April 24, 2025 • 31 mins
Hi This is Brad Weisman - Click Here to Send Me a Text Message
Tim Daley of Habitat for Humanity and Steve Gieringer of Neighborhood Housing Services join forces to tackle Berks County's housing crisis by transforming affordable housing into workforce housing that benefits both employers and employees. Their innovative approach bridges the gap between business needs and worker stability, offering homeownership opportunities that strengthen communities while addressing critical employment challenges.
• Housing has become an employment issue as businesses struggle to retain talent due to housing affordability challenges
• Habitat for Humanity has evolved to focus on workforce housing for those making $23-33 per hour
• Homeownership provides stability for families and benefits municipalities through increased tax revenue
• Neighborhood Housing Services offers unique financing solutions including down payment assistance up to 105% of property value
• Comprehensive education (50 hours) and seven years of post-purchase counseling ensures buyer success
• Creative financing programs developed during COVID continue to have 100% performance rates
• Both organizations are rebranding their work as "workforce housing" to accurately reflect who they serve
• Home prices in Reading have increased from $39,900 in the 1990s to $160-200,000 today
• Over 300 first-time homebuyers have been created through these programs in the last three years
To learn more, visit www.habitatberks.org and www.nhsgb.org.
#habitatforhumanity #neighborhoodhousingservices #NHS #thebradweismanshow #tbws2025
---
Welcome to The Brad Weisman Show, where we dive into the world of real estate, real life, and everything in between with your host, Brad Weisman! 🎙️ Join us for candid conversations, laughter, and a fresh take on the real world. Get ready to explore the ups and downs of life with a side of humor. From property to personality, we've got it all covered. Tune in, laugh along, and let's get real! 🏡🌟 #TheBradWeismanShow #RealEstateRealLife
Credits - The music for my podcast was written and performed by Jeff Miller.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right From real estate, that's the market as a
whole, which then sometimes willaffect the technology Right,
the real life.
We all learn in different ways.
If you think about it, wayneDyer might not attract everybody
and everything in between.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
The mission was really to help people just to
reach their full potential.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
The Brad Wiseman Show .
And now your host, Brad Wiseman.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
All right, we're back .
It's a Thursday, 7 pm, ofcourse, and we got some great
guests here.
We have local guests, which wedon't do as often as we used to,
but I'm kind of excited aboutthis because these two guys are
working together.
They're working together to tryto solve an issue that we have
here locally, and actually wehave this issue pretty much
(00:47):
everywhere around the countrywhere housing is becoming a
challenge.
We don't have enough homes, andit doesn't matter what price
range you're in it could be thehigh price range, low price
range we just don't have theinventory.
So right now I'm going to talkto two guys that are actually
trying to solve that challenge.
Right here in Berks County wegot Tim Daly from the Habitat
(01:10):
for Humanity and Steve Geringer.
Is it Geringer?
Is that right?
It's Geringer.
I said it correctly.
Daly was easy.
That's always easy, and I'vehad both of you on here at
separate times before, and thistime you're together because I
know you guys work hand in handtogether.
You spend a lot of time tryingto solve the housing issues that
(01:31):
we have.
So who wants to go first?
Who wants to be in the hot seat?
Tim, you want to take up whatyou're working on and what's
going on, because this haschanged a lot since the last
time you were in here.
What you were working on thencompared to what you're working
on now, it's really gotten big.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
It has.
I'm in my 13th year.
It's hard to believe that 13thyear or 130.
I'm not sure.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Let's see what time it is, let's go with 13.
Okay, we'll go with 13.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
But it has gone through a transformation the
concept of housing and so oftenyou hear affordable housing, but
the reality is it's transferredinto housing that's affordable
and that's not semantics, but itreally is a way to look at how
do you go about planning thefuture.
And what we're starting to seenow for about the last four
(02:20):
years is this is now anemployment issue as well.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Yeah, that's the part that's really changing.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yes, and drastically.
Four years is this is now anemployment issue as well.
Yeah, that's the part that'sreally changing.
Yes, and drastically.
And so this is right across thecountry.
And so the opportunity forbusinesses to retain their
employees, to be able to recruittalent to do what they need to
do, is becoming more challenging.
Need to do is becoming morechallenging, and the number one
(02:47):
reason across the country is theinability to afford housing to
work at that various companies,based on their salaries and the
knee-jerk reaction to a lot ofconversations, are well then,
the business should just paythem more money, and that's
really not.
You know, assuming that you'regetting paid a fair wage to make
whatever it is you make, that'sreally not.
You know, assuming that you'regetting paid a fair wage to make
whatever it is you make, that'sreally an unfair expectation.
(03:10):
So what we're trying to do atHabitat is we're saying listen,
we want to bridge the gapbetween the needs of the
employer and the needs of theemployee.
The employer needs to sustaintheir employees.
They need to be able to makesure that the quality of the
product is at the level theyneed it to be, and that only
(03:31):
comes with experience.
And the employee they need tohave some stability in their own
lives, because every time theypick up for that next $2 to $3
an hour job down the road, notonly are they moving, but again
that's one more level of neverowning anything that's theirs.
Their kids are gettingtransferred to yet one more
(03:52):
school.
There's a whole lot of rippleeffect that go on.
So if we're able, if Habitat'sable, to create the housing
stock where the $23 to $25, $33an hour employee gets, we can
put them in a position where theemployer now has the ability to
(04:13):
help recruit talent, maintainthe talent they have, and that
employee will be able to stay atthat job for longer periods of
time, for the simple reason isthey can afford where they live.
Yeah, for longer periods oftime.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
For the simple reason is they can afford where they
live, and we see this all thetime being in real estate for
30-some years.
Pride of ownership is a keything too when you're renting.
I mean nothing wrong withrenting, it's a step in life.
I mean, we all have to eithergo there in the beginning or
sometime in your life you haveto go back to it, depending
what's going on.
But the ownership part givesyou such a stability in your
(04:52):
work, gives you stability inyour, in your family, because,
like you said, picking the kidsout of school, going to the next
school, you know it hurts theireducational situation possibly
oh, it compromises it greatly,absolutely, absolutely.
So that's actually really cooland it's amazing.
Now I got a quite quite one toask you I think it's while you
were talking Are the otherhabitats throughout the nation?
Habitat for Humanity is a big,big obviously big organization.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Is this a common challenge?
It is, but with the regard thatmany of the affiliates have
their own particularcircumstance and in the
Northeast part of this country,what I just spoke to is a
challenge that we universallyfeel.
Other parts of the country are alittle bit different, but we're
all seemingly to have aconversation lately, I'd say in
the last two to three years,where what do we do with the
(05:39):
workforce?
This is not, and when I camehere 13 years ago, you entered
into a conversation abouthousing and within two seconds
you were talking about homeless.
And as much as that's acondition that we need to work
on.
Habitat's not the tool for that, because Habitat works through
homeownership and almost 100% ofall the homeowners that across
(06:04):
the country are employed.
