CU Realty Services LLC has inducted eight credit union clients into its newly formed “Million Dollar Club” in recognition of their efforts to make homeownership more affordable.
CURS explained that by using its HomeAdvantage program, each of these credit unions has given back more than $1 million in cash rewards to its members at closing, cumulatively saving their members more than $17 million.
HomeAdvantage is a turnkey real estate program that lets members search for properties, find a real estate agent and earn HomeAdvantage Cash Rewards at closing when they use one of those agents. CURS added that ”Cash Rewards” equate to 20% of the agent’s earned commission and save members an average of $1,570 per transaction nationwide. While hundreds of credit unions use HomeAdvantage to help their members, only these eight have surpassed the million dollar lifetime Cash Rewards milestone.
The eight credit unions inductees are:
- Northwest Federal Credit Union (based in Herndon, Va.; $3.1 billion in assets): $4.5 million in Cash Rewards.
- Bank-Fund Staff Federal Credit Union (Washington D.C.; $4 billion in assets): $4 million in Cash Rewards.
- Tower Federal Credit Union (Laurel, Md.; $2.9 billion in assets): $1.7 million in Cash Rewards.
- Wright-Patt Credit Union (Dayton, Ohio; $3.2 billion in assets): $1.7 million in Cash Rewards.
- BCU (Chicago; $2.5 billion in assets): $1.5 million in Cash Rewards.
- Apple Federal Credit Union (Fairfax, Va.; $2.2 billion in assets): $1.3 million in Cash Rewards.
- Affinity Plus Federal Credit Union (St. Paul, Minn.; $3.5 billion in assets): $1.2 million in Cash Rewards.
- State Department Federal Credit Union (Washington D.C.; $1.7 billion in assets): $1.1 million in Cash Rewards.
“Every year since we started offering this program we have grown,” said Bob Pondelicek, director of mortgage sales at BCU, in a statement. “Last year alone we gave back to our members close to $500,000.”
Rob Drake, mortgage originations manager at Apple FCU, commented that “reaching the $1 million milestone is an exciting achievement for Apple FCU, as we are giving back and making a difference to our members. To be able to put money in our members’ pockets is always a good thing, especially when they can use it to offset closing costs or purchase items to help furnish their new home.”
Similarly, Tim Mislansky, senior vice-president and chief lending officer at Wright-Patt CU, said that surpassing the million dollar milestone proves that they’ve provided “tremendous value” to their members.
“And for us, because we are seen as our members’ real estate advocates, we no longer worry about losing our mortgage loans to our competitors,” Mislanski said. “Having a team of trustworthy real estate agents, to partner with, has allowed us to keep 96% of our mortgage loans that come through the program.”
