Teacher Next Door Blog

Tonight we finally got to unlock the door to our new home. We’re so grateful to all of you—especially Skye for showing up at every turn.

I know you all put up with a lot of worry and questions from me. Remember, for many this is a new language. I’m grateful to each of you for answering my questions and guiding the way. (Especially over text, Kendall!)

"The Teacher Next Door program has helped us tremendously at getting us into a new home that fits for our family. As a blended family of five kids - Sheff helped us to get the mortgage loan and understand the mortgage process. He had weekly updates and very easily answered our questions. Now that we were pre-qualified, we then next turned to Cheri to help us find a house that fit our needs. She was very prompt via text messaging and emailing for questions about houses.She was also very flexible to fit our schedule at looking at houses for us to see. After we found our house, Cheri and Sheff did everything in a exceptional manner and very prompt at getting the paperwork processes through the lender. Also, April and Caress contributed to helping us with paperwork and questions needed for this to happen. At the end of the day, we are in a new home that meets our needs and looking forward to raising our family in our home.

The Teacher Next Door Program has met our exceptions!"

Thank you to all,  

Amy and Justin

If you are considering purchasing a new home in 2019, this is a great opportunity!  For more information and to apply, visit www.TeacherNextDoor.us, or  CLICK HERE

Teacher Next Door also has extended benefits to include nurses, law enforcement and other eligible public service professionals.  If you are not a teacher and would like to determine your eligibility, please visit https://www.teachernextdoor.us/Home-Buying-Programs or CLICK HERE

Congratulations Amy and Justin of sunny St. Pete, FL!  We are so excited for you!  Enjoy your first Christmas in your new home!  Special thanks to Teacher Next Door Realtor Cheri Aumond-McLean and Teacher Next Door Loan Officer Sheff Brisbin for your excellent service!  For info on GRANTS, down payment assistance and other programs in your area visit www.teachernextdoor.us.

Teacher Next Door's First Time Home Buyers Program allows buyers the unique opportunity to combine GRANTS and down payment assistance with the other programs we have available, including Fannie Mae's HomeReady, Freddie Mac's HomePossible and HomeOne programs.  Down payment assistance programs may include state specific programs such as Arizona Home in Five, Georgia Dream, Florida First and others or may include national programs such as Chenoa and Unison, depending on which has the greater benefit.  To be eligible, you must be a teacher or school employee, nurse or healthcare worker, law enforcement, firefighter or government employees.  For more information CLICK HERE.     

June is National Home Ownership Month.  Housing GRANTS of up to $6,000.00 and down payment assistance of up to $10,681.00 are available to teachers, nurses, law enforcement, firefighters and government employees, as well as former and active duty military personnel.

Teacher Next Door, the largest home buying program in the United States, (including the expanded Nurse Next Door and related programs) offers significant incentives and assistance to the public service community.  This FREE comprehensive home buying program includes grants, down payment assistance, mortgage loan assistance, free home buying service, discount title fees and other benefits, designed to make home ownership a reality for a larger number of people.

Through, Teacher Next Door, you may purchase ANY home on the market, without any neighborhood restrictions or minimum occupancy requirements. (Excluding HUD’s Good Neighbor Next Door homes.)  The program is available in all 50 states and there is never a fee for eligible participants to use this program.

To get additional details and to see how much you qualify for, visit https://www.teachernextdoor.us/

Additional links:

Frequently Asked Questions

Grants and Down Payment Assistance

Nurse Next Door

Officer Next Door

Firefighter Next Door

Non-Instructional Staff

Government Employees

Soldier Next Door

First Time Home Buyers

1. Half Price Homes (50% off value) - Only HUD’s Good Neighbor Next Door program offers homes at 50% of the current appraised value.  If there is a Good Neighbor Next Door home available in your work area, and you meet the other eligibility requirements, you may be able to purchase the home for only $100.00 down, using an FHA loan and you may use the Teacher Next Door GRANT to help pay all or part of your closing cost.  