They're gainfully employed.
It's a different kind of level.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
And.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
I tell you where.
If that's successful, then themunicipalities that they reside
in, more tax dollars come inproperty value.
There's more economy that thatmunicipality can use to help the
homeless situation and thehunger situation.
And of course we do our best toeliminate the blighted
(06:30):
properties as well.
Sure, so again, we're not aSwiss army knife.
We can't help everything, butfor what we do we do very well.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Yeah, I see that.
I see that and I know that thecommunity is involved.
I mean, I know as realtorswe're very involved in Habitat
and it means a lot to us becauseobviously we're into the
housing business.
But it's also good for us asrealtors to give back to the
community and offer our servicesin whatever way we can, whether
it's raising money for Habitat,which we do, and that's always
(07:00):
a good time, the Birdhousechallenges every year for
Habitat, which we do, and that'salways a good time, the
Birdhouse challenges every year.
But let's go to you Now, steve.
You're working on the financingpart, correct, which is a huge
part of home ownership.
It is Because he could do allthe stuff he's doing with his
team and get the houses builtand have all the homes and stuff
(07:20):
, but you got to finance thesethings.
People don't have that.
We're talking about people thatare making a good wage but they
need a loan, just like I have aloan in my house.
We all do.
It's the American way Go todebt, go in debt.
So tell me, how does your piecefit in with his, with what he's
doing there?
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Sure, well, what traditionally happens is Habitat
has their equity, sweat equitymodel.
And then what we do is we comein and we can provide additional
financing that you're notnormally going to see, and real
quick.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
We is what.
What's the name of the company?
We is Neighborhood HousingServices in Greater Burns.
Sorry, no, it's all right, Ijust want to make sure we got
that out there.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
So what happens is traditionally with Habitat
they'll have a first mortgagelender partner Oftentimes it's a
customer's bank and they do agreat job and we have a strong
relationship with them and thenwhat will happen is if the
client is still the buyer, isstill short funds to close, then
we can step in with a downpayment assistance, closingannie
(08:19):
, freddie, community secondguidelines, or if it's an FHA
product which his new homes arenot or would not be, at that
point we also are a certifiedFHA second mortgage lender, so
we'll go up to 105% CLTV, so youcan actually borrow 5% more
than the lesser of the saleprice or the appraisal and what
(08:43):
that ends up doing.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
I can tell you right now the critics are going to say
and I'm always trying to play alittle bit devil's advocate
here People go, that's how wegot in trouble before 105%
financing.
We can't do that.
So I'm just saying how peoplethink so go ahead.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
So here's what happened in 2008.
Prior to that, 2006, we wouldcall them the liar loans, the
all-day no-doc loans.
And what happened was, if youcould fog a mirror, you had a
pulse and a credit score.
I could say I made a milliondollars and they're going to
lend me the money.
Yours is different, Correct.
At that point, a lot of thoseloans, if not all of them, were
adjustable.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
And very, very many of them were the bad adjustables
.
They were the flex pay optionarms, the 1% teasers, and then
the loan would recast.
Sometimes it would add up to30% on the mortgage balance,
because if you're only paying 1%and the interest rate is 7%,
where does that 6% go?
Well, it goes on the back endof the loan.
That wasn't the worst part ofit.
(09:42):
The worst part of it is it wasonly locked in for that fixed
rate period for five years, andthen it would recast for a
remainder 25 year, fullyamortized at the full interest
rate.
So you heard those stories, tim, about people saying oh, I got
an $800 payment Bang.
Five years later it's up to$2,500.
And people are like, well, Ican't afford that.
(10:04):
So we today don't play in thatarena.
What we do is our secondmortgages are all for first-time
homebuyers and they all have toqualify within what they call
the area mean income.
So this is not for peoplebuying the $500,000, $600,000,
$700,000 McMansions.
(10:24):
Why is our program important?
It's because most of ourborrowers, outside of Tim's
beautiful homes that they build,they're buying distressed
properties.
Yeah, Okay, they're buying 900square foot row homes that
probably haven't been upgradedin 30 to 40 years.
So I got it now.
So if I take all of your money.
(10:44):
Okay, if I take your 20% andyour closing costs and deplete
your savings, what are you goingto use to refurbish it?
And the dirty little secret isthe banks and the credit unions
will only allow you to go up to85% CLTV on a home equity.
I'll take you 20 points abovethat, or 20% above that.
(11:07):
Gotcha, what does that do?
If you can afford and we havevery, very strict budget and
credit counseling, they have togo through an eight-hour soup to
nuts first-time home buyerclass, plus one hour of
one-on-one counseling prior topurchase, and they're required
for seven years that they holdthe loan.
That long they have to dopost-purchase counseling.
(11:28):
Because, you know, how it works.
You get them at settlement table, they fall off the planet.
They go buy a Lamborghini orwhatever I'm just kidding but
they buy furniture and the nextthing you know, credit card debt
goes up, their debt to incomeratio is through the roof and
then they're struggling to makethe payments.
So the follow-up counseling, thebudget check and the credit
counseling allows us to keep apretty close rein on them and
(11:52):
oftentimes, when things do gosideways, life happens.
They can lose a job, somebodygets sick we're right there
because we've established thatrelationship and oftentimes the
first mortgage lender doesn'teven know.
So our programs are designed toallow them to keep their
savings because they're going tohave to use that to do the
(12:12):
upgrades, repairs or whateverthat has to happen to the
property.
So one of the things that Timand I were involved in when we
were doing things with the cityis we would get distressed
properties and then Tim would dothe rehab part of it, habitat
would and then we would findbuyers, get them set up with a
(12:32):
first lender and then we woulddo the same thing.
We would do our down paymentassistance to help them in the
event.
There were other things thatthey wanted to do with the
property upgrades or whatever,and they simply just they didn't
have the capital and the means.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
So that's what we do.
We're access to capital, butyou're still going to be
involved with this new buildstuff, Of course.
Yeah, so that that's the partthat's that really has.
Is interesting is that you'rekind of turning into a builder.
If, as if the way you look atit now is you're looking to
build properties anywhere in thecounty that makes sense, Right,
(13:07):
and and have you know NHSfinance them, get them the
people to come in, and you'retalking.
Sometimes you said if you caneven find larger pieces of land,
you'd be interested in lookingat that.
To do multiple instead of justdoing a one-off house, Cause you
know the the economy of theeconomy of scales is is better
when you're building five unitsor or a multi-unit of some sort,
(13:29):
instead of, you know, doing onehouse we're fortunate that we
have the ability, we have theknow-how, yeah, to be able to do
whatever to scale.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
We need to do yeah uh , we have to build the
infrastructure when we get thework, just like any business.
If we know we have the work,we'll be able to backfill it in
to do what we need to do.
