Nowadays, with Americans facing skyrocketing inflation – coupled with rising interest rates on home loans as well as increasingly expensive home prices – the goal of home ownership is appearing more and more out of reach for many Long Islanders. However, knowledge is power, and one local Levittown business is giving it their all to empower prospective homebuyers to achieve their dreams.
The Home Buyer Learning Center (HBLC), powered by United Mortgage, is essentially a learning center that puts homebuyers through the paces of an increasingly-complex real estate marketplace, according to owner and co-founder Christian Berio.
HBLC opened its doors for business in September 2019, and was co-founded by Christian Berio and his partner David Ng, who have owned a branch of United Mortgage together for the past decade. Seven years into their venture, the two began developing the concept that would become HBLC in order to help educate their clients and put them on the path to home ownership.
“We’re in the ‘100 percent yes’ business. If I ask anyone in the parking lot if they want to buy a house, everyone is going to say yes,” Berio said. “So the question is, why aren’t you? And the reason is that they’re not educated. They are afraid. So to break those walls down, we educate and empower them. Then it becomes less scary, and they realize that owning a house is within their reach, and they have a resource that can help them repair their credit and come up with a savings plan. We help to educate people and empower them to take the leap and buy a home.”
HBLC initially enjoyed a brisk and successful five months of business…until the COVID-19 pandemic hit, which put a series of speed bumps in their path that they were eventually, thankfully, able to overcome.
“COVID had a really big effect upon us. I’ve been in the business 21 years, and when we first opened HBLC we had incredible inertia and it just came to a screeching halt,” he said. “Despite that, because the market was so favorable and interest rates were very low, we were able to operate remotely, and now we are fully reopened and offer a full schedule of seminars every month once again.”
The main service that HBLC offers is to educate people on the process of buying a home, Berio said, and one major piece of advice that he was willing to impart was that there’s no time like the present to go for it, especially if you’re currently a renter.
“One thing that’s a big eye-opener for a lot of people is that no matter what the condition of the housing market, it’s never a better time to rent than to buy,” he said. “Let’s say you wait a year, and you’re renting in Nassau County. The average home rental price in Nassau is $3,750 a month. That means if you wait a year for the market to get better, you’re spending $40,000 in rent. That is money that is absolutely burnt and gone. There’s no return on your investment.”
Berio noted that most people in the current marketplace are leaning towards putting off buying a home due to the increase in mortgage rates; however he was quick to point out that that the higher monthly payment that most buyers fear is actually going towards a major investment in the form of a home.
“You cannot trade the value of investing in your home for renting for $3,750 a month,” he said. “And the increase in rent with this current inflation that we’re experiencing in this market is outpacing the increase of the interest rates and the price effect upon the buying market. So if you buy now you always have the option to refinance and get a better rate when the market is more favorable. However, you lose those options if you don’t own a home.”
Despite the fact that there still is significant competition in the home buying market, Berio said that there is less of it now due to higher prices and interest rates; that, coupled with current mortgage guidelines, still make for good loans and affordability.
“So if you’re a ready buyer, you have a really good chance of getting a house now because you’re not competing the way you were six months or even a year ago,” he said. “Previously, the average house was on the market for only five days. Now it’s 40 days. We’re seeing a slow changeover from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market.”
Even if you’re not ready at the moment to purchase a house, Berio stressed that getting educated as early as possible can only stack the deck in your favor when you are ready to take the plunge. And HBLC is a sure-fire way to get the knowledge you need from qualified, experienced professionals.
“Getting educated early on is so important, so when you’re ready to go, you don’t suddenly realize that you have work to do, like repairing your credit or saving some money,” he said. “If buying a house is on your radar, you should really prepare yourself with someone who’s not going to pressure you, who’s willing to educate you and guide you, and that’s what we do here.”
HBLC holds 2 to 3 seminars every month, in addition to offering online courses, YouTube videos, and packets of educational material covering a vast array of information that they give to all of their clients, and all of it is entirely free.
“The only thing we make money on is when we are successful,” Berio said. “We’ll work with the clients for as long as it might take them, and as long as we do a good job and offer competitive pricing and serve you well, we will earn your business.”
Ultimately, Berio said that even in a difficult real estate marketplace where everyone is experiencing a certain degree of anxiety and uncertainty, a prospective homebuyer armed with sufficient knowledge should feel confident in their ability to realize the American dream of homeownership.
“It’s not as hard to become a homeowner as many people may think it is. It’s one of those things where you just need to believe that you can do it, and you’d be really surprised how many people out there have what it takes,” he said. “Even if you’re not ready to buy a house currently, that’s even more reason to start learning.”
“You can’t set a course if you have no idea where you’re going, you need someone to captain the ship and tell you where to go. So why not use a professional?” Berio concluded. “There’s no money involved, you’re not indebted to us…as a matter of fact, if you come to our seminars and you close with someone else, that’s great. Thank God you were able to buy a house.”
To find out more, please call The Home Buyer Learning Center at 888-2-HOME-LI or visit their website at https://unitedmortgage.com/homebuyerlearningcenter or their Instagram page at https://www.instagram.com/homebuyerlearningcenter.