2. Housing Grants - Teacher Next Door is the National Home Buying Program that offers participants the opportunity to receive GRANTS and other home buying benefits. 

Good Neighbor Next Door is not a grant program and HUD does not offer grants for single family home buyers.    

3. Down Payment Assistance - Teacher Next Door has down payment assistance programs available on any home purchase, in all 50 states.  These programs include, Home in Five Advantage, Home Plus, Georgia Dream, Golden State Platinum, Florida First, Military Heroes, First Home, Chenoa and Unison, just to name a few.  Your Teacher Next Door representative is trained in all the various programs and will explain your eligibility.  Programs are each structured differently and eligibility varies by city and state. 

Good Neighbor Next Door offers no down payment assistance, outside of the $100.00 down plan on the Good Neighbor homes.   

4. Eligibility - The Good Neighbor Next Door program requires that all buyers have one of four very specific job titles: Law Enforcement Officer (with arrest powers), Classroom Teacher (Pre-K through 12th grade), Firefighter or Emergency Medical Technician. (EMT) The Teacher Next Door Program, on the other hand, is much more inclusive.  Teacher Next Door provides GRANTS, down payment assistance and other benefits to all teachers, law enforcement, firefighters and EMT’s, but also includes all their support staff.  In addition, Teacher Next Door extends these benefits to Nurses, other medical professionals, government employees and Military personnel.  If you are an eligible public service professional, you may use Teacher Next Door benefits to purchase any home on the market, not just Good Neighbor homes or other HUD homes.   For a complete list of eligible professions, CLICK HERE.

5. Location – Good Neighbor Next Door homes are all HUD owned and located in revitalization areas, chosen by HUD.  To bid on a Good Neighbor home, you must work in the same area where the home is located.

Since Teacher Next Door is a national home buying program and not operated by HUD, you may purchase any home on the market and are not required to work in the same area as the home.    

6. Availability – Good Neighbor Next Door homes are extremely limited in their availability, as you might imagine, being half price.  In some states, there are urban areas with several Good Neighbor homes available.  Whereas, many other states may have zero Good Neighbor homes at any given time.  When you bid on a Good Neighbor home, it is a lottery style bid.  So, if there are 20 bidders, you will have a 1 in 20 chance of having the winning bid. 

With Teacher Next Door, there are usually plenty of homes available, because you may choose any home, in any neighborhood.    

7. Residency Commitment - If you are the winning bidder on a Good Neighbor Next Door home, HUD requires a three-year residency commitment.                   

Teacher Next Door does not have any limitations when it comes to residency.

This week, Teacher Next Door, the nation’s largest home buying program for teachers, held a three-day, down payment assistance summit in Tempe, Arizona, aimed at increasing the amount of assistance provided to teachers.

“Our focus this week was expanding our national matrix to be more inclusive and offer larger assistance amounts and benefit more program participants,” said Steve Parks, Teacher Next Door National Director.  “We now have over 30 different down payment assistance programs nationwide, that can be used in conjunction with our closing cost grant.”

Teacher Next Door already helps teachers in all 50 states navigate the home buying process, provides closing cost grants and arranges down payment assistance for qualified applicants.  Now, by increasing the number of programs they utilize and dialing in the specific requirement of each plan, they have no less than three potential down payment assistance sources for any area.  The down payment assistance programs include Georgia Dream, Home in Five Advantage, Home Plus, Chenoa and Unison, just to name a few.

“Despite rising home prices, I feel teachers and other service professionals should be able to live wherever they want, not just in certain neighborhoods.  Between our grants and the down payment assistance programs we utilize, teachers and their families enjoy far more buying power when they go to choose their next home,” Parks continued.  Through the Teacher Next Door program, you may purchase any home on the market.

This is not the first time Teacher Next Door has demonstrated their desire to help and strengthen communities.  In 2015 the program was expanded to include law enforcement officers, firefighters, EMT’s and nurses.

To check grant availability, visit the official website www.teachernextdoor.us/grant