So we're looking at two tothree to five acre lots maybe 10
, to be able to purchase theland at a reasonable price in an
(14:01):
area that is allowing thefamilies to live closer to life
and not necessarily work, yeahright, and so that will build
brand new housing there, andthen we make it again.
As I said earlier, theaffordability factor is involved
, because you know we're good atbricks and mortar and then when
Steve comes in and I call it,something magical happens.
(14:23):
That's what I understand aboutit.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
He didn't say that earlier, steve.
You said something else, justso you know.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
But something magical happens financially for these
families to fit in and keep inmind.
These families are not gettinganything for nothing.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
No.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Okay, they put in their sweat equity, they have a
30-year mortgage, they have afixed rate of interest.
So, as you said earlier, theAmerican way, we put them in
debt.
But, they swim there verycomfortably because for the last
nine months and I don't mean toput the whammy on me 100% of
our mortgages have been healthy.
Knock on wood back here, pleasedo.
(14:59):
We've got wood back there?
Speaker 1 (15:00):
yeah, no, and I think that.
But that has a lot to do withalso the education.
Oh, absolutely, you know, Ithink that that's some of the
pieces that were missing.
You know, years ago, when I gotin the business, there was a
lot of first time home buyerprograms and a lot of times the
educational part was not there.
And I think that's the thing isthat it's different than
renting.
They have to understand thatthere's going to be things that
(15:21):
come up that you're notexpecting, you know that are
going to cost you money, so youcan't spend every dollar you
have and you can't blow up allyour credit cards because you
might need that to buy a stoveat some point.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
You know what I mean.
Yeah, the added piece here andthis is something we do
intentionally by the time youget the education because we do
50 hours and included in that isSteve's education by the time
you get the education, within afew months you're using it.
Now, a lot of people who gothrough these programs.
They go through the program,they sit through the 35 hours or
(15:55):
whatever it is, and good forthem, but at the end of the day
they're not going to be usingthat anytime soon.
So, and there's no refreshercourse, correct?
And I always make the analogyif a Jack Nicklaus, you know,
came to me for a week and saidI'm going to teach everything
about golf, I mean I'm a static,but if I'm not teeing it up for
another year and a half you'redone.
(16:17):
Yeah, it's not going to work,but I think that's the unique uh
, what we look at, we we tendSteve and I both tend to look at
what we do through the eyes ofwho needs it.
Yeah, not just what we do, butthe eye of the consumer and I
that allows us to be a lot moreappropriate for their needs.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Yeah, yeah now you had said too and we were talking
, I think it was upstairs beforewe got started about the the
really getting the employersinvolved in this process of,
because that's one of thebiggest things that's happening
which we forgot about.
With this inventory shortagethat we have on all levels, it
is becoming an issue for theemployers to find employees
(17:00):
because there's nowhere to live,and I've had that on a lot of
different levels here.
I know Tower Health is havingissues with getting doctors,
nurses, nurses that are inschool to become a nurse.
They're having issues, andyears ago all the nurses would
live in West Reading.
They rent in West Reading there, one of the streets near the
(17:21):
Spruce or whatever, but that'swhat they did.
Well, good luck trying to finda rental.
I mean good luck trying to finda house.
It's tough.
So you know, if you can't, youcan have all the services in the
world, but if you, if nobody,can live here to enjoy them or
to take advantage of theservices, we're kind of screwed.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Yeah, and that's what we're seeing.
The idea is the if you look atthe just the housing situation
in Berks County, until you getinto the outer reaches of Berks
County, they're all builtbecause there was some major
manufacturer around.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
You had the Reading.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Railroad, you had the textile corporations and you
had a lot of that, and thathousing kind of fell by its
importance.
It kind of lost its gleam, ifyou will.
But now all of a sudden,there's a renaissance and there
is a need for that to beaffordable, and so that's what
(18:13):
we're trying to do and what I'msaying to the business community
, and Steve would echo this aswell you need us, we want to be
a resource for you, becauseright now, now, what it costs
you to go through the revolvingdoor of employees at the level
that we're talking not thehigher echelon, yeah, but the
blue collar guy that can't workfrom home or girl that has to be
(18:36):
at work they want, they needstability, yeah, and you have
the opportunity through youremployment to give them that.
You have the opportunitythrough your employment to give
them that.
But the bridge between thosetwo happened to be the bridge
that Steve and I build, which iswhere they can meet in the
middle and make it work for bothof them.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
And, as somebody financing these, you would
rather have new constructionthan a fixer upper.
Sure, absolutely, because it'sless liability for not liability
, less risk for you in the longrun and that that they're not
going to have these bills thatthey didn't expect.
You know one of the things, too, when I was thinking about,
when you were talking about doyou follow up?
Who makes sure if you're givingthem 105% financing, 110,
(19:15):
whatever it would be you'regiving them extra money to fix
it up?
Do you go back?
Does anybody go back to look tosee if they did the things that
they needed to do or no?
Speaker 3 (19:23):
If you get a home equity line of credit.
No, no, I know where you'regoing.
So no, that's a no, then that'sa no.
Now here's the thing, but I getit, I get it.
We give them the equity, themoney.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
If you will at settlement.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
So really, what's happening is they're not using
my money technically to build orrepair anything.
What we're doing is coveringthe down payment and the closing
costs so they can keep thatmoney.
So then, traditionally, whenthey use their money, they're
more likely to spend it wiselythan oftentimes if it's just hey
, here's 50 grand and oh yeah,you know I was going to do this,
(20:00):
but I think I'd rather go backto you know wherever I'm from,
or go to California, do whatever, put it all on red and spin the
wheel.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
But you don't have to go to California for that, just
so you know.
You can go right down thestreet to Hollywood casino and
put it on red If you want.
No, I understand, I wanted totouch on dovetail.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
On what he said yeah, go ahead.
Both our organizations look atit from the inside out.
What he means is the communityaspect of what they need.
Now, having been a formerbanker and mortgage officer, if
a bank or a credit union isgoing to just offer to the
community the products that theyfeel comfortable with, that
(20:38):
they want to put out on thestreet, they're not necessarily
meeting the needs of what thecommunity needs Great point.
And so one of the reasons why Ilove what I do is I can create
community impactful lendingprograms.
I'm going to share a littlesomething with you.
We have a product that's goingto roll out.
So, because of this whole Dogething and not knowing about CDFI
(21:00):
and then they were threateningthrough FHA I'm sorry, through
Fannie and Freddie.
Well, the FHA thing tightenedup now with the alien
immigration requirements.
That's going to hurt anywherefrom five to eight percent of
the homebuyers in that Latinodemographic and other
(21:20):
demographics.
So what they were talking aboutnow is the difference between
what Trump is doing.
He's looking at discriminationon both sides of the book.
Now, sure, okay.
Before it was discriminationthat we weren't doing enough in
communities of color.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Mm, hmm.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
What the administration is saying now is
wait a minute.
If I can only offer my specificprograms to one set of a
demographic, that'sdiscriminatory.
I have to offer it to everyone.
