How to give back to the community

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Permalink Reply by HUD Foreclosed on March 30, 2009 at 10:29am

I think it's an interesting concept, if you're into non-profit business. However, do some research to determine what really happens to the money 'goodwill' charities make off of the items they sell. I would find out what percentage of the money made from items in a 'second-hand store' even goes towards operations.

You will also want to consider that banks and cleaning crews probably do not want random vultures snooping around properties they plan to gut and re-sell... and by that, I mean the general public. The opportunities for liability lawsuits and vandalism (even inadvertent vandalism, like tearing a groove in the doorway from someone who tried to get a couch out without being considerate of the home) are many.

In addition, banks may choose to sell the 'stuff' in homes they foreclose to make up for some of the losses they took in lending to the homeowner in the first place. I could see this project requiring a lot of one-on-one interaction with mortgage lenders and charities in your area.

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Permalink Reply by goods-waiting.org on March 30, 2009 at 1:54pm

Thank you. You've raised some good points here. My initial thought was to put up a web portal where vendors could post a general area they might be in, and have a single charity link up with that vendor. It would be first come, first serve, and the exact location would not be revealed except to that one charity. Also, I have in mind charities which give items away for free, not resell.

But your point about vandalism is well taken. It something to consider.

Thank you for your feedback.

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Permalink Reply by Carmen Mitcheltree on May 19, 2009 at 2:30am

I am a real estate agent and also a nonprofit development consultant. I founded the Real Estate Life Coach Group (RELC) a nonprofit public benefit Corporation formed in the State of California, formed by Real Estate professionals from Keller Williams Coastal Properties to assist the communities where we work.

We are looking for collaborative partners for a project we are developing called: Homeowners At Risk Intervention program.

Our ultimate goal is to come up with a cost-efficient and cost- effective ‘standardized’ system, create a comprehensive database of homeowners at-risk, provide resources such as Life Coaching, Career Development and a Transition phase on their road to recovery whether: (a) they were able to keep their home through loan modification but still have a risk of losing their home or, (b) for the homeowners who were not able to keep their homes and lost it through pre-foreclosure (short sales) or the lender foreclosed their homes.

I think this project is one way to give back to our community and the HUDforeclosed Network is an excellent venue to get feedback from the Homeowners who are At Risk of losing their homes or have lost their homes and would want to seek help to recover/start over in pursuing the American dream of homeownership.

Owning a home is the first investment everybody must have. This could also be the start of looking into how they can build passive income throught real estate investing.

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