115: Community Housing Investment Programs for Buyers with Kameron Kang

Welcome to NAR's Center for REALTOR® Development podcast. I'm Monica Neubauer, your host. How many of you would like some more good tools to help more buyers buy homes? I say more, because we talked about this in our other episode with Skyler Lemons, and we are here with Kameron Kang from Washington, D.C. Welcome, Kameron!

 

I met Kameron, and he has some great news, so I said, I need you to share this! Kameron has spent the last decade working across the housing world, from construction to real estate sales to community planning. He started his career as a real estate agent and broker in Washington, D.C., where he built a team focused on helping first-time buyers, especially those using purchase assistance programs.

 

[1:05] We are here with Kameron Kang. Welcome Kameron!

[1:26] Kameron started his career as a real estate agent and broker in Washington, D.C., where he built a team helping first-time buyers using purchase assistance programs. Over a couple of years, he led more than 500 homebuyer seminars. His work has centered on making home ownership accessible.

[1:55] That has taken Kameron into everything from advising developers to consulting on housing policy and serving on real estate boards. He also runs a small hospitality business for short-term rentals.

[2:11] Kameron started in the Army and Army National Guard, serving in the Infantry and Psychological Operations. He's mission-driven, collaborative, and focused on solving problems.

[2:28] Kameron studied at Syracuse University and Valley Forge Military College and is originally from the Scranton area of Pennsylvania.

[2:35] Today, Kameron is focused on connecting buyers and professionals with the funding tools and programs that are out there but often underutilized. He is happy to have been working in the industry in many different ways.

[3:17] Kameron says that the foundation of his real estate journey was with the downpayment assistance program of the Veterans Administration loans. He'll talk about that in today's episode.

[3:32] Washington, D.C. has been a challenging market for many years. It's a complex market with highly educated buyers and expensive housing, relative to income. Kameron says we can make it work with creative solutions.

[4:15] Kameron calls them community home investment programs (CHIPs). These are investments by the community in home ownership. That's going to be one of the solutions to getting us out of the housing crisis that we are in.

[5:00] Kameron recalls the marketplace from 2015 to 2020. It was more balanced, and people were interested in homebuying, but there were barriers. We didn't have the media saying homes were completely unaffordable. People wanted to buy but didn't know how.

[5:37] From 2020 to 2022, the media said, "Now's the time to buy a house." Kameron had 20 to 50 people in seminars, excited to buy, but having no idea how.

[5:48] Now, it has pulled back because the narrative is that homes are completely unaffordable. People are generally afraid. That creates a lot of opportunity for REALTORS® to stand on soapboxes and yell out, "We have programs!"

[6:17] Monica agrees, it's up to the agents to go out into the community and push back against that narrative. Agents will have to get into real conversations and hold seminars.

[6:48] That's where we'll be able to show our value as professionals in communities. Kameron calls the theme Boots on the Ground, REALTOR® Now, to start acting in our communities.

[7:06] Seminars are one of the first places to start educating in communities, and get people inspired and believing again that homeownership is in their future.

[7:37] Kameron once watched a Navy recruiting video of a woman who had been able to