A Financial Literacy Grand Slam!

Chris Hill
Maryland REALTORS^®’ 2023-2024 President.

Maryland REALTORS^® has taken Financial Education to the 9th inning, with the bases loaded.

This event brought to you by the outstanding energy of: Mary Chieppa, Professional Development and Member Engagement Director Susan Yashinskie, Bridget McGee, and MCEE Executive Director Julie Weaver.

It has been an honor this year to represent Maryland REALTORS^® as its president. When I took on the role, I looked forward to developing an initiative that would make an impact on our members, our community, and our staff. What could I offer that would leave things a little better than how I found them?

Like so many of you, my passion is real estate and helping people achieve the dream of homeownership. We know that homeownership isn’t just about having a roof over your head, which is huge, of course. It’s so much more. The services we provide can also contribute to the security and wealth of that homeowner for generations. This leads to my second passion: financial literacy. Financial literacy is the gateway to becoming financially independent and lays the foundation to achieve homeownership. I consulted with many of you who felt as I do, that we have a responsibility to help current and future generations understand there is a path for them to one day own a home.

This is a story about how our journey started to create a pathway for educating young adults on homeownership—from recognizing the possibility, to financial readiness, and then how to purchase a home.

The Journey Begins

I believe you are never too young to learn about homeownership and the steps it takes to achieve it.

I believe it, our members believe it, and Maryland REALTORS^® stands behind it. We began our journey by looking for a partner who was just as passionate about financial literacy and already had an infrastructure or pipeline directly into the educational field. We found such a partner with the Maryland Council on Economic Education (MCEE). MCEE is an amazing group whose mission is to ensure that Maryland’s school children leave high school equipped with the economic and financial knowledge and decision-making skills they will need to make informed, rational decisions as consumers, workers, citizens, savers, investors, and participants in the global economy. MCEE is run by a dedicated team led by its Executive Director, Julie Weaver.

In 2023, U.S. News & World Report ranked Maryland fifth in the nation for “Best High Schools.” The

210 Maryland high schools on the list were ranked based on six factors: College Readiness, College Curriculum Breadth, Graduation Rate, Math and Reading Performance, Math and Reading Proficiency, Underserved Student Performance.

While the financial curriculum mandated by our state is very good, our research with MCEE showed that while there are many classes for financial readiness, budgeting, stock markets, and even credit scores, there was a gap in how those lessons apply to homeownership. This gap is our niche, our opportunity, and it became our focus.

Maryland REALTORS^® already has a robust homebuyer and seller education program through MarylandHomeownership.com where visitors are provided resources, guidance, and tools to better help them succeed in their home journey. Our consumer site is dedicated to serving the public with the most up-to-date and accurate information within the housing industry. This site contains everything a potential homeowner needs to know about how to begin the path to homeownership, as well as information on rentals, fair housing, financial wellness, and how to choose a REALTOR^®. MarylandHomeownership.com also provides a roster of REALTORS^® who have successfully completed advanced educational courses to qualify for our Housing Opportunity Certification. It also contains sections on best practices for selling a home, homeowner assistance and tax information, and finally a section for landlords and tenants. It’s a great tool with so many resources for REALTORS^®, including the ability to download the homebuyer and home seller kits (in English or Spanish). You can even co-brand them with your own logos and contact information. If you haven’t already, I encourage you to visit MarylandHomeownership.com.

This year, I was also invited to participate in the State of Maryland Comptroller’s Financial Literacy Council. This council is charged with helping to support the development of a robust financial literacy agenda that positions the Comptroller of Maryland as a go-to, state-wide resource. This includes identifying strategies and opportunities to educate disparate communities around financial literacy; developing new financial literacy resources to meet pressing community needs; promoting the agency’s efforts throughout the state; and making the Office of the Comptroller a trusted hub and repository of financial literacy information and data. 

So, now we have a partner in MCEE, a website promoting homeownership in every aspect, a seat at the Comptroller’s table, and a staff chomping at the bit to put all of this into an actionable plan.

A Goal Without a Plan Is Just a Wish

Our goal was solid: Support financial literacy education for high school age students with a focus on personal finances and the steps needed to achieve homeownership. The next step was to develop a plan to deliver the appropriate curriculum and support materials into the hands of the appropriate high school teachers and convince them that it would be worthwhile to use it.

No big deal, right? As I write this, I can hear you thinking, “Really? Teachers are already overworked and overwhelmed with the enormous amount of curriculum they must teach. What makes you think they want additional resources on homeownership?” What do you do? Research some more, find out if this is something teachers would be interested in learning and teaching.

