I hereby declare that from the 21st of August, 2008, I will move on from down payment assistance. Now, I'll focus not on bad-mouthing, I will focus on the solutions below...
Our politicians did what they did and come October 1st, things will be different.
Just like I would move on from a bad relationship - There's just no point in beating a dead horse.
Will things get bad? - If I let them. But, no more complaining from me!!! I'll let others complain while I help families buy and sell homes.
With home prices in more affordable ranges, solutions are attainable!
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Find people with savings accounts with a meager 10% of their annual earnings saved. Believe it or not, there are people that do have savings. They're just waiting for the right professional to educate them so they make the best use of their hard earned money.
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Find people that put money into 401(k) accounts or IRA's. Although you can get a loan on most 401(k)'s, even if you trigger a taxable event on the IRA, it may still be worth it. After all, we're talking about a 3.5% down payment.
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Find people that are currently renting. These renters usually have security deposits that they will be getting back. I'll just figure out what down payment is needed and subtract the deposit. Now, the number they need is smaller and it may be within reach of taking down.
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Educate parents on helping their children buy. We always talk about working with people we like, right? Let's find people that are helpful like us. Surely, they would want to help their child buy their first home; especially in a GREAT BUYER'S MARKET!
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Organize church savings pools. A congregation can do fundraising events and take special collections to have members of their church purchase homes.
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Wedding/graduation gift accounts. These accounts allow family members and friends to contribute money to a designated bank account. These monies are considered "sourced and seasoned" and can be used for down payment.
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Employer contribution. There have been times in the past where employers have paid the down payment for their employee. This could be the result of the company wanting to retain a specific employee, it could be a bonus, it could be an annual raise bonus.
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Teaching a budgeting class to those desiring to be home buyers. So many families just need to trim away some of the fat and waste in order to buy a home. The money has been there all along, they just didn't budget properly.
Some of these solutions to replace the down payment assistance programs will not yield immediate results but crying about the demise of DPA's will surely yield zero.
Let's continue to provide solutions to those that want to buy. Our code of ethics states it is our responsibility to do so.
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