Okay, sure.
So what we did is we came upwith a product now that we're
going to be rolling out in thenext 30 days, that's going to
(22:00):
allow someone that purchased ahome to be able to come to us
and be able to get back some oftheir down payment and closing
cost assistance money if theydidn't use our program or if
they didn't know it wasavailable.
And the reason behind that is,again, with the distressed
properties that our clients arepurchasing, they're going to
(22:20):
need some sort of capital tomake the home the home that they
want.
So this particular program thatwe're rolling out and we already
rolled out a subset of this inCOVID.
I created a COVID program tohelp people consolidate their
credit card debt and alsobecause, during COVID, what the
banks did is they pulled back ontheir CLTV from 85 to 75%.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
When you say CLTV for the audience, what does that
mean?
Speaker 3 (22:45):
Sorry, combined loan to value.
So that means if your house isworth a hundred thousand, they
were pulling back and saying,well, traditionally we would
offer it up to 85%.
And again, I'm not trying topaint with a broad stroke.
There were not every bank orcredit union did this, but
traditionally, what you wereseeing across and a lot of the
high, high, high value markets,that they were definitely doing
(23:06):
this and they pulled back to 75.
So now guess what, if I need ahome equity, cause I'm
struggling, what are you goingto do as a family?
Okay, let's say you get sickduring COVID and you can't work,
and now your spouse issupporting it.
Are you going to let yourfamily starve?
You're going to run your stuffup on your credit cards.
It's just the way it is untilyou can either get healthy or
(23:27):
find another job.
So what we were finding is we'rehaving clients come to us and
they've decimated their credit,not because they weren't paying,
but because they've incurred somuch credit card debt.
So we created a program to wipethat out and for COVID related
illnesses.
If they did that, and also ifthey had some sort of health
issue that required ambulatoryservices maybe they needed the
(23:52):
bathroom adjusted or whatever sowe would allow them to go ahead
and come to us and we would goup to $50,000 and up to 125% of
the appraised value and creditscore as low as 580.
Why did we do that?
Because the community wasstruggling and nobody was
(24:15):
throwing them a lifeline, and Ican tell you for a fact I have
100% performance in thatportfolio, and so what we
decided to do, brad, is we arenow going to offer this similar
type of program to help thosethat may not have been able to
take advantage of our programsor, for some other reason.
They simply need assistance todo those types of things to
(24:38):
rehab, upgrade their property.
And so I've created theseprograms.
They perform and they wererequested by the community.
Steve doesn't go out there andsay, hey, you know what I want
to do.
I want to go ruin my nonprofitby, you know, putting all these
crazy loan programs out thereand then blow it up Test.
We beta tested these programsand they work and they're
(25:01):
impactful.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
And I love the whole idea of, and you're doing the
same thing too.
That's why Habitat is evolving.
From when you were in here thefirst time to what you're doing
now is completely it's different.
It's definitely different.
You were doing a lot of theteardowns and rehabs and things
like that.
It's evolving, but it's becausethe community is requesting it.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Yes, and also the employers are requesting it.
Well, we want more employers torequest yeah.
Okay, that's what we reallyneed to do, yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
So what do you need from the community, because we
have a couple minutes here yetto wrap this up.
What do you need from thecommunity?
What do you need from us, fromrealtors, what do you need from
everybody?
Speaker 2 (25:44):
We need the word to come out to the community about
what we just spoke to and weneed it to come from voices that
are well-respected.
We need the business communityto hear it from people they've
heard other things, realtorsbeing one of them and GRCA
places like that to be able totalk about.
This could be an alternative toyour hiring issues, and the
(26:05):
nontraditional name is Habitatfor Humanity.
So it has to come from thevoices that they trust, and for
too long we've been aligned withpoverty issues and very low
income and that's really not whowe are, but that's, nationally
what Habitat is afflicted with.
But the reality is we help theworkforce blue-collar population
(26:29):
immensely, but we just needmore voices to get the word out.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
And what about the politicians?
Are they supporting you locally?
Yes, well, I would say.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Yeah, I think very much so.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
We had a really nice gathering in November.
Doug was there.
Doug was at our facility.
We invited CongresswomanHoulihan was there.
The local legislators werethere.
Cool, judy Schwenk was thereand they got to.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Really, our sheriff is now one of those reps too now
Eric Wigneck.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Yes, he is Past sheriff.
Past sheriff.
He'll be hearing from me.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
I just saw him over the weekend.
He's a good guy.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Yes, he is, and so we were lucky that bringing them
in to see exactly what they do.
Because a lot of you know, andto your point, about the
branding aspect, they hearHabitat and right away they
think, oh, you're getting ahouse for free.
Oh, by the way, you're in thathomeless space, you know.
And for us with neighborhoodhousing services, let me just
tell this joke when I firststarted at NHS, nobody knew that
my family, friends, people cometo me NHS National Honor
(27:33):
Society.
What the hell are you doing inNational Honor Society?
Speaker 1 (27:37):
And everybody knows you shouldn't have been in that
Exactly, Even though I wasn't.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
I almost got booted out.
Oh sure you were, Exactly Eventhough I wasn't.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
I almost got booted out.
Oh sure you were, I'm justkidding Anyway no, but long
story short.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
So the branding of what I love what Tim did is he
turned that around to be able tomake it more palatable, because
we don't want to get stuck injust that low to moderate income
space.
It's important, but he coinedit workforce housing and that's
going to be the new brand andhe's the one that came up with
(28:06):
it and we're riding that becauseright now, let me tell you
something, brad, I don't know ifyou've seen some of the homes
that are for sale now, some ofthe less desirable areas in the
city.
When I started, they wereselling for 67,000 in 2017, put
a one in front of it.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
I know I hey, you remember I've been in the
business for 33 years, startingJuly, and I remember the going
price of a typical North 10thStreet.
North 11th Street up was$39,900.
Yep, that was it when you got alisting in the city and this is
back in the mid-90s $39,900.
That was it All day.
You could just list them at39.9 itself.
(28:43):
Right Now it's 160, 170, 200and some thousand.
That's terrible.
It's different.
It's different.
Things have changed.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
But that's why, from my end of what we do now,
believe it or not, over the lastthree years, as inventory has
shrunk and interest rates havegone up, we've had our three
most successful years that we'vebeen able to impact.
So we create about a littleover 300 first-time homebuyers
that would have never been ableto buy a house without our
programs and services.
I'm not talking aboutcounseling.
I'm talking about hard money intheir pocket to do and to live,
(29:18):
and to do the best that theycan with the rising cost of
utilities.
Don't even get me started onproperty insurance.
All of these things arecontributing to the financial
downturn of the American family.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Yeah, it's tough, it's tough.
Well, I'll tell you what.
You guys were awesome, but wehave to end the show.
Unfortunately, believe it ornot, that was 30 minutes.
Wow.
Well, thank you for having usshow.
