Are You Looking To Buy A Home At A Discount?

So many people are looking for government (or other) grant money to be able to buy their own home. Here is a government grant program that allows eligible applicants to buy a home at a discounted price.

If you are a law enforcement officer, this program may help you purchase a home in a HUD-revitalization area by offering qualified purchasers a 50% discount off the list price of homes available from HUD's inventory. You must agree to live in the home for three years and it may be your only residence during that time.

General Program Requirements

In order to qualify for this benefit program, you must be or have been a law enforcement officer who is employed (full-time) and is a current or prospective homeowner.

Application Process

For more information about applying for this program, you can visit the government's website.

Update! - If you are a law enforcement officer, firefighter, emergency medical technician, or teacher, this program may help you purchase a home in a HUD-revitalization area by offering qualified purchasers a 50% discount off the list price of homes available from HUD's inventory. You must agree to live in the home for three years and it must be your sole residence.

General Program Requirements - In order to qualify for this benefit program, you must be or have been a law enforcement officer, firefighter, emergency medical technician, or teacher who is employed (full-time) and is a current or prospective homeowner.

Objectives - To strengthen America's communities by providing homeownership opportunities to law enforcement officers in HUD- designated revitalization areas, and to improve the quality of life in these neighborhoods by their presence.

Types of Assistance - Sale, Exchange, or Donation of Property and Goods.


Uses and Use Restrictions - Law enforcement officers may purchase HUD-owned single unit properties located in designated revitalization areas at a 50 percent discount off list price. Officers must agree to occupy homes as their sole residence for a period of 3 years. The officer must also agree to execute a second mortgage and note in the name of the Department for an amount equal to the 50 percent discount. This zero interest note will gradually decrease over the 3-year mandatory residence period until it reaches zero. Should the officer leave the home before the 1st anniversary of occupancy, 90 percent of the discounted amount will be due to HUD. Departure before the 2nd anniversary of occupancy will require a 60 percent repayment, and departure before the 3rd anniversary of occupancy will require a 30 percent repayment of the discounted amount. Officers must certify initially, and once annually, for each year of the occupancy term, that he/she continues to own and live in the home as a sole residence, and that no other residential real estate is owned.

Eligibility Requirements - Applicant Eligibility

This program is limited to a specialized group. To be eligible for this program, participants must be law enforcement officers. A law enforcement officer is defined as an individual who is employed full-time by a Federal, State, county, or municipal government or a college or university, and is sworn to uphold, and make arrests for, violations of Federal, State, county, or municipal law. The authority to make arrests must be general arrest power - not simply arrest authority which is confined to a specific building, facility, or group of persons.


Beneficiary Eligibility - Law enforcement officers purchasing a HUD-owned home in a designated revitalization area for use as their residence.
Credentials/Documentation


Application Procedure - Interested law enforcement officers apply by submitting a bid for a property listed through HUD's sale disposition program. Properties for sale are listed on the internet at sites accessible to the general public. Bids are submitted electronically. The bid amount submitted must be displayed list price.

Award Procedure - A winning bid is selected randomly each week. The winning bidder is offered the property at a 50 percent discount off the list price. A document package is mailed to the selected bidder. The bidder accepts by signing and returning the sales documents. The selected bidder receives title to the home at a sales closing. The selected bidder arranges for financing of the purchase price.


Deadlines - Properties eligible for this program are offered exclusively to officers for bidding for five days beginning with the first listing of the property. Unsold homes continue to be available for purchase through the program under modified rules related to the length of time the property is unsold.


Formula and Matching Requirements - The assistance is in the form of a 50 percent reduction in the list price of the home selected for purchase.


Length and Time Phasing of Assistance - The assistance is provided in exchange for the buyer's commitment to occupy the homes as a personal residence for three years. Each year of occupancy results in the forgiveness of one third of the discount value. Early vacation of the premises requires repayment of a pro rata amount of the discount.

Post Assistance Requirements - Reports - The officer purchasing the home must submit an annual certification for each of three years that he or she resides in the home and does not own any other residential real property.

Program Accomplishments - As of April 1, 2003, approximately 7,352 officers have purchases homes under this program in the United States and the District of Columbia, with an estimated value of $367,600,000. Sales in fiscal year 2003 are estimated to be approximately 1,500. Projections for fiscal year 2004 are about the same.

Program information is available on HUD's official website.

There are also related programs for teachers!

For policy questions not covered on the website, you can contact the office division by regular mail, email or by phone (this is not a toll free number).

Do You Need A Scholarship To Help Pay For Nursing School?

There is a nursing organization that has scholarship information on their website as well as financial aid information for nursing students. They offer a $2,500 nursing scholarship to a deserving student every 60 days! In order to assist worthy applicants who are not selected, they have also expanded their online database which lists hundreds of grants and scholarship opportunities!

You can find out more information about other scholarship programs by going to my Grants Related page.



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Other Nursing-related Grant Programs

There is a nurse's foundation that has a grant program to help fund research on nursing-related topics - mainly topics that have to do with nursing as a career.

In order to be eligible to apply for this grant funding, applicants must be a licensed registered nurse who has obtained at least one degree, either a baccalaureate degree or higher, in nursing. Beginning and experienced nurse researchers are encouraged to apply. Grants range from $3,000 to $25,000.



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There is another non-profit organization that offers two annual scholarships (up to $17,500 each) for minority students pursuing degrees in nursing and rehabilitation therapy programs.

You can find out more about this nursing school scholarship program by visiting the organization's website.

Local Artists Get Grant Awards!

Here is a listing of artists in one state who have gotten grant awards:

• A University graduate has received a $5,000 grant award that he will use with his group to help produce films and comedy shows.
  
  
• A sculptor who has also received a grant says "It relieves financial worry, but it really makes me feel good about this place. When I tell artists who live elsewhere that my county gives tax money to individual artists, the envy is palpable."

These artists were among 10 individual artists receiving $55,000 in fellowships when their district awarded almost $800,000 in 2007-8 grants!

Also receiving grant money were major arts and cultural groups for general operating support. Some of these grant recipients include:

• a farm
  

• a ballet company
  

• a contemporary dance company
  

  a watercolor artist
  

• an opera company
  

• a public television station
  

  and
  

• a local radio station
  

• A total of $137,415 in grants supporting special projects were awarded to 28 small and mid-sized groups following a competitive review process:
  
  • A Youth Leadership Group received a $4,450 grant
    

  • an international festival received $4,000
    

  • a jazz orchestra received a $15,000 grant
    

  • a chorus group received a $5,000+ grant
    

  • a children's choir received a $9,000 grant
    

  • a Lutheran School received a $2,000+ grant
    

  • a Firefighter's Association received a $2,500 grant
    

  • a church received a $5,000 grant
    $9,000.

A $10,000 award was given to an individual artist for lifetime achievement.

For more information about this grant program for individual as well as group art organizations you can either reach them by phone or visit their website online for more information about their annualgrant program.

Proposed Grant Program To Help Pay Back Student Loans.....

Although this program is only in the "proposal" stages now this is the procedure of how new grant programs get started all the time!

There is a current proposal underway to start a new state program that will help provide doctors to areas that are medically "underserved".

The proposal includes the offering of grants to help repay education loans and other incentives (including financial incentives) to help make it more attractive to doctors to serve in areas that do not have adequite medical help.

source
Empire State News

So many people have emailed me and asked me about whether or not there are any grant programs out there to help them pay off their student loans and here is a very good example of a grant program (even though its still in its early proposal stages) that talks about just that!

To find out about other grant programs relating to paying back student loans you can take a look at my Grants Related Page and click on the "Student Loans link that appears near the top of that page.