I Bought My First Home Using Incentive Programs. They’re a Great Hack.

This as-told-to essay is based on conversations with Kourtnee Turner, 34, a mortgage professional who purchased her first home in Baltimore after utilizing various homebuying incentives. She moved to Baltimore from Tulsa, Oklahoma, after taking advantage of the Tulsa Remote Program, which grants movers $10,000 to live there. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

I moved from Newport News, Virginia, to Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 2022 because of the Tulsa Remote program.

It was around Christmastime of 2021, and I was looking for a new opportunity. I had just moved to Newport News from Virginia Beach just for that year. I really needed a change of pace, and I got introduced to MakeYourMove.com.

I saw that a bunch of different cities had incentives for remote workers at the time, and I thought Tulsa’s program had the most moving parts to it.

There was one in West Virginia, there was one for Chattanooga, and there were some for Michigan. I didn’t think I would like it in any of those places. I chose Tulsa.

When I got to Tulsa, there were about 2,000 people who had made the move already, so I knew a lot of people had gone through the program. They called me, I interviewed, and they accepted me in February of 2022, but I did not move until October of 2022.

I probably thought about buying a home in Tulsa when I initially moved there, but after I lived there for a year, I decided it probably wasn’t for me.

I just went out there to experience it. But being 1,000 miles away from all my family members was a little bit crazy because I’m from Virginia.

I was in Tulsa for 13 months. You only have to stay for 12, but I was there for 13 really just because I was waiting to close on my house in Baltimore.

I enjoyed my time in Oklahoma. I made some great connections, and I’m always grateful for the opportunities that I was afforded by participating in the program.

But as a single woman of color, I felt like Baltimore was more in alignment with what I have planned for myself.

I stacked multiple incentives to buy a home in Maryland

I know a lot of people in my age range who own homes.

I was privileged enough to be around people in my personal life who owned homes, so I could negate all the social media chatter saying, “We’re never going to afford to buy a house.”

I didn’t want to rent again. I wanted to ground myself, because by the time I moved to Baltimore, I had moved to three cities in three years.

I purchased my house for $200,000. My mortgage payment was around $1,700, but then I experienced a layoff in 2024, so I got a loan modification, and now I’m paying $1,432.

My house is a three-bedroom, one-and-a-half bath with a basement. It was built in 1920, and has 1,160 square feet — and that’s just the finished square footage, not including the basement.

I was paying $1,085 for rent in Tulsa for a two-bedroom — but it was in a really nice area.

The incentive in Maryland I initially found out about was the Maryland SmartBuy Program. They’ll pay off your student loans if you purchase a house in Maryland. I came across that on Instagram — thank goodness for social media.

I saw it and I was like, “I have student loans, I want to buy a house. Let me inquire more.” Then I thought, if I’m going to move to Maryland, where can I afford to buy?

Rates were pretty high at that time, so I thought about how far my money could go. So I decided to look into Baltimore.

Since I’m familiar with a lot of cities having programs with incentives for homebuying, I found Live Baltimore. That organization offers incentives and teaches people about moving to Baltimore. So I learned about the $10,000 first-time homebuyer grant, as well as the Trolley Tour Lottery, which is a $5,000 grant — both of which I got and went toward the purchase of my home.

Owning a home was a personal goal. I have been in the mortgage industry for a decade now, and I think I have a little bit more insight and firsthand view of owning a home. I think it was the best investment I could have ever made — it’s protection.

For me, it saved me when I didn’t have a job. You can call the bank and say, “Hey, I got laid off,” and there’s protection that you don’t have in renting.

I don’t think people realize how much of a safety net it is to be a homeowner, and how you build wealth and equity by owning a home.

Baltimore offered a lifestyle closer to what I was looking for

Moving to Maryland was about the incentives, but moving to Baltimore specifically was about the cost of living and the quality of life.

Baltimore is a little bit more cultured overall, and it’s more fast-paced than Tulsa — and I’m a young person, so it just made more sense. There are a lot of families in Tulsa.

For young people, Baltimore is bustling. You can be out every night because there’s so much to do.

We have a Major League Baseball team here, we have an NFL team here, we have so much access to so many things on the East Coast. I love the harbor, I enjoy the many parks, and the National Aquarium is here. We have all kinds of events that you can access.

Every day, Baltimore gets better. Honestly, I enjoy living in Baltimore so much.

There’s a lot more here than people think. It’s really a vibrant place. It’s a little weathered sometimes, but overall, everybody is really kind.