I’ve been really digging the concept of employer’s providing down payment assistance to their employees. It just seems like it makes sense for all parties involved, both employers and employees.

But, just because an idea seems bullet-proof and obvious doesn’t mean that works in the real world. So, I’ve been scrounging around the Internet looking for actual, successful implementations of employer down payment assistance.

I have to say that while there may be plenty of employers providing down payment assistance to their employees they aren’t easily found on the Internet.

One program I have come across is REACH Illinois, which also seems to be the unofficial leading voice on employer-assisted housing.

REACH Illinois an Illinois-based organization that helps companies set-up and administer down payment assistance programs for their employees. They also help coordinate/advocate matching funds from the Illinois Housing Development Authority and tax credits from the State (Illinois).

I’ll definitely be referencing REACH Illinois and what they’re doing more in future posts.

Before I go, here are some benefits listed on their site for both employers and employees after implementing a down payment assistance program:

How employer-assisted housing programs benefit employers:
1) Improved employee retention.
2) Reduced recruitment and training costs.
3) A benefits package with a competitive edge.
4) Subsidized assistance for relocating employees.
5) Reduced commutes, stress and absenteeism for staff.
6) State and federal tax benefits.
7) Leveraged state assistance for employees.
8) Community reinvestment.

How employer-assisted housing programs benefit employees:
1) Provide down payment and closing cost assistance or rental assistance.
2) Help resolve poor credit history.
3) Enable them to live closer to work (reducing stressful commutes).
4) Allow them to put down roots through homeownership.
5) Prepare them for homeownership with step-by-step homeownership education course.

Recently, I’ve been looking into different ways employer’s have implemented down payment assistance programs at their companies.

One of the more prevalent down payment assistance structures out there seems to be the forgivable structure.

It works like this: Employers offer their employees say $10,000 in down payment assistance if they meet certain requirements (like home price limitations, geographic limitations, etc). And, each year the employer forgives say 20% of the down payment assistance as long as the employee is still an employee at the company.

If you used the numbers above, an employee would need to stay at the company for five years before the down payment assistance was completely forgiven.

What’s the benefit to employers? The employees will be encouraged to stay at the company until the down payment assistance is completely forgiven (Up to five years in the above example). That’s in addition to the general idea that employees who own homes are happier, more stable and more financially secure.

Photo credit (above): Felipe Torres

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about why I don’t see more employers offering downpayment assistance programs to their employees.

It seems like it would be a smart thing for employers to offer as employees who own homes seem to be happier, more stable and more financially secure than employees who don’t own homes (Note: That was a severe generalization).

I intend to really dig into this topic on this blog in the next couple of months.

Also, I’ll be using my tumblelog to share interesting articles, links and quotes related to downpayment assistance that I don’t feel like blogging about here.

You will probably see a steady flow of examples of employers around the country who offer downpayment assistance programs (If I find them). Also, I’ll probably be highlighting legal and financial issues that I discover along the way.

Plus, I’m sure I’ll throw in my own ideas for employer downpayment assistance programs, too.

Give me a holler if you have any interesting information related to employer downpayment assistance programs.

Photo credit (above): Tarcano

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I’m going to continue to post longer, more in-depth posts to this blog but I will also be posting interesting real estate-related items to my Fresh Squeezed Real Estate tumblelog when I don’t feel like pumping out a long, in-depth posts.

Tumblelogs are definitely better for quickly sharing interesting articles, links and quotes without sitting down for 20-30min and writing a normal blog post.

You should definitely add the Fresh Squeezed Real Estate tumblelog to your favorite RSS reader or follow it if you’re on Tumblr.

Ok, this post might be slightly different than what you’ll usually find on Fresh Squeezed Real Estate, but who cares.

Before I get to what my post title alludes to, I need to provide some background info.

First, I have to admit that I’m an avid reader of Techmeme. I read it every day.

What’s Techmeme? In short, it tracks technology conversations (blog posts etc) happening online in real-time and displays the most popular, relevant conversations on its frontpage.

Here is Techmeme’s current most-popular items:

Anyways, what I’m trying to say is that I’m pretty plugged-in to new tech, startups, social media and news before it hits more mainstream press.

BUT… and, this is a big “but”… I’ve found that I’m slow to start using the social-networking, Web 2.0 and other services that I read about every day.

I’ll read about them, but it takes me forever to start using them. It’s because I like to figure out how they would be useful besides the fact they are cool, shiny and new.

Enter Twitter.

Continue reading →

I haven’t yet come across a real estate developer who blogs in all the years that I’ve been surfing the Internet.

Why do I care if real estate developers blog or not?

Here’s why: The conversations would most definitely be phenomenally informative, interesting and telling.

New readers could read though their blog archives and walk away with a better understanding of real estate.

What would make the conversations so good?

Well, for one thing real estate is one of the biggest drivers of the US economy. Not only that, each and everyone of us (unless you are homeless) needs a roof over our head, a place to work, a gym to work out in, a restaurant to eat in etc etc etc.

And, real estate makes up one of the most important purchases/investments each of us make in our lives.

I think the real estate industry is one of the most analog industries in the US, which makes sense since it is such a analog product. But, that doesn’t mean that it’s conversations need to be analog.

Sure, real estate brokers, real estate agents and real estate search sites all have pretty loud voices on the Internet with blogs and all, but they aren’t the people who build the homes, commercial buildings etc that they’ve all built their businesses around.

