Broker aims to increase Black homeownership

“My passion is to increase Black homeownership because there’s such a big gap between Black homeowners and White homeowners, their counterparts,” she told MPA. “I work really hard to do whatever I can to bridge that gap. It’s a significant amount of money down and that really allows people to afford more. The last deal I did using this program during this crazy market really made the difference. They wouldn’t have been able to play in this game without the program. It makes people feel a little more comfortable they even have a shot at buying.”

The program requires 3% of lenders’ own money to qualify, and the Dearfield Fund pitching in up to $40,000 more. Kempfer said the last lenders she helped using the program were able to amass the needed 10% required down payment to buy a home.

As a Black woman, Kempfer has experienced the anxiety of never achieving homeownership herself. In a March interview with MPA, she recalled being a single mom living in an apartment after a divorce. Yet even at that young age she understood the importance of homeownership, buying her first property at the age of 20.

“At that point, I needed to get out of that apartment,” she said. “By chance I met someone who was a realtor, and he asked me if I was a homeowner, and I told him this whole story. He said ‘you could get your real estate license and use your commission as a down payment since you can’t save money.’ You could do that back then; you can’t do that now.”