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Resource Category: Solutions in Action

  • Don’t Skip the Inspection: A Video Series for First-Time Homebuyers

    CONVERGENCE Columbus led the development of a 16-part short-form video series to help first-time homebuyers better understand the role of home inspections in the purchase process. Launched under the Bloom614 platform and created in partnership with industry experts from Home & Commercial Inspections LLC, the series was designed to address a growing challenge in Columbus, Ohio’s housing market: increasing pressure on buyers to waive inspections in competitive transactions. The production was supported by a sponsorship from First Merchants Bank. The initiative reflects an effort to expand access to practical, accessible homebuyer education.

  • HUD House Party: Connecting Columbus to Homeownership Opportunities

    CONVERGENCE Columbus designed the HUD House Party as a community-centered event to make homeownership resources more accessible in Central Ohio. While the region has a strong network of housing counselors, lenders, nonprofits, and public agencies, these services are often distributed across multiple programs and locations, leaving many prospective buyers unsure where to start.

  • The Bloom614 Homebuyer Readiness Program

    CONVERGENCE Columbus conducted the Bloom614 Homebuyer Readiness Program pilot to address a persistent challenge in Central Ohio, where many prospective buyers fall out of the mortgage process before closing. Applicants who are denied often receive little guidance on why or what steps to take next, creating a gap between their interest in homeownership and true mortgage readiness.

  • West Georgia Board of REALTORS® Leads Aspiring Buyers on the Path to Homeownership with Engaging Info-Packed Course

    With support from a Housing Opportunity Grant, the West Georgia Board of REALTORS® partnered with a local HUD-certified housing counseling agency to offer a ‘Pathways to Homeownership’ course for first-time buyers. Addressing essential aspects of the home-buying process – including obstacles to homeownership – the program was so well received that the REALTORS® are making it an annual event.

    The 430-member West Georgia Board of REALTORS® is an energetic voice for real estate in the region west of Atlanta. So, while it was natural for its Diversity and Equal Opportunity Committee to plan a ‘Pathways to Homeownership’ course for aspiring buyers last August, it could never have anticipated the demand: they were able to offer the same course the following April, both reaching capacity attendance. The information-packed events were presented in partnership with a local HUD-approved housing counseling agency and supported by a Housing Opportunity Grant from the REALTOR® Party.

    Blair McClure, CEO of the West Georgia Board, credits Committee Chair and 2020 President Cheri Davis with the inspiration for the course, and for seeing it through – twice! She was helped by a strong team of dedicated committee members.

    Nearly fifty would-be homebuyers attended the initial program, which was promoted through the local newspaper, the local magazine, and the chamber of commerce, as well as with paid Facebook advertising, which McClure notes is easy and inexpensive. The grant from the REALTOR® Party, plus a ten-percent stake from the West Georgia Board, covered marketing, event space in the town conference center, boxed lunches, and handouts in a specially branded folder.

    “It was a great turnout, and the attendees were engaged, asked questions, took notes, and genuinely wanted to become homebuyers – they just didn’t know where to start,” says McClure. “For many, this might have been their first opportunity to learn about credit and why it’s important, about renting vs. owning, how wealth is built through homeownership, and the value of working with a REALTOR®,” she notes. The two-and-a-half-hour program gave them a nuts-and-bolts overview and allowed plenty of time to meet the presenters and get more in-depth answers. The first speaker, from NID Housing Counseling, addressed homeownership challenges and how to overcome them. He was followed by a panel of three local lenders who discussed basic homebuyer preparation, including loan programs, the pre-qualification process, and the documents needed to apply for a mortgage. A follow-up questionnaire revealed high enthusiasm from the participants, who indicated that the course was very helpful and set them firmly on the path toward homeownership.

    The response encouraged the board to make it an annual event. When they decided to offer it again just eight months later, for Fair Housing Month, registration went to a waitlist – again. And, again, the audience was engaged, motivated, and seeing first-hand the REALTORS®’ dedication to helping their neighbors achieve homeownership.

    The West Georgia Board is very grateful for the help it gets from the REALTOR® Party, says McClure: “We’re just a little association, and it takes every bit of our budget to make our operations work. The REALTOR® Party grant program makes it possible for us to go the extra mile to help our community, and it’s so easy to take advantage of these more modest grant opportunities: you fill out the form and submit the receipts. The question is, why wouldn’t we?!”

