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 buy a house right away, utilizing the Veterans Administration Loan. Kameron had had housing instability, so that video message was impressed into his brain. He was inspired and wanted to do the same.

[8:14 ] Kameron was obsessed with using his VA Loan ASAP to buy his first place. Within months of becoming eligible to use it, Kameron bought a home, building a strong foundation.

[8.28] When Kameron was in Washington, D.C., working for a real estate team, one of the agents was doing seminars on local community home investment programs, or CHIPs. They were popular. Other agents saw that they helped grow business.

[8:55 ] As the Business Development Coordinator, Kameron was tasked with making the seminars more consistent and better.

[9:07 ] When Kameron launched his sales career, he loved seminars, so he did 500 of them over two years, sometimes three a day. Whether it’s for one person or 50, it is an opportunity to share information and inspire people in a no-pressure sales situation. He couldn’t fail.

[10:05 ] He was concerned with people getting value from the seminar. Kameron thinks they did.

[10:20 ] Monica explains that Kameron’s goal was 500 seminars, with marketing to get people there. He trusted that if he brought value, the result would be money.

[10:33 ] Monica says if you do seminars, and find out after a certain number that you end up with so many clients, that helps you refine your goal. Your goal can be seminars or talking to people.

[11:00 ] Kameron says the seminars started as two hours, with all the details of the homebuying process. People didn’t retain it. Kameron refined them to 30 to 40 minutes of content.

[11:37 ] The seminar was to give an overview and focus on key elements, such as what’s possible in financing, and give people knowledge about what to expect along the way.

[11:54 ] In seminars, Kameron would say, “My goal today is to give you an idea of what the whole mountain looks like. I’m going to give you the information and the next steps you need to take.”

[12:09 ] “I’m not gonna tell you that there’s a branch halfway up the mountain that you’re gonna forget about. I’m telling you what you need to know today that will get you through the next few steps.” Kameron says it allowed them to stay at a high energy level and not be bogged down.

[12:40 ] By the structure of the seminar, Kameron made the process seem unintimidating, and it showed how easy it is to work with him. This is enjoyable if it’s handled in this bite-sized format.

[12:59 ] Monica adds, there’s the mountain, but the first step is financing. And that’s with everybody, whether they have a lot of money and you need to teach them how to get their cash ready, or they need the CHIPs.

[13:12 ] The next step, Kameron told everyone, is a lender strategy call, so that they can figure out where they stand financially, relative to buying a house. And once they have those details, transition to an agent strategy call. Those were the two action steps.

[13:35 ] The agent strategy call starts with a number. You can take that number, see tangible properties, and get an idea of what you could afford. You might go back and forth between lender and agent until you’re in a position where what you qualify for fits the needs of your family.

[13:58 ] It gave them a very tight framework. It gave them no commitments, because it’s scary to commit early. But it worked well. People appreciated it. Kameron gave them multiple lenders.

[14:15 ] Kameron told them the three options that he’d recommend if they’re looking at certain programs. That takes having strong relationships with loan officers. When it came to talking to an agent, Kameron put himself on the follow-up email.

[14:32 ] Kameron would say, You can talk to me. I’m available, but if you have somebody else, you can talk to them. Kameron gave them options. You’re doing this for a reason, so make sure you put your name down as an option to talk to.

[14:51 ] Sometimes people asked if they could work with him. It was incredible because they did not feel pressured. People said, We just want to make sure we can reach out to you. And Kameron said, yes, he would love to work with them on this process.

[15:24 ] Kameron sees agents struggling with showing their value and what they bring to the table. After these seminars, people would email months later, We’ve been doing the lender strategy call. Would you be willing to work with us? We have everything done.

[15:54 ] Kameron would say, OK, yes. It was one of the best experiences he had, compared to how agents are taught to bombard people. Kameron thinks the REALTOR® way is seminars.

[16:38 ] Kameron tells how people find down payment assistance programs. Sometimes it's word-of-mouth from friends. They see someone buy a house or they see somebody on social media. Be specific in your social media to make people aware of these programs.

[16:56 ] In D.C., the housing agency offers DC Open Doors, HPAP, and other options. DC is a cerebral market, so a lot of people search for grants on their own. They're looking for options.

[17:09 ] In some other marketplaces, people might not even know programs exist or are available to them. In the U.S., there are over 1,500 programs that Kameron would qualify as CHIPs.

[17:29 ] There are so many of these programs all across the country. Massachusetts leads the pack. Maryland has quite a few. They are everywhere. They are impactful.

[17:43 ] Kameron has a website, homebuyerwallet.com, with a na