Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 24, 1991 TAG: 9103250348
SECTION: HOMES PAGE: E-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Sandra Brown Kelly
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
First Virginia Bank-Southwest has reinstated a home-improvement loan program designed to help lower income homeowners who don't have enough equity in their property to use it as collateral.
Both efforts are aimed at a double return, drumming up business in a slow real-estate market and enhancing the lenders' community images.
The stepped-up concern for lending to the poor has been prompted by tighter federal regulations through the Community Reinvestment Act, which was designed to encourage lenders to provide loans for local needs, especially for low-income housing, small businesses and small farms.
Michael Hincker, vice president and branch manger for Dominion Bankshares Mortgage, said that while the idea for the mortgage loan officers' greater presence in the branch banks came out of a CRA meeting, it also is part of an effort to make mortgage loans more convenient for anyone.
He said he has regularly spent time in the bank's downtown office to take applications rather than have customers come to the mortgage offices on Electric Road.
The mortgage workers are at the Melrose Avenue and Ninth Street Southeast branches from noon to 2 p.m. and at the Main Office on Jefferson Street from 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m. on Thursdays.
First Virginia Bank-Southwest's Special No-Equity Home Improvement Loan allows homeowners up to $17,500 for home improvements on first and second or vacation homes. It does not require an appraisal on the property, and application can be made by mail or at any branch office of the bank.
Potential borrowers have to have an estimate of the costs of improvements available as part of the application.
James N. Hinson Jr., president, said response to the loan program has been good.
Century 21 Real Estate Corp. is changing its corporate image by modifying its agents' uniforms and SANDRA BROWN KELLY by placing greater emphasis on customer service. The company plans to have the changes completed by all franchises by June 15.
The uniform change includes the adoption of a softer gold color for the Century 21 jacket and the substitution of black for brown as the companion uniform color.
The more than 7,000 independent offices of the company also will begin distributing service surveys and service pledges to customers, and an in-depth survey will be sent to every customer by the international headquarters after each transaction.
At a corporation conference in early March, Century 21 President Richard Loughlin told some 10,000 brokers and agents that he wanted the company to be the leader in the real estate industry in the 1990s that "will be driven by a consumer service culture."
Richard Wimberley, manager of the new homes division for Boone & Co. Realtors, is among 13 new-homes sales managers in Virginia to be recognized by the National Association of Home Builders for 1990 sales of more than $10 million.
Wimberley's 50-member staff sold more than $15.7 million in new homes in nine Roanoke Valley communities, according to Boone's marketing director, Sue Gotwalt.
by CNB