    To learn more about how the West Georgia Board of REALTORS® is promoting homeownership in its community, contact CEO Blair McClure at [email protected] or 770.949.9966.

    Source: This article originally appeared on the REALTOR® Party website.

  • Miami REALTORS® Pave the Way for Affordable Housing

    When the leadership of Miami REALTORS® began brainstorming out-of-the-box responses to their region’s affordable housing crisis, they considered everything from housing teachers at school sites to constructing homes within parking garages. The concept they decided to pursue was repurposing shipping containers into affordable dwellings. By developing two discarded containers into a 480-square-foot site-built home on land contributed by the county, they learned exactly what regulatory barriers stood in the way of this ingenious solution with the help of a REALTOR Party Community Outreach grant. The process took over six years from start to finish, but the improvements the REALTORS® were able to effect in the regulatory system has cleared a significant path forward for future development of affordable housing.

    “The battleground of affordable housing is going to happen in the zoning and planning departments in all of our cities throughout the country,” states Miami REALTORS® 2022 Board Chair Fernando Arencibia, Jr. in the video. Danielle Blake, the board’s Chief of Commercial, agrees: “The principal takeaway was not the unit, but the process. Our mission was to study the barriers to try to make this a viable solution for other builders.” The prototype was developed in partnership with NAR, Miami-Dade County, and the City of South Miami, and was sold to a buyer whose income is 80% of the area median; by restrictive covenant, the property must remain affordable for a minimum of twenty years.

    In developing the property, the REALTORS® encountered regulatory roadblocks that added significant expense and costly delays. Before they were able to pull permits, for example, a review committee insisted that $25K worth of landscaping be included in the proposal; beyond the exorbitant and unexpected cost, this caused a delay of eleven months. Another maddening order-of-operations was exposed in connecting the property to water and sewer lines: each process had to be conducted separately, requiring the entire block to be re-surfaced each time. “All this ultimately increases the cost to the buyer,” notes Blake, “and is completely counter to our goal of creating affordable housing.”

    By identifying such non-sensical irregularities of the zoning code, the process of developing the container home was the first step toward correcting them. The exercise also brought about the permitting of Accessory Dwelling Units on lots zoned for single-family homes, which will open up huge opportunities for additional affordable units, says Blake. In addition, it prompted the city to provide flexible zoning for smaller non-conforming lots so more affordable units could be built, and established eco-friendly container homes as viable dwellings for single lots and as ADUs. The net achievement of this single prototype will be a reduction in overall housing costs in Miami-Dade County.

    The REALTORS® are leveraging their accomplishment by sharing highlights of their experience and advocacy on a dedicated webpage and in the new video. It features interviews with the Mayor of Miami-Dade County, Arencibia, Blake, and others directly involved in the development of the model container home – including the new owner, who says he feels like he won the lottery. He reports that every weekend, somebody knocks on his door out of curiosity. “And we get phone calls all the time,” adds Blake. “It took an enormous effort to create this modest home, but it is clearly the start of something big.”

    To learn more about how Miami REALTORS® is addressing housing affordability, contact Danielle Blake, Chief of Commercial, at [email protected] or 786.517.7223

    For more information, view the Community Outreach Grants: Miami REALTORS® Cut the Red Tape for Housing Affordability https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRYeeeXbJdM;

    REALTOR Magazine Level Up: Advancing Homeownership: A discussion about innovative ways to advance homeownership in today’s market shortage https://www.nar.realtor/magazine/level-up/level-up-advancing-homeownership or visit https://www.miamirealtors.com/containerhome

    Source: This article originally appeared on the REALTOR® Party website.

  • Columbus REALTORS® Explores Tiny Homes as a Solution to Affordable Housing Crisis

    Always interested in increasing the availability of affordable housing, Columbus REALTORS® hosted a Tiny Home Forum to explore the viability of diminutive dwellings as an affordable and energy efficient alternative for buyers who might be priced out of the conventional market. A Housing Opportunity Grant from the REALTOR® Party helped make it possible – including an on-site tiny house for participants to tour!

    In exploring ways to mitigate the serious shortage of affordable housing in central Ohio, Columbus REALTORS® is thinking outside the box and considering all the options. Tiny homes? Instead of dismissing them as an extreme HGTV trend, the REALTORS® recognized a possibility worth studying, and convened a panel of experts to discuss tiny homes as an affordable and efficient housing alternative. More than one hundred REALTOR® members and community partners attended the two-hour forum last October, and toured an actual on-site tiny home. A Housing Opportunity Grant from the REALTOR® Party helped make it possible.

