Central Florida’s Highest-Producing Dave Ramsey Trusted Pro — Creegan Group Is the Realtor for Dave Ramsey Fans Who Want to Build Real Wealth Through Smart Homeownership
Chris Creegan | Creegan Group | Maitland, FL | Dave Ramsey Trusted Pro | Serving All of Central Florida
If you have ever listened to Dave Ramsey — really listened, not just heard an episode — you know that buying a home is not just a financial transaction. It is one of the most consequential steps in a life built on intentional, debt-free wealth-building. Dave has taught millions of people that a paid-for home is the foundation of generational wealth, and that getting there — the right way, at the right time, with the right team — changes everything.
At Creegan Group, we have been living those principles and helping Central Florida families apply them to one of the biggest purchases of their lives for years. We are not just a Dave Ramsey Trusted Pro. We are one of the longest-serving and highest-producing Dave Ramsey Trusted Pros in all of Central Florida — and the values that Dave teaches are not just a marketing credential for us. They are the way we actually run our business and the way Chris Creegan runs his life.
If you are searching for a Dave Ramsey Trusted Pro realtor in Orlando, a Dave Ramsey ELP in Central Florida, or simply the agent who understands what it means to help a family buy or sell a home the Dave Ramsey way — you have found us.
What Is a Dave Ramsey Trusted Pro — and Why Does It Matter?
Dave Ramsey does not endorse lightly. The Trusted Pro program — formerly called the Endorsed Local Provider (ELP) program — identifies professionals in each local market who meet a specific and demanding standard of performance, ethics, and client service. Dave has said repeatedly that he would only send his own family to an Endorsed Local Provider or Trusted Pro. That standard is not rhetoric. The screening process to become a Trusted Pro is rigorous, ongoing, and performance-based.
To be designated as a Dave Ramsey Trusted Pro realtor, a professional must:
Demonstrate a sustained record of exceptional client results and verified five-star reviews. Operate with a level of transparency, communication, and service quality that reflects Dave’s core philosophy: serve the client first, always. Understand the Dave Ramsey Baby Steps and the financial context in which Dave Ramsey followers approach homeownership — so that advice given to clients is consistent with, not in conflict with, the financial plan they are already following. And produce — consistently, at a high volume, in the local market — because Dave’s listeners deserve access to agents who are genuinely at the top of their craft.
Creegan Group has met every one of these standards across years of service as a Trusted Pro — and the performance metrics that define “highest-producing” are not self-reported. They are reflected in our transaction volume, our 1,000+ verified five-star reviews, our recognition as a Top 40 Nationwide Real Estate Team by RealTrends, and our designation as 2025 Broker of the Year by Orlando Real Producers.
When Dave Ramsey sends a Central Florida client our way, it is because we have earned it — not once, but consistently, across the full run of our relationship with Ramsey Solutions.
The Dave Ramsey Baby Steps and Homeownership — Where We Come In
Dave Ramsey’s 7 Baby Steps are one of the most widely adopted personal finance frameworks in the country — and for good reason. They work. Millions of families have used the Baby Steps to eliminate debt, build emergency funds, pay off their homes, and achieve the kind of financial freedom that most people only talk about.
Understanding where homeownership fits in the Baby Steps is one of the first conversations we have with every Dave Ramsey client who comes to us — because buying at the wrong time, in the wrong way, with the wrong structure is one of the fastest ways to turn a wealth-building asset into a wealth-destroying burden.
Baby Step 3b — The Home-Buying Step
Dave places home-buying at Baby Step 3b — after you have your $1,000 starter emergency fund (Baby Step 1), paid off all non-mortgage debt using the debt snowball (Baby Step 2), and built your full 3-to-6-month emergency fund (Baby Step 3). Only then, with a fully funded emergency fund in place, does saving for a down payment make sense.
This sequencing is intentional. Dave has seen too many families skip ahead — buy a home while still carrying car payments, student loans, and credit card balances — and find themselves house-rich and cash-poor, one unexpected expense away from financial crisis. The Baby Step sequence protects you from that outcome.
When clients come to us at Baby Step 3b — actively saving their down payment and ready to begin the home search — we meet them exactly where they are. We help them understand what they can realistically afford in the Central Florida market, what neighborhoods align with their target price range and lifestyle, and how to position themselves as competitive buyers in a market where preparation and speed matter.
Dave’s Mortgage Guidelines — How We Help You Honor Them
Dave Ramsey’s mortgage guidelines are specific for a reason: they are designed to ensure that a mortgage accelerates wealth-building rather than becoming a trap. Dave recommends:
A 15-year fixed-rate mortgage — not a 30-year. The math on a 15-year vs. 30-year mortgage, in terms of total interest paid over the life of the loan, is genuinely staggering. A 15-year mortgage forces faster equity accumulation and keeps the total cost of the home dramatically lower. We work with clients who are committed to a 15-year mortgage and help them identify properties that work within that constraint — which often means looking at a different price range or neighborhood than a 30-year mortgage would allow.
A down payment of at least 10%, with 20% as the target — because 20% down eliminates Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI), which is money that builds zero equity. Getting to 20% down is one of the clearest financial wins in the home-buying process, and we help clients understand exactly what that number looks like in the Central Florida market segments they are targeting.
