 And I'm Leonie Lam. And we are so honored to be your co-host for Inside Hawaii Real Estate. Will is a full-time Hawaii Real Estate professional and a licensed attorney. Leonie and I actually work together as a husband and wife real estate team. And she's a Hawaii Real Estate broker, is a 20-year veteran of the industry. The goal of our show is to really go inside Hawaii Real Estate, literally. And sharing knowledge from experts, bringing resources and perspectives related to Hawaii Real Estate. Well, today we actually have a very special guest who's got to share about the organization that she runs. So, Reina Miyamoto, welcome. Welcome, Reina. She's the executive director of the Hawaii Homeownership Center. She's been with the organization for 16 years starting as a program manager. And she knows firsthand that the home buyer education is a stepping stone to sustainable home ownership and success in future goals for the families through her work with the buyers. The AJJLC is such an amazing organization. They have the mission to provide education, information and support to create successful home buyers in Hawaii. So, Reina, thank you so much for your time. I know you're very busy. And you're super late helping out families, first-time home buyers. So, let's get started. What is the story behind the Hawaii Homeownership Center? Well, first of all, thanks, Will and Leonie, for inviting me to your show and talk about my favorite subject, the Hawaii Homeownership Center and helping home buyers in Hawaii. So, in terms of how the Homeownership Center came about, really it was about a bunch of bankers taking a look at the home ownership rate in Hawaii. And they said, you know, we're always lagging the national average. Why is that? And how can we help more local families to have a home of their own? So, after taking a look at, you know, some program models in the mainland, also doing some community conversations with first-time buyers here in Hawaii to determine was it just a need or was it also a want to in terms of getting support like classes, coaching to get into home ownership. And everything lined up in terms of some of the program ideas that came about. Home buyers did want some coaching and education about how to become a homeowner too. So, the Homeownership Center opened in 2003. Can you give us an example or maybe a story about a successful first-time home buyer? How long did it take or what did that look like? Before I share one story, I would like to say one thing that, you know, in my experience with some of the home buyers I worked with as well as just knowing the stories of some of the other homeowners that have been helped through the Homeownership Center, you know, it's a range regarding how long it takes. You know, sometimes it's about readiness. Sometimes there's other goals that come about. Sometimes they have other priorities in life besides buying a home. So, I've met some buyers that said, oh, I think I can buy in three to five years. They go to the class and they said, Raina, I'm ready to shop for a home right now. The loan officer said I can qualify for enough to buy a home now. And then we have some folks that, you know, they check out what's involved and, you know, like I mentioned, they wanted to maybe send their kids to private schools or maybe take them to college first. And so, some folks have taken 13 years and then became home owners and very proud ones too. So, they've met a lot of other milestones in the context of getting a home. And I think that's partly important too, that, you know, Homeownership is one of many goals for a lot of folks too. It's just a matter of what priority it takes. And then we're happy to be part of that journey whenever they're ready to move into Homeownership specifically. Actually, his testimony is on our website too. But there was a single dad, you know, after he got divorced, he went back in with his family and he brought his son along with him. And the commute was quite long. So, he would say that, you know, we left when it was dark and we came home when it was dark. He basically went to sleep, woke up. The whole thing happened all over again. And there's a point where he said, you know what, I just heard that my co-worker went to the Homeownership Center, took some classes and they're moving into their own house. If they can do it, I think I can too. He took the classes, you know, he went through some coaching, found out what buyer resources were available to him as a first time buyer. And it was super cute. He actually surprised his son a few days before Christmas with the home of their own. Every weekend, instead of going hiking and taking his son out, he would actually be renovating the home with a whole bunch of his friends. His son thought that he had a girlfriend and maybe he was dating someone instead of doing the normal activities that they had. And so it was really nice. We were invited to be part of the home reveal. So all of his friends were there, the load officer, everybody was there. And so his son thought that they were going to visit an auntie at their home. He has the takeout box in his hands. They opened the door and there's a banner saying, he's completely floored. And as the dad is taking him along the, you know, it's kind of showing him in the