Don’t worry, I can’t see the Sheldon Adelson (above) blogging either. He should stick to having conversations with Charlie Rose.

I’m on a quest to find real estate developers who blog and to encourage real estate developers to blog. Maybe this blog will be the first to start those real estate developer conversations. Who knows?

Note: I should add that I probably haven’t yet earned the title of “Real Estate Developer” but I’m currently in the early stages of my own affordable housing development. So, I will earn it soon.

If you are a real estate developer and you have a blog focused on real estate development, leave a link to your blog in the comments or email me at andrew@freshsqueezedrealestate.com.

Earlier today, I read something in my California Real Estate Practice textbook that made me write this earlier post.

Well, here’s another item I came across that I feel I should address: I think I’m underestimating the importance of MLS access.

Maybe I should rephrase that: Are Multiple Listing Services (MLS) kind of like the mafia? You’re either in or shut out in the cold?

Yes, that was a bit drastic but that’s actually what I think of when my textbook says, “Real estate brokers and salespeople are able to expand their activity beyond their own listings because of a unique system of cooperation that exists among brokers.”

And, “Cooperation is the cornerstone of modern real estate brokerage.”

Yeeesh. I don’t know why but Tony Soprano comes to mind.

I know there are people, companies and organizations out there trying to standardize MLS feed formats for better listing access, search etc, but the current MLS brotherhood state of things seems a bit backwards.

Wouldn’t it be better for the real estate industry if MLS data was free-flowing and everyone had access? I would love to hear any feedback and insight in the comments (I’m a bit new to all this).

Here’s a quick example of two innovative real estate companies, Intero and All California Brokerage (ABC), and how they are drastically affected by MLS access.

Both of their websites are powered by Terabitz technology, but it appears that Intero is part of the MLS brotherhood and ABC isn’t.

Look at their differing search results for “for sale, single-family homes in Santa Rosa, CA“:

Intero Real Estate:

They have 641 results due to their better MLS access I assume.

ABC:

They only have 14 results using the same Terabitz technology but without the same MLS access.

Bummer. It seems like everyone would win if innovative brokerages like ABC had access to all available MLS listings.

Note: ABC has been using Terabitz’s technology longer than Intero. Intero and Terabitz just announced their partnership today, and Intero looks like a real winner with solid mapping and live access to their agents via text messaging and IM chat.

I just started reading the California Real Estate Practice textbook I ordered off Amazon and I came across this line right at the start, “A property sale cannot be reduced to moving a cursor and pressing an enter key.”

Wow. That’s a bummer. How easy would that be to search, explore and find your perfect home without changing out of your sweats and without leaving the glow of your laptop screen?

They’re probably right, that sounds too easy.

However, I found the apartment that I’m currently renting by doing just that. You might say that renting an apartment is totally different ballgame than buying a home, and you’d probably be very correct.

But, I have to say that the two are pretty similar. I have a lease and it is my “home”.

So, why can’t finding a new home be reduced to “moving a cursor and pressing an enter key”?

To some degree, I think that it very well can be reduced to that. I think I proved that by how I found and explored the apartment I’m in right now.

When I starting searching for my new Santa Rosa apartment I took to the Internet and starting clicking my cursor. I found available units and I browsed their general locations on interactive online maps.

I saw how far they were from places I frequent often, both in walking and driving distance. I saw how far they were from grocery stores, restaurants and my favorite book stores and coffee shops. Also, their distance from places I visit on “work” matters.

Using the Internet and my cursor, I was able to browse their going rates compared to units in close proximity and also compared to units in other areas of Sonoma County. I was able to find contact info, application info and property specific details, like layouts, fixtures, photos, apartment rules etc.

Once I had done my homework and decided on a couple units that were perfect for my me, I called the property managers and scheduled quick walk-throughs.

Once I had completed my brief walk-throughs, I made my decision and turned in the respective application that I had downloaded from the Internet earlier in the week.

I have to say that the process was as close to being “reduced to moving a cursor and pressing an enter key” as you can get.

I was searching for housing data on Google the other day and I noticed that Google has added a new feature to their main search service.

Now whenever you search for something related to homes Google lets you fine-tune your search with a drop-down menu. The new feature is super useful and I think its really going to impact how people start searching for homes.

Google’s Housing search is going to play a large role in this big switch to using the Internet as the starting point for home hunting.

Here is a quick rundown of Google’s new Housing search feature (Note: It’s new to Google’s main search service, but not necessarily new).

When you click on the “Find results for ‘…fill in the blank…’ in Housing search” it brings you to Google Base page for your particular housing search (Check out Google Base housing results in Santa Rosa, CA, here):

You can then use Google Base’s dropdown menus to further drill down your search. For instance, you can specify listing type, price, property type, bedrooms, bathrooms, location and keywords.

When you specify a parameter in the dropdown menus the houses that match the criteria show up in the accompanying Google Map.

You know what’s really cool about Google’s Housing search?

Anyone can add a listing to Google Base.

All you have to do is click the “Add an item” button and then enter info under the housing category. It’s as easy as that. Here is a quick screenshot of the info you can enter:

I’m sure real agents and agencies will start taking advantage of Google Base as soon as they find this awesome feature in their Google search results.

Not only with this new Google search feature impact how people start searching for homes, it will also allow agents and home sellers to make their listings search-friendly. This is a huge plus for anyone who has been discouraged by the lack of Internet-friendly house listings (Count me in this group).