Community First paves a path to homeownership

Editor’s Note: BankBeat intern Rhea Krumpelman highlighted the community work of seven banks throughout our coverage area for our October magazine. This is the third in the seven-part series, which will run throughout this month on BankBeat.biz. 

“When you say you’re a community bank, that comes with a lot of responsibility,” stated Jill Busch, vice president and marketing officer at Community First Bank in Boscobel, Wis. “We all know that financial education is a challenge, and we are the experts in that arena, so we have to work to find ways to educate customers and non-customers alike.”

To do just that, the Wisconsin Bankers Association established a grant program to increase financial and housing literacy. The WBA awarded grants of $10,000 each to five banks throughout Wisconsin. These banks direct the funds toward avenues most beneficial to their respective communities — bolstering economic development/community investment or increasing financial, housing or cyber literacy.  

Aided by the grant funding, Peoples State Bank partnered with Couleecap, a nonprofit housing organization based in La Crosse, Wis., to offer educational housing seminars. 

For first-time homebuyers to come into the bank, sit down, and get lost in a flood of credit jargon and acronyms can be intimidating. “It’s second nature to me, but it’s not to everybody else,” said Duane Rogers, senior vice president of lending at Peoples State.

Receiving the funding expanded advertising opportunities for the “Pathways to Housing” program, given three nights throughout June. One of the challenges with events like this, Rogers noted, is that the audience is a targeted group of renters and first-time homebuyers. As a rural bank, many people in the area have already settled into their housing situations, which affects attendance. Despite that hurdle, several attendees arranged personal meetings with the bank and were assisted by Couleecap, something that may not have been possible without the program. With that in mind, Peoples State intends to offer more homeownership education events throughout their footprint.

For Community First Bank, receiving the grant allowed it to prioritize local outreach by the mortgage team. The team is organizing educational events and partnering with local realtors and other businesses that buy, sell and maintain properties. By leveraging these centers of influence, Community First intends to demystify the homebuying process and lead potential homebuyers — who didn’t realize they qualified — to apply.

Educational video was a marketing luxury unlocked by the grant. With limited resources, sophisticated tactics like video get pushed to the backburner, noted Busch. Evergreen video with omnichannel capabilities, with the assistance of Brand Avenue Studios, Madison, Wis., will be streamed on Connected TV and distributed via the bank’s media channels. The content will focus on topics, such as benefits of and steps to homeownership, targeting renters who are wondering, “Can homeownership be a possibility for me? Can I really do this?” 

“We want to be the motivational impetus for people who don’t realize that this could be in their future,” Busch said.