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University cuts deal to offer discount housing services to staff

BY MICHAEL PENA

Staff now can take advantage of low-cost mortgages and discounted housing services offered by a Santa Clara-based company that the university has partnered with in order to make home buying more affordable for non-faculty employees.

The company, ClickHome Inc., offers a 50 percent brokerage fee discount to buyers and low-interest loans for purchasing and refinancing a home. ClickHome boasts more than 20 financing tools and is offering its services at no cost to the university.

Top administrators and human resources departments began meeting about four years ago to discuss the impact of the Bay Area's runaway housing prices on the university's staff-recruitment efforts, as well as ways to ease the burden of home buying.

Talks died down when the local economy and job market tanked. But in 2002, a ClickHome representative contacted Stanford administrators and prompted them to look into the company's services. The partnership was finalized over the summer.

"It certainly will help when we're recruiting people to the area from another part of the country," said Lee Lyon, director of human resources at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC). "I think there's probably a fair number of staff who will take advantage of this."

Lyon and Carol Olsen, director of employee and organizational services for the university, were instrumental in bringing Stanford and ClickHome together. BenefitSU is spreading the word to staff, although actual services are handled independently by the company.

"It's kind of a concierge service," said Gerri Burruel, the university's benefits director.

Staff can access services and information at www.clickhomerealty.com or call (408) 615-1000 and simply say they work for Stanford. ClickHome offers everything from an online mortgage calculator and searches for available properties to refinancing and home-selling services.

The company gives customers more home-buying power by offering 25 percent to 50 percent discounts on loan fees and by giving back the buyer a check for approximately 1.5 percent of the home's purchase price, said Rick Smith, the company's co-founder and chief operating officer.

By working with companies and large institutions, ClickHome avoids the high cost of door-to-door marketing. Agents also pay lower fees per transaction because they do more of them per month than the typical real estate agent, Smith said.

Agents also are not completely dependent on commissions, instead earning a salary and a small bonus per transaction. In order to receive the bonus, an agent must score at least 90 percent on a ClickHome customer satisfaction survey, Smith said.

"A lot of companies are getting involved with us now," Smith said. "We work with over 70 companies and more than 85,000 employees in the Bay Area."

ClickHome's territory includes the East Bay, the Peninsula and the South Bay, all the way down to Monterey County. Among its largest clients are the Santa Clara County Medical Association, Stanford and the NUMMI auto plant in Fremont.

ClickHome opened its doors in 1998 and secured its first institutional client, Santa Clara University, in late 2001. Since then, the company has saved that university's employees more than $500,000, Smith said.

One Stanford employee already has received a loan through ClickHome, and the company is processing applications from at least two more staffers. Past customers have used the savings from lower loan fees and commissions on closing costs and furniture.

Any savings help in this market. The price of a single-family home in Santa Clara County averaged $742,000 in August, while Palo Alto and San Mateo ranked fourth and seventh, respectively, in a survey released last week that listed the most expensive U.S. markets where middle managers are likely to move.

Employers are complaining louder than ever that the bloated cost of Bay Area homes is scaring away talented candidates-and Stanford is no exception.

"The housing situation can be a block," said Lyon, who saw 180 new hires at SLAC alone last year. "Getting people into this area is not easy, yet."