I’m a firm believer that information is the key to financial freedom. On the Stilt Blog, I write about the complex topics — like finance, immigration, and technology — to help immigrants make the most of their lives in the U.S. Our content and brand have been featured in Forbes, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, and more.
See all posts Frank GogolLanded Review
If you’ve reached this article, the odds are that you’ve stumbled across Landed, and you want to find out more about its characteristics and implications. If that’s the case, you’ve come to the right place. Landed focuses primarily on assisting educators in the time-consuming process of buying a home. To learn more, you should keep on reading.
What Is Landed?
Landed has been originally established back in 2015, as the founders acknowledged how many professionals were struggling when it comes to purchasing a home. Landed knows that buying a house can be really difficult – especially in specific areas, in which the prices tend to be quite high.
Basically, Landed offers support to educators for finding down payment support. Aside from this, the service facilitates financial coaching, which can make the entire home buying process less stressful. Another important aspect is facilitating home buying education.
To that end, Landed contributes to constructing financial security in the communities in which they work. Teachers usually stumble across a lot of difficulties when trying to purchase a home in expensive areas such as Seattle, Hawaii, San Francisco Bay, Boulder, San Diego, and others. This is where Landed comes in.
The team at Landed startup comprises of former educators, organizers, consultants, realtors, and investors. Landed startup collaborates with school districts and real estate agents in order to offer assistance to as many educators as possible.
How Does Landed Work?
Now, since you’ve got the gist about what Landed is, we’d like to get into a bit more detail about the way in which things work. Teachers looking for convenient home buying programs should definitely consider Landed.
When working with Landed, the team is interested in getting to know you – as an individual. That is to say, the Landed program is effectively customized depending on your specifications.
After the initial call that entails a get-to-know-you type of interview, you will be given a Landed Pre-Approval form. This outlines that the team at Landed startup will focus on finding the right home for you and your family. The next step is getting the customized help from a team of experts that will assist you throughout the entire process.
You will also be guided during the entire mortgage pre-approval process. You will be assisted when it comes to answering tricky, complicated questions, as well as finding useful information regarding your options.
How Does Landed Partner up with Real Estate Agents
Buying a house can be stressful – especially when you feel reluctant to ask questions and you don’t feel at ease with the real estate agents you’re working with. It shouldn’t be like this. The right real estate agent can make the world of a difference.
This is primarily why Landed chooses to collaborate exclusively with reliable, proficient real estate agents. This is one of the key aspects of ensuring a positive home buying experience.
For one thing, Landed doesn’t focus on making a profit off real estate investments. Still, if Landed doesn’t earn money in this way, how does it earn any money whatsoever? This is a legit question.
Landed makes a profit by sharing an amount of money of the real estate agent’s commission. Commission sharing is a widespread practice in the real estate marketplace. As for the rates charged by Landed, these are standard, similar to those charged by other real estate referral services.
But why do agents choose to do so? It is a win-win situation, as agents are willing to share their profits for leads.
Due to the commission sharing practice, customers choosing to work with Landed don’t have to pay an additional origination fee in order to access funds. Aside from the fact that this approach facilitates free Landed support, partnering up with real estate agents allows customers to have a positive buying experience.
Also, real estate agents willingly work with Landed in order to get access to more customers. The entire process is significantly simplified by Landed startup.
Mortgage Pre-Approval Process: the Debt-to-Income Ratio
For the most part, when applying for a mortgage, the lender will assess your debt-to-income ratio. This assesses your financial capability of coping with your monthly payments.
Usually, the debt-to-income ratio is what stands in the way of getting a suitable financing option. This is also applicable to auto loans for teachers.
With that in mind, how is the DTI calculated? The formula entails adding up all your existing debt and dividing it by your gross monthly income – which is the one before taxes. As for the estimated monthly housing cost, this will be calculated depending on the price of the home you intend to purchase.
Landed is committed to informing clients regarding all the steps in the process of purchasing a home.
Note that, if you have large outstanding debt due to your student
Complete Support
Moving on, Landed startup collaborates with your Landed Partner Agent, in order to help you along the way of making the best decision for your future. For one thing, Landed supplies comparable offers in the area in which you plan on purchasing a home.
This will give you the confidence that you are most likely getting a convenient deal. Your offer package will contain a Landed letter of support. This aims at strengthening your offer, increasing your reliability as a borrower. Aside from this, this letter has the role of outlining the importance of offering support to educators, as they are an important part of a community.
Another key step is that of writing a winning homebuyer letter. Such a letter can really make a difference, especially when there are a lot of offers standing for the same house. It’s important for the letter to be authentic and compelling. Landed offers assistance in this view, as well.
In addition to that, Landed is committed to supplying property review support. As soon as there is available information regarding the property that interests you – such as seller disclosers, home inspection reports, Home Owners Associated documents and others, this information will be further directed to you.
Effectively, the goal of a property review is ensuring that you’ve gotten a fair deal, while being fully informed regarding the condition of the property. All in all, working with Landed gives you the confidence that you’re doing the right thing for your family – that you aren’t jumping into something not knowing what you’re doing.
What Are Landed Customers Saying?
When looking for reviews, most people want to find out more about the experiences of former customers. And this makes sense, as it is a reliable indicator of a company’s experience and approach.
If we were to assess Landed reviews, we would have to say that most of them are on the positive side. They outline that the home buying process was significantly eased thanks to Landed.
According to reviews, even if there are several programs that help in the home buying process, Landed is generous, useful and efficient. The managers working at Landed are committed to guiding clients during the entire procedure, being concise, clear and available for answering any questions.
At the same time, since most members of the team at Landed are somehow experienced in the education realm, they acknowledge the challenges that come with the territory. Plus, the fact that Landed collaborates with proficient real estate agents is also critical for the entire home buying experience, as expressed in many positive reviews.
What Are Landed Employees Saying?
As we mentioned before, the team at Landed startup consists of former educators, consultants, realtors, and organizers. The ultimate goal of the team is helping you buy a home, and do that stress-free.
For instance, the customer development employee at Landed – L’Andre Ball – is a former educator recruiter. In his mindset, Landed was an opportunity for him to encourage highly prepared teachers to remain in the area, thus supporting the spirit of community and making a contribution.
Moving on, Paula Davis, who focuses primarily on Colorado engagement, is a former teacher at an independent school in Denver. She is knowledgeable regarding the many challenges that may stand in the way of educators. This is why she is keen on contributing to solving them. Hence, when she first stumbled across Landed startup, she knew that this is the right thing to do.
Ryan Delaney, who works as a lawyer for Landed, considered working with Landed as an opportunity to expand his horizons. At the same time, he saw it as a way of doing something meaningful.
Final Thoughts
To conclude, in spite of the fact that teachers have such a major contribution in a community, their wages are far from being rewarding, as many struggle to make ends meet. Considering all the stories regarding low teachers’ pay, Landed wanted to do something in this direction, by offering guidance and support in the process of buying a home. As pointed out in many reviews, most people had a positive experience with Landed, which further outlines that this company is committed to doing what it says it does.