CU Realty Services Expands Further into Florida with Two New Credit Union Partners

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - Dec. 19, 2017 - PRLog -- Florida's competitive housing market—a combination of low inventory and rising home prices sparked by hurricane Irma—means credit unions must find innovative ways to serve the needs of their home-buying and selling members. Two CUs in the Sunshine State have turned to HomeAdvantage®, a turnkey real estate program from CU Realty Services, the largest real estate CUSO in the U.S. HomeAdvantage is proven to boost mortgage volumes for CUs while making home ownership more affordable for members.

With the addition of these two new credit unions, HomeAdvantage is now being used by nine Florida-based credit union partners that service some 980,000 members:

• 121 Financial Credit Union (Jacksonville)—49,300 members, $553 million in assets
• Jax Federal Credit Union (Jacksonville)—35,000 members, $380 million in assets

HomeAdvantage provides members with online access to the real estate tools and support they need to buy and sell their homes: online property listings, recent sales data, neighborhood demographics, a network of reputable real estate agents and more. By offering these features, credit unions are empowered to reach, identify and engage more home-buying members much earlier in their real estate journey.

The program also provides savings to members at closing through HomeAdvantage Cash Rewards. When members use a real estate agent in the HomeAdvantage network, they qualify to earn a cash-back benefit equal to 20 percent of the agent's commission. In 2016, HomeAdvantage gave back almost $5.5 million in Cash Rewards to members nationwide. In Florida, cash-back benefits average $1,500 in savings per transaction.

"We're seeing a lot of growth in Florida, particularly in the Jacksonville area," said Tina Powers, chief operating officer at CU Realty Services. "The HomeAdvantage program has a solid track record of helping credit unions be more successful in competitive real estate markets and Florida is one of those markets that has a huge opportunity to help empower buyers and sellers. The result is higher purchase mortgage volumes."

About CU Realty Services, LLC
CU Realty Services provides real estate services to credit unions across the nation, helping them increase their purchase mortgage business. Launched in 2001, the CUSO has worked with more than 100 credit unions and mortgage CUSOs nationwide to offer its turnkey real estate program, HomeAdvantage. Through the program, credit union members can search for homes, research neighborhoods, calculate costs of homeownership, connect to experienced real estate agents, and earn HomeAdvantage Cash Rewards. By offering this program to members, credit unions are able to attract, identify and engage more home buyers, and consequently close more loans. To learn more, visit www.curealty.com.