Woman works, saves, finally buys her first home — at 19
Chloe Green is a proud first-time homeowner but a bit disappointed she didn’t buy a home when she was younger.
She had long hoped to be a homeowner while she was 18.
Instead, she didn’t seal the deal until the weary age of 19.
“I started at 15 investing my money,” she said. “My goal was always to buy a home when I was 18.”
After looking at dozens of houses, and getting outbid on many, she finally found the perfect one – a two bedroom, two-bath Canal Winchester, Ohio, condominium. Last week, she closed on the home.
“I’m just overwhelmed with joy,” she said. “It dawns on me that I really am a homeowner. This is place, a place for me to call home, I just can’t believe I did it.”
Green thinks she might be the youngest person in central Ohio to buy a home on her own. There’s no way to document that, but those who helped her said they’ve never heard of anyone younger.
According to the National Association of Realtors, the median age of first-time homebuyers last year was 33, and 3% of buyers were between 18 and 24.
“I’ve done thousands of loans, and have never done a loan for someone as young as Chloe,” said Andy Beigel, a loan originator at NFM Lending at Easton.
“She’s been working two jobs for two years. She’s by far the most responsible teenager I’ve ever met.”
A native of Norfolk, Virginia, Green grew up in
Columbus, Ohio, with her eyes fixed on the future. She started working at 15 at Trusted Motors, a West Side auto dealership owned by her godfather, Bobby Mitchell. She is now office manager at the dealership.
At age 16, she graduated from Mason Run High School, a charter school that focuses on early graduation and career development. She is now studying psychology at Franklin University.
She has her own giftbasket and party favor business, Coco’s Creations. And she is an inmy structor at It Takes A Village Early Education Center in Canal Winchester, which is affiliated with Green’s church, The Father’s House.
“We’re more than a church; we offer classes like credit seminars, ways to invest and how to save,” she said. “Ten percent goes to God, and the rest is for me to put away for my future.”
By the end of last summer, Green had put away close to $20,000, enough, she thought, to start looking for a home.
Through church, Green got to know Julian
McClurkin, a Columbus native who has played for the Harlem Globetrotters for nine years. When COVID-19 benched the team last year, McClurkin finished the real-estate classes he’d been taking and got his license.
He started helping Green search for homes last fall. He didn’t realize her age until she applied for a loan with Beigel.
“Andy and I both found out her age at the same time,” said McClurkin, an agent with Golden Gate Real Estate. “When you speak with Chloe, she doesn’t speak like a 19year-old.”
Beigel acknowledges that he was skeptical when a 19-year-old applied for a home loan.
“I thought, ‘let’s see how this goes.’ Most of time, teens don’t have a credit score, let alone qualifying assets,” Beigel said.
“She had all she needed, so once we got through the initial profile, I thought to myself, this will be crazy if she actually buys a home as young as she is.”
With homes in short supply and high demand, the search wasn’t easy.
“We probably looked at 40 houses,” McClurkin said. “It was a fight. We put in a lot of offers, at least 10. Each time she’d get more and more discouraged, but also double down, and come right back.”
Green acknowledged that the search wore her down.
“I started to get discouraged a bit, I was looking at so many houses,” she said. “Everything I was doing, from November to March, was looking for a home.”
At 5 a.m. on March 22, the listing for the Canal Winchester condominium popped into her search.
“Something said ‘Click me,’ and I did even though it was so early,” she said.
A few hours later, she and McClurkin toured the 1,132-square-foot home in the Canal Villas neighborhood.
“The moment I stepped through the door, a smile crossed my face, and I thought, ‘This is the one,’ “Green said.
The home was listed at $159,900. Green’s offer of $165,100 was accepted. She estimates her monthly housing costs will be under $1,000, including insurance and the condominium fee – well below the $1,300 a month she was paying in rent.
After closing on the home, Green did what any teenager would do: She posted on social media. The Facebook post under her nickname, CoCo Gee, has received thousands of views and more than 3,000 comments.
The posting was such a hit that McClurkin estimates that 25 people have reached out to him asking about finding them a home. Most, he notes, are young.
“This is a once-in-alifetime purchase for most people,” he told Green as they visited the house Friday. “And you’ve already done it at age 19.”
Standing in the living room that is now hers, Green replied, ‘I think I’m where I should be.”
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I STARTED AT 15 INVESTING MY MONEY. MY GOAL WAS ALWAYS TO BUY A HOME WHEN I WAS 18.
Chloe Green