don't I take a breath and let you ask more questions?

Richard Piet 7:27

Well, I think you make a good point. There are people who stay in the same place for a long time. Uh, some of my relatives did. My grandmother lived in the same house for 55 years. And yes, it was paid off long before that 55-year mark came along. I also think Warren Buffett lives in the same house he's lived in.

Talia Champlin 7:49

Okay, okay. Yeah. Stepped onto the ownership path.

Richard Piet 7:54

There it is, folks. You can do it. Yeah. Uh, but the the, I guess the question then, Talia, is what's standing in the way of getting on the path?

Credit And Down Payment Reality Check

Talia Champlin 8:04

Yep. Amazingly, what we have found is that what the first thing is the one that I was just talking about. You didn't know. You did not know how important it was to get onto that path. Then the next two things seem to be credit history and down payment assistance. When a lender is deciding, obviously, no, very few people come in and pay cash for a house. So almost the first step is going to be qualifying for a mortgage. And any lender is going to want to know have you paid other people back? That's your credit history. Do you have some skin in the game? That's your down payment. Do you have a steady job? That's your income stability so that you're you can make the payment next month, but you can also make the payment 13 months from now. But what we have found is there are many, many people with a 680 credit score or higher. Many people think you need 20% down to buy a home. That is not true. You can buy a $200,000 home with 5% down and sometimes only 3% down. So just to do the math very quickly, a $200,000 home for $6,000 down. It's the process of getting educated to know that it's not going to take a huge down payment. It's not going to take an 800 credit score. But how do you set your budget up so that you can, so that you have the down payment you need? How do you repair your credit if you've had medical bills or or you just did something stupid with your first internet bill when you were 20? And um, there are many resources in the community. A great one is Goodwill Industries that will help anyone get the credit help that they need and get the budgeting help that they need to put them on that path to increase their credit score and to increase their assets for their down payment.

Richard Piet 10:08

The $6,000 example for some people, it might as well be 26 or 36 because they don't, they don't have it. So this is part of the of the process, isn't it? To try to help identify how to swing that and do so, particularly for underserved populations who might have a predisposition to thinking, I'm just not going to get there. I'm not gonna try.

Talia Champlin 10:35

I personally thought that down payment assistance was probably the most important thing that was necessary and was shocked to find out that many people do have 6,000 set aside and or could do it very quickly. As soon as they understand that you need 6,000, not 20,000, they go, What? I I can save 6,000 in 18 months. But let me say there are many, many down payment assistance programs as well. If you're a teacher or a firefighter or a policeman, no problem. You there's plenty of down payment assistance programs for them. But they're uh first-time buyer assistance programs that help you with your down payment or your closing costs. I had a family within the last 12 months that only had to bring $240 to closing and bought their first home. So it's not that the help isn't out there, it's that you have to believe that this is what you need to do and contact a good real estate agent and a caring lender to help you get the help that you need.

Local Resources And Getting Educated

Richard Piet 11:50

Darcy, has the city looked around or maybe fielded inquiries or otherwise picked up feedback that this is the case? People don't understand the resources that are available.

Darcy Schmitt 12:03

Absolutely. Um, just during the housing uh study that we've been working on, the strategy, we have heard from numerous people, not just to get housing, just all of the opportunities that they can get assistance for, you know, an attorney if a rental issue happens that they don't can't afford. Just we have a lot of good resources in Battle Creek, but I don't know that any of us know all of them. And that's that's been something that we've all kind of talked about. How do we communicate all of the different resources? So, but yes, and that's one of the things that has come up often. And then another thing that came up, and I had mentioned at our last meeting with Talia and and and this particular group is the trying to get people in high school when they're young to kind of be like, this is what you do, you know, not that you can't own a house. This is what happens when you own a house and there's resources out there, and it's important to own a house when you are ready because of these things. And obviously, schools can't put that in their curriculum, but we can have some type of program, after school program, that different uh professionals can go to and talk about these things. And we've got to start coming up with creative ways to do this because it needs to start really young and be kind of growing up thinking that, yeah, you know, this can be done and it should be done if you when you're ready to do it.

