Karen Hatcher walked past stacks of books and newspapers left by the previous owners into the 100-year-old home that would soon become hers.
Past the cluttered storage shed, the first thing Hatcher saw was a hole surrounding the home's outdated kitchen — the original hardwood floors had rotted away after 100 years of use — that gave Hatcher a direct view into the crawl space beneath the house.
“It took six dumpsters just to clear out the house, and a lot more work. It was daunting,” she said, “but we knew we wanted to live in the area.”
So much work was needed — a new HVAC unit, a replacement bathroom and a complete renovation of the bottom floor — that Hatcher had to secure a construction loan just to get the money she needed to make the house habitable.
But the price was reasonable — $169,000 in 2007 — and she knew she'd be able to refinance her original loan once the renovations were complete. Qualified for a loan at an interest rate of 6.375 percent, Hatcher quickly applied for a dilapidated single-family home in Atlanta's historic Kirkwood neighborhood.
“I thought, 'I'll buy it,'” recalled Hatcher, who was working as a corporate executive for IKEA at the time. “I knew the benefits of buying real estate and didn't want to miss out on this opportunity. And I wanted my first purchase to be for growth, to be an investment.”
Hatcher and her husband, Michael, were married later that year and lived in the house for the next decade, where they went from newlyweds to parents of three children and owners of property far more valuable than either of them ever imagined on their wedding day.
“When I sold that house, I was able to pay off my grad school loans and put the money towards a new house,” she says. “I made a huge six-figure profit. It was crazy. Only in real estate can you do that, right?
“That's why we need to make sure these opportunities continue to exist for people across the country.”
Hatcher, who serves as the Atlanta Association of Realtors' 2022 president, clearly doesn't miss the doors that homeownership opens, but she's also keenly aware of how small the gap is between the haves and have-nots — the small, sometimes invisible gap that separates those who can buy property from those who feel locked out of the market without being able to save up a down payment or purchase the home of their dreams.
Karen began working in real estate with commercial real estate developer Michael just as she was closing on her first home. That purchase would undoubtedly have a dramatic impact on her life as a young adult. Inspired by that experience, Hatcher became increasingly committed to working to increase fair and affordable housing opportunities for countless Americans who are unsure if they will ever own a home in their lifetime.
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Last year, Hatcher was appointed co-chair of HouseATL’s Homeownership Working Group, a gathering of Atlanta-area leaders working on affordable housing, which was the first local pilot program of the national “3 by 30” initiative launched by the Black Homeownership Collaborative (BHC) along with numerous public and private partners.
As part of its broader efforts on fair housing, the National Association of REALTORS® became a founding member of BHC in 2020. Along with the Mortgage Bankers Association, the Urban Institute and others, NAR helped develop the organization's initial seven-point plan to create 3 million new Black homeowners in America by 2030.
The effort starts with a goal of creating 6,000 new black homeowners in the city by 2026, at a time when Freddie Mac estimates that more than 205,000 black millennials who are eligible for mortgages in Atlanta still live in renters.
For Karen and her local partners, this work is personal, and they know that the success and progress achieved in Georgia can be replicated across the country through BHC.
“We need to scale the entire ecosystem: the companies that build the properties, the agents that sell the properties, the lawyers that close the deals, the mortgage brokers, and then the consumers,” Cullen says. “We need to educate all of these people on the steps that need to be taken to advance fair housing, eliminate disparities, and actually increase access to property ownership.”
The son of Jamaican immigrants, Hatcher grew up in upstate New York, where his father worked as an engineer for Kodak for 30 years, and accepted a scholarship to attend Clark Atlanta University, hoping to find a more diverse home than the one he had experienced growing up in the suburbs of Rochester.
After graduating, Hatcher and her college roommate rented an apartment in one of Atlanta's low-income housing communities. Now, she says, without that decision, it would have been impossible for her to save up that first down payment. Hatcher feels incredibly fortunate to be able to share those lessons — unforgettable experiences and feelings — with her clients, especially those considering first-time homebuying.
Having moved into their dream home less than a mile from their first house, Michael now runs Sovereign Construction & Development, while Karen oversees Sovereign Realty & Management.
Their success has allowed the Hatchers to refocus their energies back into the industry and community that so dramatically changed their lives 15 years ago.
Through collaboration and grant funding facilitated by the nonprofit Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership, Karen and Michael plan to begin pre-listing 50 new affordable housing units in Atlanta later this year.
The couple is working to acquire additional land for additional affordable housing and build relationships with developers to launch similar projects, as well as educate local policymakers about the importance of zoning and land access reform.
“I feel called to affordable housing,” Karen reflects today. “Real estate changed my life, which is why my husband and I are so focused and passionate about building homes for sale and creating spaces for people. We know it can be life-changing.”
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Bob Goldberg is CEO of the National Association of Realtors.