house and the bathroom, the bedrooms and all of that. When he opens the last bedroom door, all the friends are there. Surprise. And so it was really a nice home reveal and real heartwarming story. So today they're living at home. The son is now college in college right now. He was a valedictorian of his class. And so in terms of stepping stones to home ownership, you know, the stability, having that opportunity to have a short commute to work as well as to school really made a big difference for that family. So you talked about, you know, a family who took 13 years. So let's say there's a lot of people watching the show. They're first time home buyers and, you know, whether they could be lower income, moderate income, but let's say they come to you, to you, Reina and your team members and walk us through the process. So what happens if there's a first time home buyer, they have no idea what to do? What is the whole process? So there's an optional home ownership workshop that they could attend if they wanted to say, oh, I don't know if the home ownership center is right for us. You know, and I don't know what's involved in buying a home. So it's a real high level walkthrough of the process in terms of buying a home and how we can help. So that's available to a buyer and whether or not they do that or not. And they decide, you know what? The home ownership center is absolutely what we need. Basically it's an intake form that they can fill out. There is a lifetime membership fee per buying unit. So it's $60 for buying units. So if I'm buying by myself, but the $60 if I'm buying with 10 other adult family members in our household, all of us are umbrellaed under that $60 fee, as well as paid one time. And actually if Honolulu Board of Realtors member is the referring source to our program currently, the Honolulu Board of Realtors is subsidizing that program fee by $50. So it's only $10 actually to participate in our program. So anybody watching this show that could say Leonie or Will sent us from their show and they could actually get $50 off to that referral, even though it's kind of indirect through your show. It's a discount for just listening to your show. It's like a present, right? For $50, which is awesome. Everybody can kind of self-direct how they want to utilize their program, but most folks will take our classes first. Our Zoom classes are actually posted online in terms of the schedule. They're broken up into different sections. The first half is about what should I consider before I buy a home, money management and credit in the context of qualifying for financing. Second half is about the buying process, working with a loan officer, Realtors like you guys. The escrow process as well as homeowners insurance. So they get a really good idea from start to finish in terms of what I should think about to actually getting their keys. And home ownership coaching is available and it's optional, but I think it's a great pairing to the classes. It allows a buyer to actually put their own personal situation into context of what they learned in the class. So they can take that as much or as little as they want. And then even after they become a home owner, they can still take advantage of our post purchase services. So there's workshops. And still visit the home ownership coach to talk about refinancing or whatever it is related to home ownership. So the lifetime of membership services is forever. As long as we're open and as long as they want to use our services, they can come in, utilize our services or call us up. So it could be $50 or $10 if there's a referring real estate agent for lifetime membership until you purchase your first home. Even after you purchase your first home, we hope they'll still keep in touch after their second home, third home, you know, or if they stand at home forever and they want to talk about home equity lines of credit, refinancing, you know, what are my options in terms of financing to pay for that? So we're there for anything home ownership related, really. And then, you know, especially for like first time home buyers and there's a lot of special programs available. Do the home ownership counselors or do the education courses kind of cover those different things that might be available to a first time home buyer? Oh, yes. So definitely doing those home ownership coaching sessions that I talked about. Since their home ownership centers staff will have an opportunity to actually take a look at the personal situation of that particular buyer or their family. They can refer them to different programs, walk them through the pros and cons of each because everything, even though it's a first time buyer program, it might be awesome. It might not be a good fit for every single buying unit depending on what their future goals are. The home ownership center for such a nominal fee, right? Basically like you're looking at, I mean, $10, you know, and then you get like this lifetime membership, which you were saying where you're able to kind of attend these classes, which are so easy because they're on Zoom, right? So you just log in whenever it's convenient for your schedule and just get yourself educated. And it's a great resource with this side, counseling that you can have also to get financially ready to