“We All Need a Place to Call Home”

House to House is 1MISSION’s partnership with people in the housing industry, giving realtors and brokers the opportunity to donate a portion of their commissions to put families in homes.

The idea was born when Chris Lundberg, a newly licensed realtor, went on a build trip to Puerto Peñasco, Mexico with 1MISSION. While there, he worked alongside a local family to build the house they had earned, which they would soon move into. It opened his eyes to the obvious differences – and striking parallels – between the stories of homeownership north and south of the border.

“We all need a place to call home,” Chris says.

Through his prior real estate work during the housing crash, he had seen how easily dreams can come crashing down. He saw families going through what he calls “the horror story of foreclosure.”

He and his wife Lexi had to do a short sale of their own house during that time as well, so he knows what it feels like to lose a home you love. Rather than making him cautious and tightfisted, however, that experience showed Chris he had a unique opportunity to demonstrate love to his clients and to help them put the pieces back together.

“God takes broken things in our lives and makes us new,” he says. “I got to see a tangible aspect of that with housing stories here in Arizona. And that’s exactly what redemption means – people can make a new start.”

Image: Chris Lundberg with two boys from a family that had earned a home by serving their community.

Chris knew he loved serving his real estate clients through Redeemed Real Estate Group by helping each family find the house that is just right for them. Now he wondered how he could help make homeownership dreams come true for families in Mexico, El Salvador, and Nicaragua.

Soon after returning from the build trip, he sat down with a couple of us on the 1MISSION team and shared his crazy idea: creating a program that would give realtors like him a simple, compelling way to give people in poverty the opportunity to earn a home of their own – and to do it through the real estate industry they know so well.

We loved the idea, so we worked with Chris and a few of our other “beta-realtors” to develop a program that would not only put more families in homes but also give realtors assets to tell their story. A year ago this April, we launched House to House publicly.

Image: 1MISSION provides real estate agents with everything they need to get started with the House to House program, including client boxes which introduce clients to the families whose houses they have helped fund.

Here’s how it works. Agents commit to give a portion of each commission to 1MISSION to put families in homes. To help these agents tell their story, we provide resources such as co-branded marketing materials, business cards, and a client box, which contains a keychain as well as a bio of the family whose house the donation helped fund. This box is then presented to the client upon closing of the house. Then, a few months later, a proof report is sent to the agent once the family’s house has been completed.

One year in, House to House has partnered with more than 40 agents and has raised over $80,000!

Chris loves being able to introduce clients to 1MISSION by handing them their box with the family story and telling them, “You helped to make this story possible.” He hopes some of his clients will go on build trips with their families and end up staying involved with 1MISSION in their own way.

Image: Chris Lundberg (left) helps with the construction of a house during a recent build trip to Puerto Peñasco, Mexico.

Are you an agent or a broker? Email me at nate@1MISSION.org or call 602-550-0993 to learn more about getting started with our House to House program.

P.S. – Know an agent? Of course you do. Send them this post!