Fannie Mae Foundation: How to Buy a Home

Note to the teacher:
As well as providing a chance to learn actual real estate terms, a real estate agent’s visit will afford students an opportunity to practice everyday, “real-life” English. You can present the following students’ questions as examples, or you can have students ask their own questions.

Here’s one way to generate student questions: Before the guest speaker’s visit, engage students in a brainstorming session. Have them think about questions they would like answered, and explain to them that the guest speaker is a good person to answer many of the questions they might have. You can have them work in small groups to come up with questions and then share them in front of the class, giving you a chance to go over grammar with them.

Below are unedited questions that students asked of a speaker from the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance.*

Activity: Generating Students’ Questions:
A Brainstorming Session

Students’ Questions

1. What is low income?

2. How many years I can finish pay a house if I buy a house?

3. Does the bank have the right to take your money if you cannot pay the house anymore?

4. Does the land belong to you when you finish to pay the house?

5. After you finish to pay all your mortgages, can you destroy the house to build another one?

6. Which advantages do you have in buying a house rather than renting?

7. What is the lowest price one family house, two bedroom?

8. My credit report is no good. I want to buy a house. I can’t buy in my name or another name?

9. If I want to buy a house, how much money I suppose to have for down payment?

10. If I have bad credit when I buy the house, is it possible?

11. How do you know you can afford a house?

12. How much money you might need to buy a three bedroom?

13. If you make [$26,000] a year are you low-income?

14. If I want to buy a house, how can I find a house to buy?

15. My question is: If I want to buy a house, what’s the first stage I must attempt?

*To view samples of other students’ questions and answers about home buying, go to the online student home-buying readiness manual.

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