Duke Program Helps Employees Open the Door to Homeownership

Registration is underway for the next session of the Duke Homebuyers Club, which starts in April and runs through December

Sharone Pack and her daughter.
Sharone Pack, left, and her daughter, Shakari, pose for a photo at a recent Duke Homebuyers Club celebration. Photo by Dare Kumolu-Johnson of Kumolu Studio.

In the days after Sharone Pack closed on her new four-bedroom house in Wilson, she’d occasionally have to pause and think about what she’d just done.

At 56, Pack, a single mother of three adult children, was a homeowner for the first time. This home, with its four bedrooms, two-car garage, large pantry and sunny backyard, was all hers.

“I was like ‘Wow, I really got more than what I had asked or prayed for,” said Pack, a Team Lead for Hospital Billing and Collections with Duke’s Patient Revenue Management Organization. “I felt in awe.”

Since its founding in 2013, the Duke Homebuyers Club, which provides education, guidance and encouragement for Duke employees hoping to buy their first home, has helped 73 members become homeowners.

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The 2025 edition of the Duke Homebuyers Club will begin in the spring. There is no registration deadline, though space int he club is limited, so don't wait.

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This February, Pack, who went through the club’s yearlong series of workshops and counseling sessions in 2024, became the most recent club member to buy a home.

“When I joined, I was already in the mindset that I wanted to purchase a home,” Pack said. “I had a goal in mind, but I needed more insight to how to go about it. I just needed a little more knowledge about what the whole process entailed.”

Registration is open for the 2025 Duke Homebuyers Club, which is offered through Duke Community Affairs in partnership with the Community Empowerment Fund and Reinvestment Partners. The club is open to all Duke staff and faculty members interested in purchasing a home.

In February, Sharone Pack purchased a home in Wilson. Image courtesy of Sharone Pack.

This year’s program will start in April and run through December with monthly in-person workshops and additional virtual sessions and one-on-one counseling opportunities. The program will also feature separate instructional tracks designed for people who are just starting their journey to homeownership and those who are ready to take on the final phases of purchasing a home.

For those at the beginning of the journey, there are workshops aimed at helping figure out what kind of home to buy, how to become financially prepared and establishing a timeline. For those farther down the path to homeownership, there are sessions covering how to become pre-qualified for a mortgage, how to work with realtors and what they will face when closing the deal.

“These are hard things, but by taking small steps and working together with encouragement, folks can reach their goals,” said Eliza Mathew, Duke Community Affairs Assistant Director of Affordable Housing Eliza Mathew. “They may look different than the goals they initially started with, but when they reach the right destination for them, that's when we hear folks share their reflections of empowerment. That’s the goal of the club.”

Pack said that, in addition to learning how to match the kind of home she wanted with what she could afford, and how to navigate the purchase process, she appreciated the camaraderie of the in-person workshops. She said the club’s diverse membership brought a range of stories and motivations with them, while also bonding over their shared goals.

“Realizing that you’re not the only one that, for whatever reason, is in a situation where you want to purchase a home but haven’t been able to, it made it much more comfortable,” Pack said. “Being part of the Duke Homebuyers club gave me an incentive and a push and showed me that it could be done.”

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