    The Tiny Homes Forum was a joint effort of Columbus REALTORS®’ Sustainability Forum and its Housing Affordability & Community Partnership Committee, explains Lynn Hackworth, the association’s Manager of Equity and Impact. “The concept of tiny homes has been on our radar for a while, as it addresses some of our top priorities, namely affordable housing and sustainability. We were pleased to be able to bring together key experts for our panel: a co-founder of Modern Tiny Living, a custom tiny house design/build company; a Columbus City Councilmember who is also a REALTOR®; an officer of the Affordable Housing Trust for Columbus; a partner in Vista Village Tiny Home project, a local 20-acre non-profit; and a lending professional. Between them, they covered a comprehensive range of issues, from zoning to financing, and answered lots of questions from the audience, which was highly engaged.”

    According to Ida Seitter, the Director of Community & PAC Engagement for Columbus REALTORS®, a driving force behind the forum was the projection that central Ohio’s population will triple by 2050: “The university presence in Columbus makes us something of an incubator for new business. Intel Corporation will be moving up to 12K employees here in the coming years. Where are these people going to live? The conventional stick-build housing just won’t work anymore. It’s going to take dense in-fill housing, and plenty of it. Tiny homes are especially well suited to the need.” Columbus REALTORS® Foundation already has first-hand experience with tiny homes, she notes, as the $100K sponsors of a single home within Vista Village, which provides transitional housing, along with access to medical and mental health care, for those in need.

    Columbus REALTORS®’ Sustainability Forum Committee Chair Jan Jedlinsky points out that the tiny homes, which could be built in the area for $75K-$120K, are not only for those seeking affordability. “We’re learning that there’s high interest in these as ‘granny pods,’ for example,” she says. “Whether a tiny home is intended as a stand-alone house or as an accessory dwelling unit, as a custom build, there is an opportunity to use luxury finishes – we’re not talking about lots of materials, after all: they’re tiny!” She notes that the construction of a tiny home is inherently energy efficient, and their carbon footprint is small. “We were pleasantly surprised by the fact that our capacity audience at this forum was younger and more diverse than usual. Our members weren’t getting CE credits for this, they are truly interested in this concept, as were our community partners, which is wonderful, because we’ll be relying on them to apply pressure when the City Council takes up the zoning amendments that will make tiny home development possible here.”

    It was the Housing Opportunity grant from the REALTOR® Party that enabled Modern Tiny Living to transport a model tiny home to the forum for an ‘open house.’ Hackworth reports that applying for REALTOR® Party grants is easy and accessible. “We had an answer within a week, and were really pleased, because we weren’t initially sure that our proposal would meet their criteria. I’d encourage any association to go ahead and call them to talk through your ideas and see what is possible. The bottom line is that they want to support your success.”

    To learn more about how Columbus REALTORS® is helping central Ohio explore all the options when it comes to increasing affordable housing, contact Lynn Hackworth, Manager of Equity and Impact, at [email protected]; 614. 528.1112; or Ida Seitter, Director of Community & PAC Engagement, at Iseitter@ColumbusRealtors or 614.528.1104; or member Jan Jedlinsky, METRO II REALTY, at [email protected] or 614.348.3046.

    Source: This article originally appeared on the REALTOR® Party website.

  • Sacramento Association of REALTORS® Equips Local Aspiring Homeowners with Resources and Know-How to Begin Homebuying Journey

    Recent census data reveals that barely half of the households in California’s capital city own their homes. To help the community’s would-be buyers get started on the path to homeownership, the Sacramento Association of REALTORS® held a first-time homebuyers expo at the outset of Fair Housing Month this past April, connecting over 200 visitors to information, resources – and lunch! A Housing Opportunity Grant from the REALTOR® Party helped make it possible.

    “Find Your Path to Homeownership” was the brainchild of the association’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Fair Housing Committee, says CEO Jessica Coates, who serves as the group’s principal staff liaison. “They really hit a home run with this event, empowering the historically disempowered, and reaching those in our community who have not had access to critical resources. It strengthened our relationships with partners whose values align with ours as REALTORS® and demonstrated to the whole community that this is what REALTORS® do to get you to the table.”

