On Sunday afternoon, Asheville’s Patton Property Group held an Open House at 1 Norwood Park Avenue to promote its new Homes for Heroes program, which gives a 25 percent discount off the real estate commission to teachers, firefighters, public safety officers, health care workers, and military personnel looking to buy or sell a home in the Asheville area.
Part of a national program started by a real estate company in Minnesota in early 2002 to recognize community heroes, Patton Property Group CEO Rowena Patton said she decided to bring the national program to the area as a means of giving back to the community. “It’s a small way to give back…but it’s about $1,500 on a $200,000 home, so it’s considerable,” she adds.
Casting a wide occupational net, the Homes for Heroes discount is actually available to a majority of Asheville residents according to Patton. “It’s about 70 percent of the population here,” she reveals.
“I think it’s the kind of grassroots thing that, when you get a couple of doctors standing there with their big checks at the closing, then they’ll start telling their friends, and it’ll start rolling,” says Patton noting that, though Asheville Home for Heroes started just three weeks ago, they’re already seeing results, with around seven people (both home buyers and sellers) signed on for the program.
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