American Homeownership Initiative

The American Homeownership Initiative (AHI) has been created with the goal of providing affordable homeownership opportunities to buyers who may not have large down payments, or a mortgage qualifying credit history, but who can afford the monthly costs of owning a home. 

How the Financing System Works

AHI has developed a new concept named “Qualified Residential Installment Sale Agreement, which we call a “QRISA_®”. We believe that a QRISA_®  transfer of home ownership, properly used by a buyer and seller, will contain the elements necessary for a fair and balanced sale of a home.  For more information on the elements of a QRISA_® click here.

An Installment Sales Agreement (ISA) is a flexible tool allowing a seller and buyer to structure a transaction which provides transfer of equitable title, and therefore deduction of interest expenses and property tax for income tax purposes, without the conveyance of a deed until a later time. This system is also known as a Contract for Deed, or Land Sales Agreement, and allows the buyer to quickly become a homeowner without obtaining a third party mortgage.

 This is NOT a “RENT-TO-OWN" or “lease to purchase” program, which we believe are far inferior in their many forms as an avenue to home ownership. A QRISA_® is IMMEDIATE HOMEOWNERSHIP, with all the traditional rights and obligations of ownership, except there is no buyer mortgage.

A version of the system had a successful historical precedent in Philadelphia.  It was applied in the condominium conversion programs at the Wireworks, Bridgeview Place and Colonnade buildings in Old City, Philadelphia. The buyers were offered the following terms:

The down payment was set at less than one percent  of the selling price with 30-year amortization of the contract  balance at a fixed interest rate.

The Seller paid all of the closing costs, both at contract closing and at deed conveyance.

The contract was assumable by a future buyer, and it could be refinanced by the buyer with no prepayment   penalties. Positive termination provisions were included in the Installment agreements, allowing the buyer to “change their minds” and return the home to the seller, for up to a five year period of time.

Home  pricing was designed so that the total monthly  ownership  payments, after the income tax savings, would approximate existing area rental costs.
All Buyers were underwritten to current FNMA “income to payment” ratio guidelines to protect their investment.
The contracts were recorded, title insured, and received existing first mortgage lender recognition at each closing.

 It is our goal to reintroduce this simple  method of home ownership, through the use of QRISA_®, to help the current housing crisis come to an end, and turn millions of renters into home owners.