    The Sacramento association is fortunate in having its own full-service event center, which not only serves as a non-dues revenue arm, but is also an ideal venue for a public expo. Held on a Saturday from 10am-2pm, the event featured an exhibition of vendors and services drawn from the association’s preferred partners, or non-REALTOR® members. Concurrently, a program of speakers shared information about the homebuying process, financial literacy, and resources unique to California residents, including the new California Dream for All program that provided $300M assistance for down payments. “We also presented a panel discussion with two young couples describing their own recent home-buying journeys,” she adds. “As first-generation homeowners and second-generation Americans, they were speaking to an audience who could relate to them, and revealed things like how they chose their REALTORS®, and what gave them pause. It was a beautiful thing, and very inspiring.”

    In addition to the REALTOR® Party, the expo was supported by the state association, local chapters of the Asian Real Estate Association of America, the National Association of Real Estate Brokers, the National Hispanic Organization of Real Estate Associates, various mortgage lenders, and The Home Depot located just across the street. “They actually loaded up a truck and drove it over to us with a team of three staffers who provided fun building and planting activities for kids,” says Coates. “We had wanted to remove all barriers that might keep families from attending, so having something to occupy the young ones was key. And, of course, the target audience for housing events aligns perfectly with Home Depot’s customer base, so it’s a good partnership for both of us to be building.”

    The REALTORS® marketed the event a full six weeks in advance, with Facebook ads and through their own communication networks. They also hit the pavement, posting flyers in coffee shops and other local businesses with community bulletin boards. The association has a partnership with a local television station that brings in a REALTOR® for a five-minute monthly segment to discuss the current market; the station manager permitted a brief plug of the upcoming expo. As a new CEO in town, Coates also happened to have a few radio interviews lined up. The timing was perfect, she notes: “The stations wanted to introduce me to the community and allowed me to take a moment to promote the event, which was entirely relevant to their listeners. Even for those who are not currently in the market, it was a great opportunity to show who we are, what we do, and how we help.”

    For planning purposes, the association requested advance registration, but the lively kids’ activities and food trucks and on the busy street also attracted walk-ins. In all, more than 210 aspiring homeowners benefitted from a day of education, information, and interaction with the REALTORS® and their partners. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive, and the association has committed to making the expo an annual event.

    To learn more about how the Sacramento Association of REALTORS® is giving community members a leg-up on the homebuying process, contac CEO Jessica Coates at [email protected] or 916.205.6096 or listen to the Drive with NAR Podcast episode Use Your Network to Launch a Community Movement. For a glimpse of the event itself, visit: https://romerocreativestudio.pixieset.com/firsttimehomebuyersexpo/videos/

    Source: This article originally appeared on the REALTOR® Party website.

  • Revitalization Through Affordable Infill Development: The Zodiac Road Project

    The Zodiac Road Building Project in Memphis’ Whitehaven Hills community represents a strategic, community-rooted effort to address the city’s critical shortage of affordable starter homes. The project turned long-vacant lots into 10 newly constructed, energy-efficient homes priced around $200,000, filling a critical market gap for moderate-income buyers unable to find attainable homes in the existing housing stock. More than a construction effort, Zodiac Road showcases how collaboration between nonprofit developers, municipal agencies, lenders, and local builders can create meaningful, scalable solutions for overcoming persistent housing inequities.

  • Community-Centered Approaches to Homeownership Education

    Homebuyer education events are a powerful tool for reducing barriers and building trust among aspiring homeowners. These events bring information, resources, and professionals directly into neighborhoods, making the homebuying process more accessible, less intimidating, and deeply connected to local contexts. Whether delivered through small gatherings or larger neighborhood expos, these events offer residents clarity, confidence, and direct connections to counselors, lenders, and community partners who can support them on their journey to becoming homeowners.

  • Bloom614: A Digital Gateway to Homeownership

    Bloom614 is a web-based platform designed to simplify and humanize the homebuying journey for first-time homebuyers and homeowners in Central Ohio. Developed through a collaboration between CONVERGENCE Columbus and the Affordable Housing Alliance of Central Ohio (AHACO), the site serves as a centralized, user-friendly hub for financial readiness tools, educational content, and access to down payment assistance and local support programs. By offering an interactive and locally specific alternative to traditional housing and banking websites, Bloom614 helps users navigate complex systems with greater confidence and trust — while also equipping housing practitioners with curated resources they can share directly with the communities they serve.