understand what's available. I mean, it's like a no-brainer. I think it's the most amazing thing and just appreciate all that you do. Thank you. And thank you for the support to help folks know that it's available. About how many families and individuals have your organization help throughout the years? Well, I think we're at about almost 5,300 in terms of folks who have enrolled. And that's households that have enrolled in our program. And over half of those folks have purchased a home that we know of, not everybody. We would love for everybody to like call us be the first call, hey, we bought a home. But that's not always the case, right? So yeah, I would say over half have bought a home at varying degrees in terms of time frames, right? Some is like immediate. Some has been, you know, taken a lot more years, like 13, I think is the longest that we know of. Wow. And then I think you have another arm of your organization called the HHOC trust or the LAN trust. Can you tell us a little bit about that regarding affordable housing and what you guys do? Because, you know, we talked about it a bit before and I think everyone should know what you guys do. Thank you. So there's a point where the Hawaii homeownership center board thought, gosh, can we do anything about affordable inventory for, you know, for low and moderate income families? So we created HHOC housing and LAN trust. Currently, how we're implementing our program is we're purchasing homes off the open market and we're subsidizing the resale price. So basically we're creating a below market price unit and it is meant to provide stable housing, stable affordable housing and because there's a perpetual de-restriction on it. So for those who buy this particular homes that we make available, we want to have the first option to buy it back and we're going to, there's a calculated formula at what we'll buy it back for. So they'll make a little bit in terms of from when they bought it to when they sell it back. If they decide to sell it back to us. And so there'll be a little bit more if they want to buy another property or they have other plans, but it's not going to be like market appreciation. So the idea is we're going to sell it below market and then we're going to buy it back below market to make it available again to a low and moderate income family. Currently we do put the units on sale at like fully renovated. So we want to make sure that the buyers don't have any maintenance concerns moving forward in terms of like in the next, you know, immediate few years. So they can kind of get used to home ownership, plan for future maintenance and kind of get eased into the home ownership responsibilities too. So that's what we're currently doing. Our long-term vision is that we can be able to buy units that are under government buyback restriction. I think that was on the slide that flashed on the screen. That's a little bit kind of in the weeds, but anybody that's interested in hearing about that or if we have time on your show later on, we can talk a little bit more about that. So, you know, just to give everyone an example. So there's a couple of two bedroom town home that the HHOC purchased at market for 525. Now you're selling it under market for 455. I mean, who does that, right? So, I mean, just, yeah. So you guys bought it, you know, over the last year or two for 525. Now selling it below to make it affordable for 455 two bedroom town home in Kapolei. And just to have to share that as an example. Thank you. Still looking for a buyer. Still listed for sale right now. Not an escrow. How does that work? Like, I mean, if there were people that wanted to know, like, how do I, you know, find out about properties like that, that are, that the HHOC ownership center is kind of, you know, purchasing and then kind of making affordable. Like, how do they find out about that? We do list it on the MLS. So any Honolulu border filters member or people that are looking at high central.com, which is operated with the Honolulu border filters. It's listed there and it does outline the deed restriction and, you know, some of the stipulations related to the program. So it's full disclosure. We also do have an interest list on our website. So on hi home ownership.org, which is the Hawaii home ownership centers website, you scroll to the bottom of the homepage is a button that says HHOC housing and land trust. If you click on there, there's an interest list that folks can sign up on. So anybody on the interest list, we send like an email whenever we have something new posted or if we have an update on our program, we'll do it there too. So folks have an opportunity to tell us a little bit about themselves and their interests. So we get a little bit more information on what first time buyers that are interested in our program want in a home. And we can also have a mechanism to notify the people who are interested. That's amazing. And you know how I mentioned, like we have five kids, is there like a minimum age before they can sign up for this for this program? Cause I feel like we need to sign them up. Well, they can definitely get notified, but as you know, they need to at least be of adult age to be able to enter into that purchase contract. Understood. Understood. And so, you know, in addition