Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, June 17, 1995                   TAG: 9506200036
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SHANNON D. HARRINGTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

PROGRAM WILL HELP LOW-INCOME HOME BUYERS

The Greater Roanoke Homebuyers Club will educate people with low incomes or poor credit on how to qualify to buy a home, said Alvin Nash, executive director of Blue Ridge Housing Development and deputy director of TAP.

The program will begin in about two weeks, Nash said. Until then, those interested in joining will be placed on a list.

The club will offer several educational programs, including home-buying workshops in cooperation with Roanoke Valley credit counseling services and mortgage lenders, Nash said. The workshops will provide guidance on all aspects of purchasing a home, including mortgages and closing costs. Credit reconstruction and personal finance also will be discussed.

When people sign up for the program, a coach will be assigned to them. The coach, a volunteer, will be someone with experience in the home-buying process, Nash said.

"I think sometimes [a program] tells you what you need to know but not how to do it," said Carolyn Coles, a licensed Realtor and community outreach/mortgage loan officer with Crestar Mortgage Corp. Coles also is a member of the home-buyer club's advisory board.

The program could be the way to show people what they need to do to qualify to buy a home, she said.

"We're not looking for a quick fix, but a permanent one," she said.

One facet of the home-buyers club, Nash said, is that it does not focus only on those with low incomes.

"It is open to anyone in this valley who has a problem with credit," he said. "We don't want to make it exclusively to low-income, because we don't have to."

Many people with low incomes or poor credit don't even consider buying homes, Nash said. "We need to make this an issue."

The club will be advised by a 20-member board composed of local bankers, real estate agents and representatives of public and private agencies such as the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority and Habitat for Humanity.

"This is the key to make the whole system work," said Ted Edlich, executive director of TAP.

Edlich said the home-buyers club will serve everyone's interest. "I don't know to whose interest it is not," he said.

Those interested in joining the Greater Roanoke Valley Homebuyers Club should call 774-7408.