Framework Homeownership

Homeownership is the primary way for lower income families to build wealth, and yet, the biggest financial transaction of most people’s lives is rife with information asymmetry. In directly addressing this market imperfection, Framework challenges the status quo of how people buy homes. Our products increase access to critical, unbiased information for consumers about homeownership, directly combatting the systemic inequities in the housing ecosystem and addressing the vulnerability lower-income homeowners face.  

Since 2012, Framework’s homebuyer education course has helped over 1 million people.  In 2020, Framework helped 15% of the first-time homebuyer market, achieving a customer satisfaction rate of 96%. 

We have potential to reach even more homeowners. And Keep by Framework™ extends our support through the entire homeownership journey.  Research shows that just one emergency repair can be financially devastating for lower-income homeowners. Keep helps people stay in their homes and prepare for the responsibilities of homeownership. 

The racial homeownership gap between white and black households is worse today than when it was legal to deny people homes based on skin color.

Leading up to the 2008 financial crisis, homeowners of color were disproportionately targeted for subprime loans and unsafe refinancing through misinformation and scams. Lack of information created devastating results for people trying to build financial security. Framework grew out of the crisis with a mission to democratize homeownership by eliminating information asymmetry in the homeownership ecosystem.

Information asymmetry effects the entire homeownership cycle. It discourages people from pursuing homeownership in the first place. First time homeowners, particularly first-generation homeowners, often avoid homeownership due to perceived barriers like needing 20% down.

It also makes those homes relatively more expensive when buyers don’t know to shop around for mortgage loans.  And lack of information for new homeowners can mean the difference between keeping and losing your home. Within 2 years after purchase, 48% of lower-middle class homeowners will experience a major unexpected home repair costing $2,000 or more and 1/3 will not be able to make it. And yet 65% of homeowners who would qualify for low-cost loans or repair grants don’t even know they exist.

Put simply: Keep provides first time homeowners with trusted resources and support for long term homeownership success.

But, Keep is best understood by explaining how it impacts real homeowners:

Recently, we met Tesha, a single mom and first-time homebuyer from Ohio. Soon after moving into her home, Tesha discovered a variety of repair needs and was faced with a critical decision: Which immediate repairs should she prioritize? She shared: “All the focus was on getting here [homeownership], and then… reality sets in.”  

Tesha’s motivation for buying a home was family safety, building intergenerational wealth and personal pride. But after closing, she had an inspection report she didn’t trust. She was also on a limited budget.

In Tesha’s case, Keep can help her to assess common home issues and safety risks, and determine which tasks to DIY and which required a professional. With Keep she could analyze what she can afford now and later. Keep’s Loan Look-up feature, could help Tesha find a low-cost loan to update her HVAC system, reducing her immediate repair costs and longer-term energy costs and helping her rest easy knowing the new system is safer for her family.

As part of our mission at Framework, we co-create experiences and tools with those folx left out of the homeownership ecosystem. Our design research practice is intentional around engaging first-time, first-generation homebuyers and homeowners with low-moderate incomes and folx who identify as Black, Indigenous and people of color. 

We use a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods in design research with a focus on equity. Specific examples include, equitable recruitment strategies, using video and transcripts rather than notes to avoid distorting people’s experience, convening co-creative workshops to co-design features, and sharing our own expertise within the research to avoid it being extractive.

 In 2020, we surveyed, interviewed and engaged people in co-creative workshops where we learned and continued to validate that homebuyers and homeowners are in great need of the knowledge and tools to become successful homeowners.

 Our research highlights a number of challenges that Framework can address:

1.People want to move quickly in making home-related decisions, but that they also need more time and space for these decisions.

2. Folx are aware of the asymmetry of information and the biases in the system, but not always who to trust in navigating the system. 

3. People want more choice and agency, but because of the speed of transactions, lack of information, and biases in the system their choices are limited unfairly.

Building financial security and wealth is one of the key drivers for folx in pursuing homeownership. We also know that people want to feel pride and agency when it comes to their home as well. People want guidance, but they also want to feel empowered to figure it out on their own and find a solution that’s right for them, that fits with their values. 

At Framework, our work addresses this deep need for agency and empowerment while at the same time providing the needed tools for long term sustainability and wealth building.

Homeownership is one of the most reliable ways to build long-term wealth and financial security—but systemic inequities mean that it is not equally available to everyone. 

We create products and services that increase access and support informed decision-making for first-time, first-generation, and BIPOC homebuyers. 