Unfortunately, believe it ornot, that was 30 minutes Wow.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Well, thank you for having us.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Yeah, absolutely, but no.
So where can we get information?
Speaker 2 (29:49):
You can go on the website wwwhabitatberksorg.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
Okay, mine's easy wwwnhsgborg.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Okay, so nhsgborg there, so N-H-S-G-B.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
That's.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
Greater Berks Okay, dot org, there we go.
Awesome, Thanks guys for coming.
I appreciate it, you guys aredoing great stuff too Really
good stuff.
All right, that's about it.
There we go.
We got Steve Geringer, we gotTim Daly, national I almost said
National Honor Society,neighborhood housing services
and Habitat for Humanity.
They're doing great stuff.
Please follow them on Facebook,on Instagram, figure out what
(30:28):
they're doing out there, becausethey're doing great stuff and
I'm looking forward to havingthem back again sometime soon.
All right, that's about it.
See you every Thursday at 7 pm,all right?
All right From real estate, that's the market as a
whole, which then sometimes willaffect the technology Right,
the real life.
We all learn in different ways.
If you think about it, wayneDyer might not attract everybody
and everything in between.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
The mission was really to help people just to
reach their full potential.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
The Brad Wiseman Show .
And now your host, Brad Wiseman.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
All right, we're back .
It's a Thursday, 7 pm, ofcourse, and we got some great
guests here.
We have local guests, which wedon't do as often as we used to,
but I'm kind of excited aboutthis because these two guys are
working together.
They're working together to tryto solve an issue that we have
here locally, and actually wehave this issue pretty much
(00:47):
everywhere around the countrywhere housing is becoming a
challenge.
We don't have enough homes, andit doesn't matter what price
range you're in it could be thehigh price range, low price
range we just don't have theinventory.
So right now I'm going to talkto two guys that are actually
trying to solve that challenge.
Right here in Berks County wegot Tim Daly from the Habitat
(01:10):
for Humanity and Steve Geringer.
Is it Geringer?
Is that right?
It's Geringer.
I said it correctly.
Daly was easy.
That's always easy, and I'vehad both of you on here at
separate times before, and thistime you're together because I
know you guys work hand in handtogether.
You spend a lot of time tryingto solve the housing issues that
(01:31):
we have.
So who wants to go first?
Who wants to be in the hot seat?
Tim, you want to take up whatyou're working on and what's
going on, because this haschanged a lot since the last
time you were in here.
What you were working on thencompared to what you're working
on now, it's really gotten big.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
It has.
I'm in my 13th year.
It's hard to believe that 13thyear or 130.
I'm not sure.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Let's see what time it is, let's go with 13.
Okay, we'll go with 13.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
But it has gone through a transformation the
concept of housing and so oftenyou hear affordable housing, but
the reality is it's transferredinto housing that's affordable
and that's not semantics, but itreally is a way to look at how
do you go about planning thefuture.
And what we're starting to seenow for about the last four
(02:20):
years is this is now anemployment issue as well.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Yeah, that's the part that's really changing.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yes, and drastically.
Four years is this is now anemployment issue as well.
Yeah, that's the part that'sreally changing.
Yes, and drastically.
And so this is right across thecountry.
And so the opportunity forbusinesses to retain their
employees, to be able to recruittalent to do what they need to
do, is becoming more challenging.
Need to do is becoming morechallenging, and the number one
(02:47):
reason across the country is theinability to afford housing to
work at that various companies,based on their salaries and the
knee-jerk reaction to a lot ofconversations, are well then,
the business should just paythem more money, and that's
really not.
You know, assuming that you'regetting paid a fair wage to make
whatever it is you make, that'sreally not.
You know, assuming that you'regetting paid a fair wage to make
whatever it is you make, that'sreally an unfair expectation.
(03:10):
So what we're trying to do atHabitat is we're saying listen,
we want to bridge the gapbetween the needs of the
employer and the needs of theemployee.
The employer needs to sustaintheir employees.
They need to be able to makesure that the quality of the
product is at the level theyneed it to be, and that only
(03:31):
comes with experience.
And the employee they need tohave some stability in their own
lives, because every time theypick up for that next $2 to $3
an hour job down the road, notonly are they moving, but again
that's one more level of neverowning anything that's theirs.
Their kids are gettingtransferred to yet one more
(03:52):
school.
There's a whole lot of rippleeffect that go on.
So if we're able, if Habitat'sable, to create the housing
stock where the $23 to $25, $33an hour employee gets, we can
put them in a position where theemployer now has the ability to
(04:13):
help recruit talent, maintainthe talent they have, and that
employee will be able to stay atthat job for longer periods of
time, for the simple reason isthey can afford where they live.
Yeah, for longer periods oftime.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
For the simple reason is they can afford where they
live, and we see this all thetime being in real estate for
30-some years.
Pride of ownership is a keything too when you're renting.
I mean nothing wrong withrenting, it's a step in life.
I mean, we all have to eithergo there in the beginning or
sometime in your life you haveto go back to it, depending
what's going on.
But the ownership part givesyou such a stability in your
(04:52):
work, gives you stability inyour, in your family, because,
like you said, picking the kidsout of school, going to the next
school, you know it hurts theireducational situation possibly
oh, it compromises it greatly,absolutely, absolutely.
So that's actually really cooland it's amazing.
Now I got a quite quite one toask you I think it's while you
were talking Are the otherhabitats throughout the nation?
Habitat for Humanity is a big,big obviously big organization.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Is this a common challenge?
It is, but with the regard thatmany of the affiliates have
their own particularcircumstance and in the
Northeast part of this country,what I just spoke to is a
challenge that we universallyfeel.
Other parts of the country are alittle bit different, but we're
all seemingly to have aconversation lately, I'd say in
the last two to three years,where what do we do with the
(05:39):
workforce?
This is not, and when I camehere 13 years ago, you entered
into a conversation abouthousing and within two seconds
you were talking about homeless.
And as much as that's acondition that we need to work
on.
Habitat's not the tool for that, because Habitat works through
homeownership and almost 100% ofall the homeowners that across
(06:04):
the country are employed.
They're gainfully employed.
It's a different kind of level.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
And.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
I tell you where.
If that's successful, then themunicipalities that they reside
in, more tax dollars come inproperty value.
There's more economy that thatmunicipality can use to help the
homeless situation and thehunger situation.
And of course we do our best toeliminate the blighted
(06:30):
properties as well.
Sure, so again, we're not aSwiss army knife.
We can't help everything, butfor what we do we do very well.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Yeah, I see that.
I see that and I know that thecommunity is involved.
I mean, I know as realtorswe're very involved in Habitat
and it means a lot to us becauseobviously we're into the
housing business.
But it's also good for us asrealtors to give back to the
community and offer our servicesin whatever way we can, whether
it's raising money for Habitat,which we do, and that's always
(07:00):
a good time, the Birdhousechallenges every year for
Habitat, which we do, and that'salways a good time, the
Birdhouse challenges every year.
