Tennessee Housing Development Agency last week announced the creation of the Vicki George Award in honor of a retiring employee who has spent the last 22 years raising awareness of homebuyer education and counseling statewide.
The Vicki George Award will recognize an educator or counseling agency who excels in providing professional homeownership education and counseling that results in a significant improvement in housing opportunities for Tennessee families.
The announcement was a surprise to George, and came as THDA’s Board of Directors recognized her for 40 years of state service, 34 of which were with THDA.
“We have seen that educating homebuyers on the front-end of the loan dramatically lowers the risk of foreclosures later on down the road,” explained Ralph Perrey, THDA’s executive director.
“Vicki’s efforts have made THDA’s homebuyer education program the best and most effective in the country, and have helped secure a bright future for thousands of Tennesseans.”
When George took over THDA’s homebuyer education program in 1993, there were 11 homeownership education counseling agencies in five counties. Today, there’s an extensive network of certified homebuyer educators and counselors across the state. In the past 13 years, this network has provided homeownership training to over 61,726 Tennesseans.
Homebuyer education is available to anyone interested in purchasing a home in Tennessee. Each attendee must complete an eight-hour course covering topics like mortgage insurance, home repairs, escrow, and steps to prevent foreclosure. A full list of certified-instructors and the class calendar is available for consumers at GreatChoiceTN.com.
THDA will announce the first recipient at the Governor’s Housing Conference October 7-8 at the Nashville Music City Center. The award is part of a showcase of housing honors called Tennessee’s Best. THDA will solicit nominations for the Vicki George Homebuyer Educator Award and other Tennessee’s Best awards on their website this summer.
Source: Tennessee Housing Development Agency