Framework’s online homebuyer education course has reached more than 1 million homebuyers, and our recently launched Keep by Framework™ platform provides ongoing support for homeownership. 

We are chipping away at decades of misinformation and lack of access. And we’re just beginning. 

In 2019, there were 2 million first time buyers in the United States. Framework reached 15% of this market last year. There is huge potential for growth. 

While we continue to expand our customer base within the homebuyer education compliance market, deepening our relationships with existing partners to maximize the customer potential; it is in the broader housing market where the growth potential lies. 

We are beginning to engage with mortgage lenders and partner with other housing industry/industry adjacent companies that can support our vision for increasing access to homeownership. 

Simultaneously, we are expanding our reach to partners who can support our work in homeownership— insurance companies and others who have a stake in the success of homeowners— so we can collectively keep more people in their homes. 

There are many challenges to homeownership, including information asymmetry (the process is deliberately confusing and arcane, and consumers are at a disadvantage) and systemic roadblocks (think redlining, steering, artificially low appraisals for “certain neighborhoods,” etc.). 

The first is a force multiplier for the second, making it difficult for first-time, first-generation homebuyers to discern when the process is simply cumbersome and when they are being misguided.

By scaling access to information, Framework is innovating by disrupting the status quo and giving potential homebuyers the power and leverage they need to understand and succeed in a system otherwise stacked against them.

Framework merged the proven benefits of 1:1 counseling and education, HUD guidance, best practices in adult education, and a scalable technology platform to achieve this.

In the current housing ecosystem, everyone consumers touch in the process has a motive, so access to objective, unbiased information is a breakthrough. Users tell us, “This answered questions I didn’t even know I had – I now feel more prepared” and “I realized I was playing the game all wrong.”

The same is true for homeownership: it is easy to be one payment shock or unexpected repair away from slipping on mortgage payments, and difficult to find information and support.

By providing a single platform, including ongoing email communications, for personalized guidance about homeownership and access to resources like repair funds, COVID-era forbearance, refi options, etc. Framework is the only organization offering unbiased support for homebuyers and owners on a digital platform.

Since our launch, Framework has reached over 1 million customers with the online homebuyer education course.

In 2019, there were 2 million first time buyers in the United States.

Last year alone, Framework reached 15% of this market— 300,000 people.

There is 85% of the first time homebuyer market left for us to reach in the coming years as we look to innovate further and increase access to homeownership for first-generation and BIPOC homebuyers.

We are a social enterprise. As a social enterprise, we leverage the profits from our course sales to fund our consumer research, test new features and initiatives through pilots, and proactively innovate solutions to build impactful resources for our target customers—first-time and first-generation homeowners.

During our years working in affordable housing, we saw firsthand how daunting it is to navigate a process that’s full of pressure. It's hard to know who to trust for guidance especially if you are among the misrepresented communities who have been systematically held back from experiencing the benefits of homeownership.

Framework is a social enterprise with a mission to democratize homeownership. We acknowledge structural and persistent barriers of systemic racism and strive to create equitable and inclusive products that increase access and support informed decision making.

Our product mission is to co-create experiences and tools with those left out of the homeownership ecosystem. Our design research practice is intentional around engaging first-time, first-generation homebuyers and homeowners with low to moderate incomes and folx identifying as Black, Indigenous, and people of color. We use a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods in design research with a focus on equity. Specific examples include, equitable recruitment strategies, using video and transcripts rather than notes to avoid distorting peoples’ experience, convening co-creative workshops to co-design features, and sharing our own expertise within the research to avoid it being extractive.

Framework is at a pivotal point in our journey as a business. We have a mature homebuyer course product that we are looking to grow and scale to increase our community impact. We also have the Keep by Framework product that we continue to develop and pilot that provides an opportunity for innovation and thought partnership.

MIT Solve is an exciting opportunity for us with three-fold support: mentoring/coaching, connections to impact-minded leaders and funders, and media exposure. We are seeking support from coaches and mentors as we further develop and monetize Keep by Framework and ensure we have the proper corporate and governance structures to support growth. As we look to innovate further and increase access to homeownership for first-generation and BIPOC homebuyers, and we are eager to align ourselves with partners and other innovators committed to systems change. We see MIT Solve as an opportunity to connect with other impact-minded people who can help increase our reach and support more homeowners in accessing generational wealth through home equity.

We want to leverage MIT Solve to ensure homeownership education is a well-known resource and not a best-kept secret. To reach the scale of change we aim for, we will need a variety of partners and connections within the housing industry and the larger impact community, which requires visibility and awareness.