But let's go to you Now, steve.
You're working on the financingpart, correct, which is a huge
part of home ownership.
It is Because he could do allthe stuff he's doing with his
team and get the houses builtand have all the homes and stuff
(07:20):
, but you got to finance thesethings.
People don't have that.
We're talking about people thatare making a good wage but they
need a loan, just like I have aloan in my house.
We all do.
It's the American way Go todebt, go in debt.
So tell me, how does your piecefit in with his, with what he's
doing there?
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Sure, well, what traditionally happens is Habitat
has their equity, sweat equitymodel.
And then what we do is we comein and we can provide additional
financing that you're notnormally going to see, and real
quick.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
We is what.
What's the name of the company?
We is Neighborhood HousingServices in Greater Burns.
Sorry, no, it's all right, Ijust want to make sure we got
that out there.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
So what happens is traditionally with Habitat
they'll have a first mortgagelender partner Oftentimes it's a
customer's bank and they do agreat job and we have a strong
relationship with them and thenwhat will happen is if the
client is still the buyer, isstill short funds to close, then
we can step in with a downpayment assistance, closingannie
(08:19):
, freddie, community secondguidelines, or if it's an FHA
product which his new homes arenot or would not be, at that
point we also are a certifiedFHA second mortgage lender, so
we'll go up to 105% CLTV, so youcan actually borrow 5% more
than the lesser of the saleprice or the appraisal and what
(08:43):
that ends up doing.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
I can tell you right now the critics are going to say
and I'm always trying to play alittle bit devil's advocate
here People go, that's how wegot in trouble before 105%
financing.
We can't do that.
So I'm just saying how peoplethink so go ahead.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
So here's what happened in 2008.
Prior to that, 2006, we wouldcall them the liar loans, the
all-day no-doc loans.
And what happened was, if youcould fog a mirror, you had a
pulse and a credit score.
I could say I made a milliondollars and they're going to
lend me the money.
Yours is different, Correct.
At that point, a lot of thoseloans, if not all of them, were
adjustable.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
And very, very many of them were the bad adjustables
.
They were the flex pay optionarms, the 1% teasers, and then
the loan would recast.
Sometimes it would add up to30% on the mortgage balance,
because if you're only paying 1%and the interest rate is 7%,
where does that 6% go?
Well, it goes on the back endof the loan.
That wasn't the worst part ofit.
(09:42):
The worst part of it is it wasonly locked in for that fixed
rate period for five years, andthen it would recast for a
remainder 25 year, fullyamortized at the full interest
rate.
So you heard those stories, tim, about people saying oh, I got
an $800 payment Bang.
Five years later it's up to$2,500.
And people are like, well, Ican't afford that.
(10:04):
So we today don't play in thatarena.
What we do is our secondmortgages are all for first-time
homebuyers and they all have toqualify within what they call
the area mean income.
So this is not for peoplebuying the $500,000, $600,000,
$700,000 McMansions.
(10:24):
Why is our program important?
It's because most of ourborrowers, outside of Tim's
beautiful homes that they build,they're buying distressed
properties.
Yeah, Okay, they're buying 900square foot row homes that
probably haven't been upgradedin 30 to 40 years.
So I got it now.
So if I take all of your money.
(10:44):
Okay, if I take your 20% andyour closing costs and deplete
your savings, what are you goingto use to refurbish it?
And the dirty little secret isthe banks and the credit unions
will only allow you to go up to85% CLTV on a home equity.
I'll take you 20 points abovethat, or 20% above that.
(11:07):
Gotcha, what does that do?
If you can afford and we havevery, very strict budget and
credit counseling, they have togo through an eight-hour soup to
nuts first-time home buyerclass, plus one hour of
one-on-one counseling prior topurchase, and they're required
for seven years that they holdthe loan.
That long they have to dopost-purchase counseling.
(11:28):
Because, you know, how it works.
You get them at settlement table, they fall off the planet.
They go buy a Lamborghini orwhatever I'm just kidding but
they buy furniture and the nextthing you know, credit card debt
goes up, their debt to incomeratio is through the roof and
then they're struggling to makethe payments.
So the follow-up counseling, thebudget check and the credit
counseling allows us to keep apretty close rein on them and
(11:52):
oftentimes, when things do gosideways, life happens.
They can lose a job, somebodygets sick we're right there
because we've established thatrelationship and oftentimes the
first mortgage lender doesn'teven know.
So our programs are designed toallow them to keep their
savings because they're going tohave to use that to do the
(12:12):
upgrades, repairs or whateverthat has to happen to the
property.
So one of the things that Timand I were involved in when we
were doing things with the cityis we would get distressed
properties and then Tim would dothe rehab part of it, habitat
would and then we would findbuyers, get them set up with a
(12:32):
first lender and then we woulddo the same thing.
We would do our down paymentassistance to help them in the
event.
There were other things thatthey wanted to do with the
property upgrades or whatever,and they simply just they didn't
have the capital and the means.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
So that's what we do.
We're access to capital, butyou're still going to be
involved with this new buildstuff, Of course.
Yeah, so that that's the partthat's that really has.
Is interesting is that you'rekind of turning into a builder.
If, as if the way you look atit now is you're looking to
build properties anywhere in thecounty that makes sense, Right,
(13:07):
and and have you know NHSfinance them, get them the
people to come in, and you'retalking.
Sometimes you said if you caneven find larger pieces of land,
you'd be interested in lookingat that.
To do multiple instead of justdoing a one-off house, Cause you
know the the economy of theeconomy of scales is is better
when you're building five unitsor or a multi-unit of some sort,
(13:29):
instead of, you know, doing onehouse we're fortunate that we
have the ability, we have theknow-how, yeah, to be able to do
whatever to scale.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
We need to do yeah uh , we have to build the
infrastructure when we get thework, just like any business.
If we know we have the work,we'll be able to backfill it in
to do what we need to do.
So we're looking at two tothree to five acre lots maybe 10
, to be able to purchase theland at a reasonable price in an
(14:01):
area that is allowing thefamilies to live closer to life
and not necessarily work, yeahright, and so that will build
brand new housing there, andthen we make it again.
As I said earlier, theaffordability factor is involved
, because you know we're good atbricks and mortar and then when
Steve comes in and I call it,something magical happens.
(14:23):
That's what I understand aboutit.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
He didn't say that earlier, steve.
You said something else, justso you know.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
But something magical happens financially for these
families to fit in and keep inmind.
These families are not gettinganything for nothing.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
No.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Okay, they put in their sweat equity, they have a
30-year mortgage, they have afixed rate of interest.
So, as you said earlier, theAmerican way, we put them in
debt.
But, they swim there verycomfortably because for the last
nine months and I don't mean toput the whammy on me 100% of
our mortgages have been healthy.
Knock on wood back here, pleasedo.
(14:59):
We've got wood back there?
Speaker 1 (15:00):
yeah, no, and I think that.