A monthly payment no greater than 25% of take-home pay — because the moment housing consumes more than a quarter of household income, it begins crowding out Baby Steps 4, 5, and 6 — investing for retirement, saving for children’s college, and paying off the home early. We take this guideline seriously in our buyer consultations. If a buyer’s target home would push their payment above 25% of take-home pay, we say so — because our job is not to close a transaction. Our job is to serve the client’s actual financial interests.
These guidelines are not always comfortable to apply in the Central Florida market, where prices have risen significantly across the past several years. But they are the right guidelines, and we help clients navigate them with honesty and without pressure.
Baby Step 6 — Paying Off the Home. The Goal Behind the Goal.
Dave Ramsey has a quote that belongs on a wall: “The paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice among the financially astute.”
Baby Step 6 — paying off the home early — is the culmination of everything that comes before it. For Dave Ramsey followers who buy a home at Baby Step 3b and maintain the financial discipline of Baby Steps 4, 5, and 6 simultaneously, the trajectory toward a paid-for home is not a fantasy. It is a math problem with a solution.
At Creegan Group, we think about Baby Step 6 at the time of purchase — because the home you buy, the mortgage you take, and the equity position you enter with are all variables that either accelerate or delay the path to debt freedom. Buying a home that allows you to aggressively pursue Baby Step 6 while also funding retirement (Baby Step 4) and education savings (Baby Step 5) requires a level of purchase discipline that most real estate agents never discuss with their clients.
We discuss it. Because we have seen what it looks like when a family finishes Baby Step 6 — and it is one of the most profound financial moments in a person’s life.
Baby Step 7 — Building Real Wealth. And Real Estate’s Role in It.
Dave Ramsey is not anti-real estate investing. He has built significant wealth through real estate himself and has consistently recommended real estate as a vehicle for Baby Step 7 wealth-building — specifically real estate purchased with cash, without leverage, after the primary home is paid off.
For Central Florida clients who reach Baby Step 7 and are looking to build a real estate investment portfolio — vacation rental properties in the Osceola County short-term rental markets, commercial real estate, residential rental properties — Creegan Group’s expertise extends into these asset classes. Chris Creegan’s commercial division has transacted on industrial warehouses, commercial land, and multi-million-dollar commercial properties across the Central Florida metro.
The Dave Ramsey path to wealth does not end at Baby Step 6. It accelerates into Baby Step 7. And when our clients reach that stage, we are the team they call.
Financial Peace and Homeownership — The Ramsey Philosophy in Practice
Dave Ramsey’s concept of financial peace — the condition of having no debt, a fully funded emergency fund, a retirement plan on track, and a home being paid off ahead of schedule — is not just an abstraction. It is a lived experience that changes how people feel about going to work every morning, how they sleep at night, and what is possible for their children and grandchildren.
Homeownership, done right, is one of the most powerful accelerators of financial peace available to an ordinary American household. The forced savings mechanism of a mortgage, the equity accumulation over time, the protection from rising rents, the tax advantages, and the long-term appreciation of well-located real estate — all of these work together to build wealth in a way that no other asset class replicates for the average family.
Homeownership done wrong — bought at the wrong time in the Baby Steps, with too little down, on a 30-year mortgage that consumes 35% of take-home pay — works in the opposite direction. It creates stress, limits financial options, and traps families in a cycle of house-poor living that can persist for decades.
At Creegan Group, we help Dave Ramsey followers get homeownership right. We have had hundreds of conversations with clients who came to us after listening to Dave, armed with questions — Is now the right time for me to buy? What can I actually afford on a 15-year mortgage in Winter Park? How do I compete in a competitive market with 20% down when other buyers are putting 3% down? — and we have answered every one of them honestly, even when the honest answer was “not yet.”
Because the goal is not to close a transaction. The goal is to help you build lasting financial peace through smart homeownership. That is what Dave would want. And it is what we have committed to delivering for every Ramsey client who walks through our door.
Why Creegan Group Is Central Florida’s Dave Ramsey Trusted Pro — and Has Been for Years
Being a Dave Ramsey Trusted Pro is a designation that must be re-earned continuously through client performance, verified reviews, and demonstrated market expertise. It is not a certificate you hang on the wall. It is a standard you meet every single day, in every single transaction.
Here is why Creegan Group has sustained — and grown — as the highest-producing Dave Ramsey Trusted Pro in Central Florida:
Volume and results. We close more Dave Ramsey referral transactions than any other team in this market. That volume reflects trust — trust that Dave Ramsey’s team has in our performance, and trust that Dave Ramsey clients experience when they work with us.
Alignment with Ramsey values. Chris Creegan is not performing the Dave Ramsey philosophy as a sales tactic. These are principles he applies personally — to his own finances, his own real estate ownership, and his own business. When a Dave Ramsey client sits across from Chris Creegan, they are talking to someone who has internalized the same framework they are trying to live by. That alignment is felt immediately, and it builds a quality of trust that transactional agents cannot manufacture.
