• Are you a: 
• Mortgage Broker 
• Realtor
• Mortgage Banker
• Housing Counselor
• Credit Counselor
• Financial Planner
• Or…?

If you are, you know that people can build wealth by buying a home.  In this market, the stakes are even higher.  As I write this, mortgage rates have skyrocketed, but home prices are going down.  This is the opposite of previous years and still leaves people behind.

That’s why the world could use more organizations that help people become homeowners.  And that’s why you found this site, I imagine.  You’ve seen this problem first-hand, and you want to do something significant to help.

This site wasn’t just built by a domainer and website creator. I am a consultant to nonprofits (commulinks.com), a former credit counselor and credit education director and, once upon a time, I was even a collector.  I know this space, in other words.  And I want to give you tools to start this organization, Future Homeowner.

Let’s start with how to start a nonprofit organization. 

Before you start

Before you even start this process, there is something extremely important you need to do:  

Find out who is already doing homebuyer education and housing counseling in your area.

It is not hard to do this.  You can google and you can contact your state’s nonprofit association.

After you have collected information on the organizations running nonprofit homebuyer education programs in your area, figure out what your niche may be in this field by delving into the services they provide and don’t provide.  For example, the organizations you found may do workshops on how to buy a home, but not how a person cleans up their credit to qualify for a loan. 

The most important thing for you to have a successful homeowner education or services agency is to not be duplicating services much.  Next is to do it better than everyone else.  

Five essentials for starting a nonprofit

There are five essentials for starting a nonprofit organization:

1. A board of directors which should be more than your friends and family
2. Officers of the Corporation
3. Articles of Incorporation and bylaws drawn up by an attorney
4. 501 (c) status from the IRS
5. A solid fundraising plan

Do More Homework

There are excellent resources as well as books about how to start a nonprofit.  For your organization, you may also want information about how to become a HUD certified agency. 

Resources:

Again, your state’s nonprofit association is a great place to get information and referrals that can help you to get started. You will most likely find an attorney through the nonprofit association as well because members of nonprofit associations include consultants, attorneys and others working with nonprofits.   You can also find foundations in your area that fund credit counseling or housing agencies and talk to a program manager about the funding potential for your specific idea and any tips they might like to share with you.