Yen Nguyen

For many, homeownership seems like an impossibility – something to daydream about but not a reality. At least, until someone says, “Yes, you can own your own home, and I’ll help you.”

“I love to say, ‘Yes,’” Yen Nguyen, Mortgage Lender with First Merchants Bank (NMLS #183745), shared.

As a mortgage lender, Yen has built her business on helping first-time homebuyers, or those who are low- or middle-income, gain access to a place that’s theirs – a place that’s home. Often, that means helping these homebuyers gain access to grants, connecting them with local non-profits, using financial education to prepare them to take that next step – or finding a specialized mortgage product, like First Merchants’ Next Horizons Mortgage Program.

“Sometimes people wonder why a person in their 50s is buying their first home – why can’t they save money? Why can’t they get to that 3 percent down? It’s because things are just so unaffordable, or because they’ve never had the opportunity – they’ve tried to save and just haven’t been able to reach that goal,” Yen explained. “It’s great to be able to be a helping hand and to say, ‘You don’t have that 3 percent down? Let’s go find it.’”

It’s work Yen is good at, too. In 2024, she helped her clients access more than $1.1 million in grant funds that covered down payments, closing costs, and other expenses associated with purchasing a home.

Operating out of Fort Wayne, Ind., many of Yen’s clients are Burmese refugees who have settled in the area. In addition to other clients, Yen has worked closely with this community for years – in part driven by her own experience.

“I’m an immigrant – I moved to the United States in 1975, and I still remember how people stepped up to help us settle into our new home and our new life,” she shared. “So when the Burmese community started growing in Fort Wayne, I really wanted to help.”

In those early days, when refugees were first trickling in, that work wasn’t about helping them get a mortgage.

“They were so new to the country that they weren’t able to get mortgages – so it was about teaching them about credit, and financial education, and all those little things that would help them succeed in the future,” she said.

When her employer at the time cut financial education programs for the area and moved out of Fort Wayne, Yen searched for a company that would help her help others – that’s how she found First Merchants.

“I was looking for a bank that cared about financial education for its customers, that would be sympathetic to the situation of refugees or immigrants and understanding of their cultures, and one that had programs or grants that could help first time homebuyers.”

At the time, First Merchants was still building its grant programs and capacity but was happy to empower Yen to continue her work.

“I’m very grateful,” She shared. “We’ve grown so much from that first day to where we are now. We’re now a leader in that segment of the industry, and we have so many opportunities for first-time homebuyers and for those that really need a bank’s help and guidance, instead of a bank transaction.”

And, for Yen, that’s the key – both to her success, and to her passion for her work.

“I think that’s why we’ve really grown,” she reflected, “because people understand that we’re not just there for the transaction – we’re there for them.”