to helping people become home buyer ready or to get into a home and then now you're also selling more listing properties to make them affordable, even if they were purchased at a higher price point. I think you're also doing things to help people that may be facing something like foreclosure and there's, there's some guidance and counseling available with Hawaii home ownership center too. Can you kind of share more about that? You know, at the core, the Hawaii home ownership center is really about safe and stable homes for Hawaii residents. So preserving home ownership is important, but you know, even for renters to be able to stay in their rental, if possible, and if that's their choice, we would like to support with that as well. So we did foreclosure prevention counseling in the last, I guess they called it the great recession in the early like 2008, 2009 and many years after that. And then we decided to bring back the program again when the pandemic started. So if folks are having a challenge with making their mortgage payments, I would encourage them to go to our website and reach out. They can schedule an appointment. Renters can do the same as well. If we're not able to help them directly, then we'll definitely make a referral to the best location that we think can provide the support that that person needs. Amazing. And you know, compared to back in 2008 to 2010 to, you know, during the COVID time, have you seen a difference in terms of who needs help with, you know, distressed properties, you know, if they're defaulting on their mortgage? Is there any difference between back then, you know, about 14 years ago to today? I don't know if I could say, like with that blanket comment regarding the scenarios, but I will say that the amount of services that we provide per household is less now in, you know, in general. I found that the first time we offered it, it was a lot of very intense services provided per household in terms of working with the lenders, you know, assisting with workout options for the buyer with, I mean, the borrower with their lender. This time around, not so much. I think a lot of times the lender has been proactive with the pandemic. There's a lot of contact made ahead of time. So I think that helped with mitigating some of that. And a lot of our referrals this time around is actually through the Oahu Housing Assistance Fund that's administered with the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement because they're offering some support for owner occupants who are delinquent on mortgages, homeowners, association dues, utilities, that sort of thing too. So I can make a side plug for those who are looking for assistance in that regard. There are definitely some place that would say put an application there, but you can still make an appointment with Hawaii Homeownership Center as well. So it's pretty clear to me, like Hawaii Homeownership Center is really just in it to help families, individuals, you know, homebuyers to get them ready and everything. And I'm just curious, how did you get involved with Hawaii Homeownership Center personally, right? Because you're kind of running it. You're the director. What was there a special calling for you or what was it? You know, some people might say it's a coincidence or like an accident in some ways, but you know, sometimes you look back on your career or things. I don't know if you guys feel like that sometimes, and you can kind of see how all the pieces actually line up. So I was working for a community building initiative called Weed and Seed at the time, and it was grant funded. It wasn't, when it took the job, it wasn't meant for me to stay there forever. And when it was right around the time for me to look for another job, somebody that was on that board of directors said, hey, Raina, the Hawaii Homeownership Center is looking for a program manager. Would you consider applying? And I thought, I've purchased my own property as a first time buyer, and I wish there was a home ownership center to help me back then. But I was a little, you know, I had to kind of think about it and actually make some calls to say, am I actually going to be able to contribute to this organization in the way that they need me to or they need in terms of that, what their needs are for that position. But I did submit my resume. They interviewed me and I haven't left their since. So 16 years later, I'm still here. 16 years with Hawaii Homeownership Center. My goodness. Thank you for your service. Like, you know, I've always known about Hawaii Homeownership Center in the way that it helps get people ready. But I didn't know about the land trust side of it. I didn't know about the foreclosure help, you know, or guidance anyway, at least that there's this resource available. And so it's just so exciting to me because clearly I'm born and raised in Hawaii, right? And like I said, we have all the kids and everything and family. And that's why I got into real estate was because I just really believed in the whole process, especially after I went through it. And I just love this. And I love being able to share this resource. So thank you. Oh, thank you. We wouldn't be here without the referrals and helpings for the word because we are not marketing experts on our own and we