But that has a lot to do withalso the education.
Oh, absolutely, you know, Ithink that that's some of the
pieces that were missing.
You know, years ago, when I gotin the business, there was a
lot of first time home buyerprograms and a lot of times the
educational part was not there.
And I think that's the thing isthat it's different than
renting.
They have to understand thatthere's going to be things that
(15:21):
come up that you're notexpecting, you know that are
going to cost you money, so youcan't spend every dollar you
have and you can't blow up allyour credit cards because you
might need that to buy a stoveat some point.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
You know what I mean.
Yeah, the added piece here andthis is something we do
intentionally by the time youget the education because we do
50 hours and included in that isSteve's education by the time
you get the education, within afew months you're using it.
Now, a lot of people who gothrough these programs.
They go through the program,they sit through the 35 hours or
(15:55):
whatever it is, and good forthem, but at the end of the day
they're not going to be usingthat anytime soon.
So, and there's no refreshercourse, correct?
And I always make the analogyif a Jack Nicklaus, you know,
came to me for a week and saidI'm going to teach everything
about golf, I mean I'm a static,but if I'm not teeing it up for
another year and a half you'redone.
(16:17):
Yeah, it's not going to work,but I think that's the unique uh
, what we look at, we we tendSteve and I both tend to look at
what we do through the eyes ofwho needs it.
Yeah, not just what we do, butthe eye of the consumer and I
that allows us to be a lot moreappropriate for their needs.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Yeah, yeah now you had said too and we were talking
, I think it was upstairs beforewe got started about the the
really getting the employersinvolved in this process of,
because that's one of thebiggest things that's happening
which we forgot about.
With this inventory shortagethat we have on all levels, it
is becoming an issue for theemployers to find employees
(17:00):
because there's nowhere to live,and I've had that on a lot of
different levels here.
I know Tower Health is havingissues with getting doctors,
nurses, nurses that are inschool to become a nurse.
They're having issues, andyears ago all the nurses would
live in West Reading.
They rent in West Reading there, one of the streets near the
(17:21):
Spruce or whatever, but that'swhat they did.
Well, good luck trying to finda rental.
I mean good luck trying to finda house.
It's tough.
So you know, if you can't, youcan have all the services in the
world, but if you, if nobody,can live here to enjoy them or
to take advantage of theservices, we're kind of screwed.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Yeah, and that's what we're seeing.
The idea is the if you look atthe just the housing situation
in Berks County, until you getinto the outer reaches of Berks
County, they're all builtbecause there was some major
manufacturer around.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
You had the Reading.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Railroad, you had the textile corporations and you
had a lot of that, and thathousing kind of fell by its
importance.
It kind of lost its gleam, ifyou will.
But now all of a sudden,there's a renaissance and there
is a need for that to beaffordable, and so that's what
(18:13):
we're trying to do and what I'msaying to the business community
, and Steve would echo this aswell you need us, we want to be
a resource for you, becauseright now, now, what it costs
you to go through the revolvingdoor of employees at the level
that we're talking not thehigher echelon, yeah, but the
blue collar guy that can't workfrom home or girl that has to be
(18:36):
at work they want, they needstability, yeah, and you have
the opportunity through youremployment to give them that.
You have the opportunitythrough your employment to give
them that.
But the bridge between thosetwo happened to be the bridge
that Steve and I build, which iswhere they can meet in the
middle and make it work for bothof them.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
And, as somebody financing these, you would
rather have new constructionthan a fixer upper.
Sure, absolutely, because it'sless liability for not liability
, less risk for you in the longrun and that that they're not
going to have these bills thatthey didn't expect.
You know one of the things, too, when I was thinking about,
when you were talking about doyou follow up?
Who makes sure if you're givingthem 105% financing, 110,
(19:15):
whatever it would be you'regiving them extra money to fix
it up?
Do you go back?
Does anybody go back to look tosee if they did the things that
they needed to do or no?
Speaker 3 (19:23):
If you get a home equity line of credit.
No, no, I know where you'regoing.
So no, that's a no, then that'sa no.
Now here's the thing, but I getit, I get it.
We give them the equity, themoney.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
If you will at settlement.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
So really, what's happening is they're not using
my money technically to build orrepair anything.
What we're doing is coveringthe down payment and the closing
costs so they can keep thatmoney.
So then, traditionally, whenthey use their money, they're
more likely to spend it wiselythan oftentimes if it's just hey
, here's 50 grand and oh yeah,you know I was going to do this,
(20:00):
but I think I'd rather go backto you know wherever I'm from,
or go to California, do whatever, put it all on red and spin the
wheel.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
But you don't have to go to California for that, just
so you know.
You can go right down thestreet to Hollywood casino and
put it on red If you want.
No, I understand, I wanted totouch on dovetail.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
On what he said yeah, go ahead.
Both our organizations look atit from the inside out.
What he means is the communityaspect of what they need.
Now, having been a formerbanker and mortgage officer, if
a bank or a credit union isgoing to just offer to the
community the products that theyfeel comfortable with, that
(20:38):
they want to put out on thestreet, they're not necessarily
meeting the needs of what thecommunity needs Great point.
And so one of the reasons why Ilove what I do is I can create
community impactful lendingprograms.
I'm going to share a littlesomething with you.
We have a product that's goingto roll out.
So, because of this whole Dogething and not knowing about CDFI
(21:00):
and then they were threateningthrough FHA I'm sorry, through
Fannie and Freddie.
Well, the FHA thing tightenedup now with the alien
immigration requirements.
That's going to hurt anywherefrom five to eight percent of
the homebuyers in that Latinodemographic and other
(21:20):
demographics.
So what they were talking aboutnow is the difference between
what Trump is doing.
He's looking at discriminationon both sides of the book.
Now, sure, okay.
Before it was discriminationthat we weren't doing enough in
communities of color.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Mm, hmm.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
What the administration is saying now is
wait a minute.
If I can only offer my specificprograms to one set of a
demographic, that'sdiscriminatory.
I have to offer it to everyone.
Okay, sure.
So what we did is we came upwith a product now that we're
going to be rolling out in thenext 30 days, that's going to
(22:00):
allow someone that purchased ahome to be able to come to us
and be able to get back some oftheir down payment and closing
cost assistance money if theydidn't use our program or if
they didn't know it wasavailable.
And the reason behind that is,again, with the distressed
properties that our clients arepurchasing, they're going to
(22:20):
need some sort of capital tomake the home the home that they
want.
So this particular program thatwe're rolling out and we already
rolled out a subset of this inCOVID.
I created a COVID program tohelp people consolidate their
credit card debt and alsobecause, during COVID, what the
banks did is they pulled back ontheir CLTV from 85 to 75%.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
When you say CLTV for the audience, what does that
mean?
Speaker 3 (22:45):
Sorry, combined loan to value.
So that means if your house isworth a hundred thousand, they
were pulling back and saying,well, traditionally we would
offer it up to 85%.
