AIDS Shelter Alliance Partners
A voluntary industrywide campaign called “ASAP: AIDS Shelter Alliance Partners” was first proposed in 2001; and an annual fund-raising competition called the “Million Dollar March” was submitted to the MIT Ideas Competition in September 2003.
WHAT IS ASAP’s GOAL?
Develop a prototype for an annual fundraising campaign to demonstrate how local communities in the United States and other countries can use real estate related revenues and savings from e-commerce real estate transactions to provide shelter subsidies for AIDS orphans through ASAP: AIDS Shelter Alliance Partners.
WHO WOULD BE INVOLVED IN ASAP?
Organize a coalition of tradition and new e-commerce business models in the trillion dollar residential real estate industry to partner with existing AIDS related organizations. A local demonstration project in Greater Boston might a variety of orphan care providers including Harvard Medical School’s Division on AIDS, Cambridge Cares about AIDS, and The CollegeCorps to raise awareness of their responses to the AIDS pandemic and create an ongoing revenue stream to fund their efforts.
HOW WOULD ASAP BE IMPLEMENTED IN THE FUTURE?
If successful, one way to structure future ASAP fundraising campaigns could be to host a friendly, annual competition between real estate companies, between cities (see ASAPledge for Cambridge, MA), or between local communities within the same metropolitan area. During 2003, one major company, ForSaleByOwner.com, which was the 5th leading real estate web site nationwide with local partners in 36 cities, expressed a preliminary interest in a Spring marketing campaign entitled the “Million Dollar March.” The goal would be to see which company or city could help real estate consumers save one million dollars first, and how much of those savings were passed on to AIDS shelter providers. The Human Race, a fund raising event organized by Nike and numerous cosponsors, is using a similar city versus city competition to raise funds.
WHY AN ASAP DEMONSTRATION PROJECT NOW IN CAMBRIDGE / BOSTON?
Locally, the name of the proposed ASAP campaign has taken on a new urgency. Statewide, nearly 5,100 properties representing $2.4 BILLION dollars in revenue were pulled off the market between the 4th of July and Labor Day 2003 because they failed to sell during the spring home buying season. Cambridge alone had 122 “expired” listings representing $84 million in gross value; while another nearby city Newton, had $98 million in expired listings. Significantly, the number of expired listings has risen to the highest point since 1998.
With this market slowdown, ASAP, is now presented with a new fundraising opportunity: can an MIT IDEAS team develop a mechanism to help homeowners sell their homes as soon as possible—ASAP —in exchange for a donation to an approved AIDS shelter alliance partner? If expired listings can be sold without a listing agent or for a reduced fee, that could represent $5 to $10 million in commission savings in Newton and Cambridge alone. Statewide, commission savings could total as high as $120 million.
WHO IS READY TO RESPOND ASAP?
ASAP’s goal is to capture a fraction of those consumer savings and to enhance the effectiveness of our local demonstration project through an interfaith coalition.
Home buyer and sellers, learn how you can save $10,000 or more buying or selling your home, and at the same time help save a life or provide a shelter subsidy for AIDS orphans.
The Real Estate Cafe’s goal is to host a friendly competition between it’s own home buyer clients and homeowners selling “for-sale-by-owner” (FSBOs) to see who can save $1 million first, Our twin goals are to:
HOME SELLERS
1. Teach 50 to 100 sellers in Greater Boston how to save $1 million, or $10,000 to $20,000 each in real estate commissions, by selling their homes “for sale by owner” or by working with a new generation of fee-for-service real estate consultants and discount MLS listing services.
If you’re thinking of selling your home this spring, join us for one of our upcoming “For Sale By Owner” seminar.
If you’d prefer to work with a traditional real estate agent we can also help you select an agent. If we refer you to a listing agent and they sell your property our referral fee rebate kicks in, both saving you money and helping to save lives.
HOME BUYERS
Help 10 to 20 buyer clients save $1 million, as we did in 2006 (see client savings map).
If you’re thinking of buying a home or condominium, read what the Wall Street Journal said about our fee-for-service / 100% rebate business model, and contact us.
OTHERS
Add your favorite cause or charity to our commission commission, particularly initiatives targeted at AIDS orphans, and post this widget on your Facebook profile, blog, or other social networking site.