The Homeownership Initiative (HI) grant is a first-of-its-kind pilot grant by HUD. Clients can be billed toward this grant if they complete pre-purchase counseling, sign an agreement to do post-purchase counseling after purchase, and finally purchase a home. HUD calls this a Homeownership Initiative Unit.

What will need to done to be able to bill a unit?

  1. Verify your pre-purchase advising with the client began after October 1, 2023 (the first day of the period of performance).
  2. Provide pre-purchase counseling to the client and complete all pre-purchase advising activity logs.
  3. Verify the client and the HUD-certified advisor BOTH signed the agreement to participate in post-purchase services.
  4. Collect and save a closing disclosure (preferred), title or deed from the client.
  5. You will also need to verify that you have entered all the necessary data fields for that client.
  6. Mark the client to be billed to this HUD HI grant after ensuring that this client has not been billed to your other HUD grants.

Marking potential clients for HI in HomeKeeper

On pre-purchase Counseling/Education records, there is a new section called “Homeownership Initiative Info”. The field HUD Homeownership Initiative Grant will act similarly to the Activity Type field. By selecting the appropriate grant year, you can mark a client for potential billing toward the grant.

image.png

The grant requires you to collect a post-purchase advising agreement that is signed by both the client and the counselor as well as documentation for the closing. You will need to confirm that those documents are on file and then check the corresponding checkboxes to be able to bill the unit.

Post-purchase agreement

According to the HUD agreement for the HI grant, both the client and the advisor need to sign an agreement to participate in post-purchase services. The best way to do this to create your own form that includes space for both the client’s and the advisor’s signatures. You would then need to send it out for signatures and have the advisor countersign it.  If it's more convenient, wet signatures are also acceptable. Below is our recommended language for this attestation.

<aside> 💡

Post-Purchase Advising Commitment:

I acknowledge that as part of my homeownership journey, I will participate in one or more post-purchase advising session(s) within 6 to 12 months after my home purchase. I understand that these sessions are designed to support me in maintaining and managing my new home effectively.   I also agree to share my closing documents with my advisor to help continue support and funding for these valuable programs.  By signing this agreement, I commit to completing these sessions as an essential part of the advising process.

Client Signature:

Client Signature Date:

Advisor Signature:

Advisor Signature date:

</aside>

Entering Loan Details

Once you have obtained closing documentation such as a closing disclosure, you will need to records some information in HomeKeeperMN. Here’s how:

<aside> 💡

For each unit you want to bill, you will need to enter at least one first mortgage Loan Detail (Non-foreclosure) record. If the client also used down payment assistance for the purchase, you will need to enter a second Loan Detail (Non-foreclosure) record that includes the DPA details.

</aside>