OHIO — The state remains one of the hottest housing markets in the country.

So with houses in such high demand, how do you land their dream home? One statewide initiative is helping people do just that.


What You Need To Know

  • Owning It homeownership seminar is helping people through the process of becoming a homebuyer

  • The seminar offers information about credit, loans, realtors, down payments and much more

  • Mary Franklin participated in the seminar in 2020 and closed on a home in November

  • You can register online

For years, Cincinnati Resident Mary Franklin had been on the search for buying the perfect home. She said her journey was no easy task. 

“I lived in the west end, the historical district and with the stadium being built there, I was renting there. Everything was going up, up,” said Franklin. 

Her rent doubled from $800 to $1,600 a month. This was something she knew she couldn’t afford so she decided to go the mortgage route. 

“I had gone to banks,” she said. “I even went to the credit union that I was a member of from the time I got here in Cincinnati back 34 years ago and it was always as if there was a problem of some sort.”

Credit and cash on hand are just some of the problems she said prevented her from buying the home she wanted. But then she heard about the Owning It Homeownership seminar offered by the Cincinnati Herald and Fifth Third Bank. Thanks to help from the seminar, she was connected with a realtor.

“He was able to come take me under his wings and just guide me through, tell me what I needed how I could go about correcting it if I were an issue,” she said. 

She learned more about what it takes to be a homebuyer and the process of getting approved for a loan. But even with all she learned, she found that during the pandemic there was a lot of competition. 

“There were houses I looked at that I really liked I thought, but by the time Jerry had made an appointment, we had appointments to go in and there were a bunch of cars lined up,” she said. 

But after looking at close to a dozen homes in November, she finally closed on her new home on the west side of Cincinnati. She said she’s so grateful for the help she received from the owning it seminar that helped her find her dream home. 

“I love my house because there weren’t any repairs that I had to do,” she said. “The young couple that sold me this house had really left this house in mint condition.”

Another Owning It homeownership seminar is Saturday, June 12, from noon to 1:30. To sign up visit tinyurl.com/OwningitOhioKentucky