The Mortgage Industry Has a Trust Problem. Advocacy Is How We Fix It.
Only 12% of NextGen homebuyers trust the mortgage industry.
82% never learned financial literacy in school.
And only 41% feel homeownership is a good investment.
Policy decisions being made right now will determine whether it gets better or worse for your market.
FirstHome IQ Advocates are mortgage professionals who believe the people closest to homebuyers should have a voice in the policies that affect them.
Not just behind closed doors.
Publicly. Visibly.
MBA Advocacy Map
By becoming a FirstHome IQ Advocate, you’re standing with a community of mortgage professionals committed to three priorities:
Affordability — Every aspiring homeowner deserves a realistic path to ownership, not a system that prices them out.
Financial Literacy — Homebuyer education should be the standard, not the exception. 82% of NextGen buyers never learned financial literacy in school. That has to change — through policy, through practice, and through the professionals who guide them.
Equitable Access — Credit pathways should work for everyone, especially the communities historically left out of homeownership.
These aren’t abstract positions. They’re backed by data from 9,000+ NextGen homebuyer insights in FirstHome IQ’s NextGen Homebuyer Report series, and they reflect what loan officers see every day on the front lines.
THE FIRSTHOME IQ ADVOCATE PLEDGE
ADVOCATE COMMITMENT
As a FirstHome IQ Advocate, I commit to:
Share at least one advocacy post per month using the content and data FirstHome IQ provides
Stay informed on the policy developments that affect my borrowers and my market
That’s it. No fundraising asks. No time-consuming obligations. Just a commitment to use your platform and stay engaged.
BECOME A FIRSTHOME IQ ADVOCATE
Join a growing community of mortgage professionals using their voice and platform to advocate for first-time homebuyers.
As an Advocate, you’ll receive:
Shareable advocacy content — data-backed scripts, graphics, and talking points you can post and use in your market
Policy updates — what’s happening in Washington and at the state level that affects your borrowers
Campaign activations — opportunities to take action when it matters, from sharing content to contacting representatives to showing up at events
TAKE IT FURTHER:
JOIN MBA’s MORTGAGE ACTION ALLIANCE
As part of FirstHome IQ’s partnership with the Mortgage Bankers Association, we encourage every Advocate to join MBA’s Mortgage Action Alliance (MAA) — a free, nationwide grassroots advocacy network for mortgage professionals.
MAA membership is free and open to everyone in the industry — you don’t need to be an MBA member to join. When you sign up, you’ll receive alerts on federal and state legislation affecting housing, ready-made tools to contact your representatives, and a direct connection to the industry’s lobbying efforts in Washington and state capitals.
Think of it this way: FirstHome IQ gives you the research, the content, and the community. MAA gives you the direct line to policymakers.
WHAT DOES AN ADVOCATE DO?
You don’t need to go to Washington to make a difference. Advocacy starts with visibility — showing your community that you care about more than the transaction.
Share the research. The NextGen Homebuyer Report is full of stats your audience needs to hear. We give you the scripts and graphics to make it easy.
Use your platform. Every LinkedIn post about affordability, every conversation with a Realtor about first-time buyer barriers, every client meeting where you lead with education — that’s advocacy.
Show up when it counts. When there’s a policy moment — a vote, a hearing, an industry event — we’ll let you know what’s happening and how to make your voice heard.
Represent your state. We’re building a map of advocates across the country. Your state needs mortgage professionals who are willing to stand up publicly for homebuyers.
WHERE THIS IS GOING
We’re building toward something bigger than any single event.
As the FirstHome IQ Advocate community grows, we’ll be compiling state and local housing initiatives that directly affect your market — legislation on down payment assistance, financial literacy funding, zoning reform, first-time buyer tax credits, and more.
When those moments hit, you’ll know about them. You’ll have the context to understand what’s at stake. And you’ll have a clear action: vote, contact your representative, talk about it publicly, or share it with your network.
The goal is a mortgage industry where the professionals closest to homebuyers are the most informed, most visible advocates for the policies that matter. That starts with you signing up. The rest, we’ll build together.
THE NUMBERS BEHIND THE MOVEMENT
12% of NextGen homebuyers trust the mortgage system
82% never learned financial literacy in school
76% say homeownership is harder than their parents’ generation
61% would trust AI as much as a human advisor
6 in 10 feel the housing system works against them
8 in 10 still want to own a home
These findings come from FirstHome IQ’s 2026 NextGen Homebuyer Report, surveying 1,000+ millennials and Gen Z on trust, financial literacy, and homebuying readiness.
CURRENT CAMPAIGN:
MBA’s NATIONAL ADVOCACY CONFERENCE
April 14–15, 2026 — 60+ mortgage professionals are heading to Capitol Hill with FirstHome IQ to advocate for affordability, financial literacy, and equitable access to homeownership.
Even if you’re not in D.C., you can be part of the advocacy push. Share the content. Talk about the issues. Show your community where you stand.