I should also let you know at this point, it’s springtime. The time of year when every teacher begins a count-down to the last day of school. How do you capture the time and interest of teachers at that point in the year? We relied on the wisdom of our partners at MCEE who told us that we should hold an event in the summer, but it had to be something that would totally rock. And so, we did.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

We have a little park in Maryland called Camden Yards, home to our amazing Baltimore Orioles. We decided that our big gesture—our THANK YOU for everything they do—would be to take to high school financial teachers out to an Oriole’s game. We found the perfect game late July with the Orioles playing  the Toronto Blue Jays for a Wednesday afternoon game. We booked the Designated Hitter classroom in The Warehouse, reserved the Brooks Robinson Suite for the game, and started to build out a program for the day.

Build It and They Will Come

As I noted before, Maryland REALTORS^® has a very robust program for future and current homeowners. We also are privileged to have an experienced and knowledgeable group of instructors dedicated to advancing the education of our members. Two of those instructors—Mary Chieppa, Real Estate Instructor and Associate Broker, and Bridget McGee, Senior Loan Officer with SWBC Mortgage—partnered and developed a presentation for teachers that was engaging, educational, and entertaining. Their presentation talked about best practices of how to find a house, how to buy a house, how to finance, how to save, and so much more from beginning to end.

And finally, we really wanted to bring everything home with a video element. We decide to show first-hand that you don’t need to be 35 years old to buy your first home, which is the current statistic from NAR’s 2023 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. We put out a call for young first-time homebuyers, and they were very gracious to join us and allow us to record the story of their path to homeownership. All of them are in their 20s, and each took a different path to purchase their first home. We showcased Jacky, who purchased the home she was renting with friends and became their landlord. Another young entrepreneur, George, who also happens to be a REALTOR^®, purchased his first home at 22 years old and was able to do so by purchasing a duplex and living in one side while renting the other. George took the additional step of creating an online tutorial showing how he saved, researched, and finally purchased the home. It’s a wonderful video and these young people prove you are never too young to start your path to homeownership. Click here to see this video yourself!

The second video we developed in collaboration with Maryland REALTORS^®’ Housing Opportunity Committee (HOC). It’s “The Steps to Homeownership” with its own jingle, as the animation walks viewers through the steps to become a homeowner. The purpose of this video was to showcase these steps to entice viewers to dig a little deeper into each step, which someone can easily do by reviewing the resources at MarylandHomeownership.com . The Housing Opportunity Certification (HOC) Committee is responsible for our consumer site. You can find this video at MarylandHomeownership.com .

Having developed the program and support materials, we were ready to engage the teachers.

It’s the 9th Inning

Partnering with MCEE provided us with the ability to reach Maryland teachers specializing in math, finance, and entrepreneurship. We filled the 50 available teacher spots in two weeks with education professionals from all corners of the state. Chuck Kasky, Maryland REALTORS^® CEO, threw out the first pitch (figuratively, of course) and wound up our team of teachers. Our instructors, Bridget and Mary, did an amazing job with so much participation from the audience, they were not even able to finish the program. Amazing instructors, they spent the entire game talking to the teachers individually, following up all their questions. We are scheduling several online sessions with teachers to address additional questions, while also providing a platform for those who were not able to join us on game day to learn more about homeownership.

And Holiday Hits a Grand Slam!

This actually happened! Jackson Holiday of the Orioles hit his first major league home run, a grand slam! How appropriate, as this was our first major outreach to teachers, which was also a grand slam!

Our follow-up survey with MCEE and the teachers was extraordinary. Moving forward on this initiative, here are a few action items:

1. Continue our outreach efforts, providing both in-person and virtual opportunities.
2. Work with the teachers to develop an approved list of speakers from our REALTOR^® community, to talk to their classes about homebuying and loans. (we’ve also had requests for REALTORS^® to discuss their profession and career path.
3. Develop this same type of opportunity to learn about homebuying and selling for first responders.

We couldn’t have written this wish list better ourselves! If any teachers or first responders are reading this, visit MarylandHomeownership.com, attend one of its monthly “Homebuying Keys” webinars, and keep an eye on your email because we promise we are not done!

The Final Score

We started this journey hoping to make a difference in financial literacy and help teachers engage students in financial literacy and homeownership, but we found the teachers were just as excited to learn about homeownership for themselves—and they want us to do more. It has been a privilege to be part of this exciting new chapter, educating future generations on becoming a homeowner.

Thank you to all the teachers from around the state who joined us in this adventure. Thank you to my fellow Maryland REALTORS^® for allowing me the opportunity to lead our association. And thank you to the staff at Maryland REALTORS^® for making this dream become a reality.