And again, I'm not trying topaint with a broad stroke.
There were not every bank orcredit union did this, but
traditionally, what you wereseeing across and a lot of the
high, high, high value markets,that they were definitely doing
(23:06):
this and they pulled back to 75.
So now guess what, if I need ahome equity, cause I'm
struggling, what are you goingto do as a family?
Okay, let's say you get sickduring COVID and you can't work,
and now your spouse issupporting it.
Are you going to let yourfamily starve?
You're going to run your stuffup on your credit cards.
It's just the way it is untilyou can either get healthy or
(23:27):
find another job.
So what we were finding is we'rehaving clients come to us and
they've decimated their credit,not because they weren't paying,
but because they've incurred somuch credit card debt.
So we created a program to wipethat out and for COVID related
illnesses.
If they did that, and also ifthey had some sort of health
issue that required ambulatoryservices maybe they needed the
(23:52):
bathroom adjusted or whatever sowe would allow them to go ahead
and come to us and we would goup to $50,000 and up to 125% of
the appraised value and creditscore as low as 580.
Why did we do that?
Because the community wasstruggling and nobody was
(24:15):
throwing them a lifeline, and Ican tell you for a fact I have
100% performance in thatportfolio, and so what we
decided to do, brad, is we arenow going to offer this similar
type of program to help thosethat may not have been able to
take advantage of our programsor, for some other reason.
They simply need assistance todo those types of things to
(24:38):
rehab, upgrade their property.
And so I've created theseprograms.
They perform and they wererequested by the community.
Steve doesn't go out there andsay, hey, you know what I want
to do.
I want to go ruin my nonprofitby, you know, putting all these
crazy loan programs out thereand then blow it up Test.
We beta tested these programsand they work and they're
(25:01):
impactful.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
And I love the whole idea of, and you're doing the
same thing too.
That's why Habitat is evolving.
From when you were in here thefirst time to what you're doing
now is completely it's different.
It's definitely different.
You were doing a lot of theteardowns and rehabs and things
like that.
It's evolving, but it's becausethe community is requesting it.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Yes, and also the employers are requesting it.
Well, we want more employers torequest yeah.
Okay, that's what we reallyneed to do, yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
So what do you need from the community, because we
have a couple minutes here yetto wrap this up.
What do you need from thecommunity?
What do you need from us, fromrealtors, what do you need from
everybody?
Speaker 2 (25:44):
We need the word to come out to the community about
what we just spoke to and weneed it to come from voices that
are well-respected.
We need the business communityto hear it from people they've
heard other things, realtorsbeing one of them and GRCA
places like that to be able totalk about.
This could be an alternative toyour hiring issues, and the
(26:05):
nontraditional name is Habitatfor Humanity.
So it has to come from thevoices that they trust, and for
too long we've been aligned withpoverty issues and very low
income and that's really not whowe are, but that's, nationally
what Habitat is afflicted with.
But the reality is we help theworkforce blue-collar population
(26:29):
immensely, but we just needmore voices to get the word out.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
And what about the politicians?
Are they supporting you locally?
Yes, well, I would say.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Yeah, I think very much so.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
We had a really nice gathering in November.
Doug was there.
Doug was at our facility.
We invited CongresswomanHoulihan was there.
The local legislators werethere.
Cool, judy Schwenk was thereand they got to.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Really, our sheriff is now one of those reps too now
Eric Wigneck.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Yes, he is Past sheriff.
Past sheriff.
He'll be hearing from me.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
I just saw him over the weekend.
He's a good guy.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Yes, he is, and so we were lucky that bringing them
in to see exactly what they do.
Because a lot of you know, andto your point, about the
branding aspect, they hearHabitat and right away they
think, oh, you're getting ahouse for free.
Oh, by the way, you're in thathomeless space, you know.
And for us with neighborhoodhousing services, let me just
tell this joke when I firststarted at NHS, nobody knew that
my family, friends, people cometo me NHS National Honor
(27:33):
Society.
What the hell are you doing inNational Honor Society?
Speaker 1 (27:37):
And everybody knows you shouldn't have been in that
Exactly, Even though I wasn't.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
I almost got booted out.
Oh sure you were, Exactly Eventhough I wasn't.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
I almost got booted out.
Oh sure you were, I'm justkidding Anyway no, but long
story short.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
So the branding of what I love what Tim did is he
turned that around to be able tomake it more palatable, because
we don't want to get stuck injust that low to moderate income
space.
It's important, but he coinedit workforce housing and that's
going to be the new brand andhe's the one that came up with
(28:06):
it and we're riding that becauseright now, let me tell you
something, brad, I don't know ifyou've seen some of the homes
that are for sale now, some ofthe less desirable areas in the
city.
When I started, they wereselling for 67,000 in 2017, put
a one in front of it.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
I know I hey, you remember I've been in the
business for 33 years, startingJuly, and I remember the going
price of a typical North 10thStreet.
North 11th Street up was$39,900.
Yep, that was it when you got alisting in the city and this is
back in the mid-90s $39,900.
That was it All day.
You could just list them at39.9 itself.
(28:43):
Right Now it's 160, 170, 200and some thousand.
That's terrible.
It's different.
It's different.
Things have changed.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
But that's why, from my end of what we do now,
believe it or not, over the lastthree years, as inventory has
shrunk and interest rates havegone up, we've had our three
most successful years that we'vebeen able to impact.
So we create about a littleover 300 first-time homebuyers
that would have never been ableto buy a house without our
programs and services.
I'm not talking aboutcounseling.
I'm talking about hard money intheir pocket to do and to live,
(29:18):
and to do the best that theycan with the rising cost of
utilities.
Don't even get me started onproperty insurance.
All of these things arecontributing to the financial
downturn of the American family.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Yeah, it's tough, it's tough.
Well, I'll tell you what.
You guys were awesome, but wehave to end the show.
Unfortunately, believe it ornot, that was 30 minutes.
Wow.
Well, thank you for having usshow.
Unfortunately, believe it ornot, that was 30 minutes Wow.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Well, thank you for having us.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Yeah, absolutely, but no.
So where can we get information?
Speaker 2 (29:49):
You can go on the website wwwhabitatberksorg.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
Okay, mine's easy wwwnhsgborg.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Okay, so nhsgborg there, so N-H-S-G-B.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
That's.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
Greater Berks Okay, dot org, there we go.
Awesome, Thanks guys for coming.
I appreciate it, you guys aredoing great stuff too Really
good stuff.
All right, that's about it.
There we go.
We got Steve Geringer, we gotTim Daly, national I almost said
National Honor Society,neighborhood housing services
and Habitat for Humanity.
They're doing great stuff.
Please follow them on Facebook,on Instagram, figure out what
(30:28):
they're doing out there, becausethey're doing great stuff and
I'm looking forward to havingthem back again sometime soon.
All right, that's about it.
See you every Thursday at 7 pm,all right?
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!