don't have a big budgets to invest in that. So we certainly appreciate your support. And there's more credibility when we're not promoting ourselves quite honestly. It is actually much better when our people that are serving, we're serving or want to serve and people like you, when people to our direction. So thanks for doing that. Is your organization looking for volunteers, donations? So you have, you know, you guys have helped, you know, 5300 families. If there's people who are willing and able to help the organization and other families, how do people volunteer or how do people donate to the Hawaii Ownership Center? Thanks for asking. I'll take the donation question first. So in terms of donations, we do have, you know, anybody that wants to make a financial contribution, that's welcome. We take checks. People can donate through our website too. So they can just go to hihomeownership.org and right on the top corner in red. They say donate. You can click on there. So that's always appreciated. Some folks want to donate like in kind contributions. Like we do have a golf tournament. We have a fundraising gala that just finished in November. So some people like to donate, you know, goods and services. So maybe for a silent auction, it could be a golf prize. Those type of things. Some people have provided, you know, professional services are offered like, Hey, do you need carpet cleaning for, you know, maybe for one of your land trust units? And I keep a bad list of people that, you know, help out too. I have, I'm a plumber. I'd love to donate some services to help you out if you needed that. We also have volunteers for, you know, our fundraising activities, you know, for our events. Maybe some people might have, you know, specialty services, like I'm good at social media. We'd love to help you with that. So anybody that's interested, I would be glad to hear from them. Our website does have a contact form and they can reach out. At the end, I think my contact information will be showing too. And then they can reach out directly to me as well. Do you have any upcoming events? I know it's the holiday season, but maybe in the new year, are there any Hawaii homeownership events coming up? In terms of big events, actually there are fundraising events and it starts in August. So I'd say August we'll have a golf tournament, we'll have a fundraising and lunch usually in September. And then in November we'll have our fundraising gala. As far as just events that people want to check us out and learn more about us, we can go to our website hihomeownership.org and there's that first time buyer free workshop button. It can come to one of our free home ownership center orientations. The one that I talked about, high level orientation of our first time buyers and how we help to kind of check us out and get to know us. Another way to volunteer is to host one of those sessions for your first time buyer friends and family. So awesome. Well, we are just so grateful to you, Reina, for kind of coming on Inside Hawaii Real Estate and sharing. And just in closing, is there any other like story that is near and dear to your heart that you've kind of encountered over the years when helping different families or just kind of different experience that you've had that you'd like to kind of close us out with to share? You know, it's helping one first time home buyer and she was buying her first home after her kids had graduated from high school and I remember telling me, you know, Reina, my brother told me I could have bought a home more than like 10 years ago and I didn't think it was possible. I wish I listened to him. So I told her, you know, there's no turning back. You made the decision that he was right for you at that point in time. But I do encourage folks that if you will want to buy a home sometime in the future, anytime in the future, get educated. Now, find out what resources are available, get yourself financially ready. So when that opportunity comes up, you can take advantage of that right now instead of having to wait and go, oh my gosh, it's going to be another two years before I pay off my debt or get some savings in the bank. So it can make that happen. Just to go over your website. It's Hawaii home ownership.org. So that's H I home ownership.org. Is that correct? It is. And then whether they need your first time home buyers, maybe they can't afford to pay the mortgage, other lending options. You, you and your team member, I mean, you guys are awesome resources. Not just resources, but advisors. Thank you. We hope that people reach out. Sometimes people just send over a question and if it's doesn't require like program enrollment, we're happy to answer that. So we do hope to be a resource, not just to percent home buyers, but we welcome. We get calls from realtors as well. People in general that are curious about a program loan officers. So we're hoping to be part of the community for the real estate world as well as a community at large. Well, thank you so much for joining us. And thank you well for being my co-host. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thanks for the invitation. Thank you so much for watching think tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn and donate to us at think tech Hawaii.com. Mahalo.