March 1, 2019

SCOTTSDALE, AZ – CU Realty Services (CURS)—the largest real estate Credit Union Service Organization (CUSO) in the U.S.—is reporting year-over-year growth for the eighth consecutive year. The ongoing success is attributed to the power of HomeAdvantage®, CURS’ turnkey real estate marketing platform designed to help credit unions (CUs) attract more leads, nurture member relationships and close more purchase mortgages.    

CU Realty’s 2018 success is reflected in these key milestones: 

• Generated over 20,000 home buyer and seller leads back to its credit union partners 
• Facilitated almost 4,000 closings through HomeAdvantage 
• Delivered $6.2 million in HomeAdvantage Cash Rewards  to credit union members—a 7 percent increase over 2017. Almost $41.5 million in Cash Rewards have been cumulatively distributed during the program’s lifetime 
• Signed 18 new credit union and CUSO partners 
• Expanded into one new state: Arizona. 

“Credit unions that use HomeAdvantage enjoy a variety of member and CU-focused benefits,” said Mike Corn, president and CEO of CU Realty Services. “For members, HomeAdvantage provides an easy, one-stop home buying and selling experience, and our Cash Rewards make homeownership more affordable. For credit unions, HomeAdvantage delivers a lead-generation, nurturing and marketing automation platform so they can engage with home-buying members at the earliest stages of their home-buying journey, remain in contact and ultimately close more purchase loans!” 

In 2018, CU Realty clients saw mortgage pull-through rates of 82 percent or higher when their members used the HomeAdvantage program to buy their homes. 

NEW CREDIT UNION PARTNERS
Seventeen credit unions and one mortgage CUSO implemented HomeAdvantage in 2018:

• Carter FCU (Springhill, Louisiana)—26,000 members, more than $300 million in assets
• Commonwealth One FCU (Alexandria, Virginia)—34,000 members, more than $340 million in assets
• Credit Union 1 (Oak Lawn, Illinois)—102,000 members, more than $837 million in assets 
  
• Credit Union West (Glendale, Arizona)—67,000 members, $695 million in assets
  
• EECU (Fort Worth, Texas)—184,000 members, more than $2 billion in assets
  
• Fort Lee Credit Union (Prince George, Virginia)—16,100 members, more than $173 million in assets
  
• GTE Financial Credit Union (Tampa, Florida)—258,000 members, more than $1.9 billion in assets
  
• Harborstone Credit Union (Lakewood, Washington)—79,000 members, more than $1.2 billion in assets
  
• Lafayette Federal Credit Union (Rockville, Maryland)—20,300 members, more than $417 million in assets
  
• Launch Federal Credit Union (Merritt Island, Florida)—65,000 members, more than $749 million in assets
  
• Member Advantage Mortgage CUSO (Grand Rapids, Michigan)
  
• Mission Federal Credit Union (San Diego, California)—219,000 members, more than $3.4 billion in assets
  
• UMassFIVE College (Hadley, Massachusetts)—37,000 members, more than $463 million in assets
  
• USF Federal Credit Union (Tampa, Florida)—59,000 members, more than $660 million in assets
  
• Vantage Credit Union (Bridgeton, Missouri)—86,000 members, more than $862 million in assets
  
• Velocity Community Credit Union (Palm Beach Gardens, Florida)—22,000 members, $335 million in assets
  
• Verity Credit Union (Seattle)—31,000 members, more than $527 million in assets
  
• Worcester Credit Union (Worcester, Massachusetts)—7,300 members, more than $80 million in assets. 

These 18 new partners join hundreds of other financial organizations throughout the U.S. that offer HomeAdvantage to their members. The program provides their home-buying and selling members with access to the real estate tools and support they want during the earliest stages of their journey to homeownership. This includes property listings, recent sales data, neighborhood demographics and a network of reputable real estate agents certified to work with the HomeAdvantage program. 

When members use a real estate agent in the HomeAdvantage network, they qualify to earn HomeAdvantage Cash Rewards at closing—a cash-back benefit equal to 20 percent of the agent’s earned commission. In 2018, HomeAdvantage delivered $6.2 million in Cash Rewards averaging $1,570 in savings per transaction. 