Market depth. We serve the full spectrum of the Central Florida luxury and non-luxury markets — Winter Park, Maitland, Baldwin Park, Windermere, Lake Mary, Oviedo, Sanford, Winter Garden, Clermont, Kissimmee, and the broader metro. A Dave Ramsey client’s Baby Step 3b target price might be $350,000 in Sanford or $2,000,000 on the Vias in Winter Park. We serve both with the same level of professionalism and market knowledge.
A buyer pipeline that creates results. Our 600+ qualified leads per month — from Zillow Flex, HomeLight Elite, corporate relocation networks, and our own marketing — include a constant flow of Dave Ramsey Trusted Pro referrals. Those referrals benefit from being matched with an agent who already has deep market relationships, off-market access, and the negotiation experience to compete effectively in a market that rewards preparation.
Verified client outcomes. Our 1,000+ five-star reviews are not anonymous internet comments. They are verified, named client endorsements from buyers and sellers across Central Florida who can speak to the experience of working with our team. Dave Ramsey clients can read those reviews and make their own assessment of whether we live up to the standard Dave has set.
Your Realtor for Life — Not Just for One Transaction
Dave Ramsey teaches that the people you surround yourself with — your doctor, your financial advisor, your attorney, your realtor — should be people who share your values, understand your long-term goals, and have the expertise to help you achieve them across years and decades, not just at a single point in time.
At Creegan Group, we take “realtor for life” seriously. We have clients who first purchased with us at Baby Step 3b and have since sold that home, purchased a larger one, purchased a vacation rental investment, and referred their adult children to us. We have clients who sold with us as part of a debt-free journey that included paying off a home and downsizing. We have clients who come back to us years after a transaction because they trust us with the next one.
This is the relationship model Dave Ramsey endorses. Not a transactional agent who is focused on the commission check. A trusted advisor who is focused on your long-term financial wellbeing — who will tell you not to buy when the numbers do not work, who will help you sell at the right moment in your journey, and who will be there for every real estate decision you make across the course of your financial life.
We want to be that team for you.
Common Questions from Dave Ramsey Followers Buying or Selling in Central Florida
Is now a good time to buy a home if I am on Baby Step 3b?
If you have your emergency fund fully funded, your non-mortgage debt eliminated, and your down payment saved, the question is not primarily about market timing — it is about whether your specific purchase checks all of Dave’s boxes. We help you run those numbers against the current Central Florida market and find the home that works within your Baby Step guidelines.
Can I find a home that works with a 15-year mortgage in Central Florida?
Yes — and the answer depends heavily on which submarket and price range you are targeting. We know the Central Florida market deeply enough to identify where your 15-year mortgage payment lands below Dave’s 25% of take-home guideline, and we build your search around those parameters.
What if I cannot put 20% down right now — should I wait?
Dave’s answer is generally yes — wait, save the full 20%, avoid PMI, and enter the purchase from a position of strength. We can help you understand exactly what 20% down looks like on your target home price, what the monthly savings from avoiding PMI are, and how long saving to that threshold is likely to take at your current savings rate. In some cases, 10% down with a path to PMI removal makes sense. We talk through all of it.
I heard Dave say to pay off your home in 7 years — is that realistic?
For some buyers in some price ranges, yes. Dave’s personal story of paying off a home in seven years using the Baby Step 7 momentum of no other debt and aggressive principal payments is a real path. We can connect you with Dave Ramsey-aligned mortgage professionals who can model what an accelerated payoff timeline looks like on your specific loan.
Can Creegan Group help me find a Dave Ramsey-aligned mortgage professional?
Yes. Our network includes mortgage professionals who understand and align with Ramsey principles — specifically those who focus on 15-year fixed-rate products, counsel clients on the true cost of PMI, and do not push buyers into loans that exceed Dave’s affordability guidelines.
I am a Dave Ramsey fan who wants to sell my home — can Creegan Group help?
Absolutely. Many of our seller clients are Dave Ramsey followers who are selling as part of a Baby Step 6 payoff strategy, a downsizing into a smaller, paid-off home, or a move to a new market. We approach seller representation with the same values alignment — maximum net proceeds, honest pricing, and a marketing strategy that attracts the right buyer at the right price.
The Dave Ramsey Realtor Central Florida Has Been Waiting For
If you are a Dave Ramsey listener, Financial Peace University graduate, or Baby Steps follower searching for a real estate professional in the Orlando, Winter Park, Maitland, Windermere, Lake Mary, Oviedo, Sanford, Winter Garden, Clermont, or greater Central Florida area — the search is over.
Creegan Group is your Dave Ramsey Trusted Pro. We have been serving Ramsey clients in this market longer than any other team, at a higher production level than any other team, and with a genuine alignment to Ramsey values that goes beyond a listing on a referral website.
We are ready to help you take the next step in your Baby Steps journey — whether that is your first home purchase, a move-up into the right long-term home, a strategic sale that accelerates your path to Baby Step 6, or a Baby Step 7 investment conversation.
📞 407.622.1111 🌐 www.CreeganGroup.com 📍 439 Lake Howell Road, Maitland, FL 32751
Tell us you found us through Dave Ramsey — and let’s talk about your next move.