To better serve their members and to give themselves a marketing advantage in a booming housing market, three new Florida credit unions have adopted HomeAdvantage®, the turnkey real estate program from CU Realty Services. Now more than 1.3 million credit union members across the Sunshine State have access to the online real estate tools and support they need to buy and sell their homes, including online property listings, recent sales data, neighborhood demographics, a network of reputable real estate agents and Cash Rewards at closing.
CU Realty Services, the largest real estate CUSO in the U.S., has quickly expanded its presence in Florida over the last five years, now partnering with a total of 12 credit unions. The three newest credit unions to implement the program in Florida are:
• GTE Financial Credit Union (Tampa)—260,000 members, $1.98 billion in assets
• Launch Federal Credit Union (Merritt Island)—64,600 members, $750 million in assets
• Velocity Community Credit Union (Palm Beach Gardens)—22,000 members, $335 million in assets
For the credit union, HomeAdvantage delivers a lead generation and nurturing system that helps CUs engage with more home-buying members and close more loans. The program was designed to help CUs strategically identify members considering a purchase transaction and stay engaged throughout their entire home-buying journey.
The program offers a variety of online real estate content that attracts potential buyers and sellers, as well as a network of preferred real estate agents. When members use a real estate agent in the HomeAdvantage network, they qualify to earn HomeAdvantage Cash Rewards—a cash-back benefit equal to 20 percent of the agent’s commission. Cash Rewards deliver an average of $1,570 in savings per transaction. Members can use this money toward closing costs or they can take it as cash back after closing.