Talia Champlin 13:35

I admire Jen Gregory from Battle Creek Central because she reached out to several realtors, and I went in and met with four of her classes right during the school day and showed them graphics about the difference between homeownership and renting after two years, after five, after 20. The kids were very interested, very motivated. And Jen's providing those kids with uh an amazing resource to get them started on the right foot right from the beginning.

Richard Piet 14:10

Well, that's exciting that uh the message is getting through in in some ways. So how do they how do you do it, Talia? You uh and your colleagues in the real estate business must be seeing this uh somewhat regularly, uh, the notion that uh some people don't know these resources exist or or they have some some challenges with credit or the down payment. Are they coming to you? How do you know if they're not?

Talia Champlin 14:43

That is thank you, Richard. We're hoping that you're gonna help with that, with these wonderful podcasts, because if they come to us, we can help. We can help them with credit repair, we can help put them in contact with down payment assistance programs. We can help in all kinds of ways. And the Board of Realtors for the last um three years has been providing home ownership seminars, equitable pathways to homeownership. And what we find is that the people that need it don't come. So we need everyone to pass this word. Say, I heard Richard Piet talking, and you know, I wonder if we should look into this because we need help getting the word out. If they come to us, we can help them.

Richard Piet 15:35

Well, let that sink in a minute. If you just speak up, you can be helped. So finding uh a real estate professional to help you do that is uh probably the next step. And uh I imagine, Tali, you run into that too. People who don't know to whom they should reach out.

City Plans For Starter Homes

Talia Champlin 15:55

So I tell people if you're considering homeownership, and you probably should be, ask someone who's a homeowner who they used, um, and and going go to that realtor. You will be amazed at the um at the resources that are out there for you. And um, of course, you can call me even there's many, many good realtors in this community who passionately care about this. We, of course, we love helping our long-term clients who are, you know, who bought a house and now are selling that one and buying another one. But we really want to help those first-time buyers get on this path. We know how important it is. Darcy mentioned earlier that a city is stronger if um if it's filled with homeowners who care about their yard and and care about their schools and care about their parks, et cetera. Um, there's lots and lots of research about the stability of both communities and schools where the home ownership rate is high.

Richard Piet 16:58

Darcy, this uh this housing study that you've been doing and information you've been gathering, when someone says, I don't think I can do it, what do you say to them?

Darcy Schmitt 17:12

Well, you know, we are trying to help builders, developers, entrepreneurial uh construction companies to we're trying to put things in place to make it easier for them to develop housing that's in that price range that would be good for starter homes and still provide all the necessities and locations that a family or a couple or a single person would want. And uh so we're working toward that. You know, the city has a lot of vacant property that we're holding on to. Calhoun County Land Bank. We're hoping to work with them on some projects, and we're gonna have to start marketing these properties and taking all the obstacles away and um make it easier for smaller developers and bigger developers to build housing in a variety of price ranges. So that's what the city is really working hard toward now. Just working with anyone that we can provide service to to help their processes move forward, to get the information out. Um, housing is so important in so many ways for our economy, for people feeling part of the community.

Richard Piet 18:26

All right. Uh, so if you come away from this discussion with anything, uh, it is that even if you looked into it in the past, it might be time to step up and do as Talia says, ask a trusted person who's a homeowner, who was the real estate professional you trusted, and then make a connection with them and ask again or ask for the first time about these things.

Talia Champlin 18:55

Richard, thank you so much. We often tell people just because the answer is might be no, the real answer is not yet. Nobody um is precluded from owning a home. Your credit score might not be exactly what you need it to be right now. Your down payment may not be exactly what you need it to be right now. But if you get started right now, 12 months from now, 18 months from now, you're gonna have a 690 credit score, and you're gonna have that $6,000 set aside, and you're going to be able to find the right home and put yourself in a situation where you can increase your own financial stability.

Richard Piet 19:40

All right, that's where we'll leave it. Uh think about that and take a step forward if this is important to you. Talia Champlin, a realtor with Remax Parrot in Battle Creek, also certainly an active member with the Battle Creek Area Association of Realtors. Darcy Schmitt, Planning Supervisor, City of Battle Creek with us here on the BC City Connection. Thanks to you both.

Darcy Schmitt 20:03

Thank you. Thank you, Richard.