2018 CASH REWARDS 
The 10 credit unions with the largest HomeAdvantage Cash Rewards payouts in 2018 saw combined member savings of more than $3.2 million. Those CUs and their total 2018 Cash Rewards are: 

• BCU (Vernon Hills, Illinois)—$842,246 
• Bank-Fund Staff Federal Credit Union (Washington)—$396,054 
• Wings Financial Credit Union (Apple Valley, Minnesota)—$310,378 
• Wright-Patt Credit Union (Beavercreek, Ohio)—$274,411 
• Partners Federal Credit Union (Burbank, California)—$264,116 
• Apple Federal Credit Union (Fairfax, Virginia)—$251,244 
• Northwest Federal Credit Union (Herndon, Virginia)—$247,827 
• Tower Federal Credit Union (Laurel, Maryland)—$241,486 
• Affinity Plus Federal Credit Union (St. Paul, Minnesota)—$201,496 
• Fairwinds Credit Union (Orlando, Florida.)—$190,626 

MILLION DOLLAR CLUB RECOGNIZES LIFETIME CASH REWARDS
The Million Dollar Club recognizes credit unions that have saved their home-buying and home-selling members $1 million or more in the form of HomeAdvantage Cash Rewards.  

In 2018, one new credit union was inducted into the club, and four reached cash-back milestones of $2 million and higher for the first time. To date, nine credit unions have achieved Million Dollar Club status. Those credit unions and their lifetime cash-back benefits are:  

• Northwest Federal Credit Union—$5 million 
• Bank-Fund Staff Federal Credit Union—$4 million 
• BCU—$2 million  
• Tower Federal Credit Union—$2 million 
• Wright-Patt Credit Union—$2 million 
• Apple Federal Credit Union—$1 million 
• Affinity Plus Federal Credit Union—$1 million 
• Partners Federal Credit Union—$1 million 
• State Department Federal Credit Union—$1 million

About CU Realty Services, LLC
CU Realty Services provides real estate services to credit unions across the nation, helping them increase their purchase mortgage business. Launched in 2001, the CUSO has worked with more than 100 credit unions and mortgage CUSOs nationwide to offer its turnkey real estate marketing platform, HomeAdvantage. Through the program, credit union members can search for homes, research neighborhoods, calculate costs of homeownership, connect to experienced real estate agents, and earn HomeAdvantage Cash Rewards. By offering this program to members, credit unions are able to attract, identify and engage more home buyers, and consequently close more loans. To learn more, visit www.curealty.com. 

Credit Union Partner Links
Listed in order of first mention:
Carter FCU http://www.carterfcu.org/
Commonwealth One FCU http://www.cofcu.org/
Credit Union 1 http://www.creditunion1.org/
Credit Union West https://www.cuwest.org/
EECU http://www.eecu.org/
Fort Lee Credit Union http://www.fortleecu.org/
GTE Financial Credit Union https://www.gtefinancial.org/
Harborstone Credit Union http://harborstone.com/
Lafayette Federal Credit Union http://www.lfcu.org/
Launch Federal Credit Union http://www.kscfcu.org/home/
Member Advantage Mortgage https://www.memberadvantagemortgage.com/
Mission Federal Credit Union https://www.missionfed.com/
UMass FIVE College http://www.umassfive.coop/
USF Federal Credit Union https://usffcu.org/
Vantage Credit Union http://www.vcu.com/
Velocity Community Credit Union https://www.velocitycommunity.org/
Verity Credit Union https://www.veritycu.com/
Worcester Credit Union http://www.worcestercu.com/
BCU https://www.bcu.org/ 
Bank-Fund Staff Federal Credit Union https://www.bfsfcu.org/ 
Wings Financial Credit Union https://www.wingsfinancial.com/home  
Wright-Patt Credit Union https://www.wpcu.coop/ 
Partners Federal Credit Union https://www.partnersfcu.org
Apple Federal Credit Union https://www.applefcu.org/
Northwest Federal Credit Union https://www.nwfcu.org/
Tower Federal Credit Union https://www.towerfcu.org/
Affinity Plus Federal Credit Union http://www.affinityplus.org/
Fairwinds Credit Union https://www.fairwinds.org/
State Department Federal Credit Union http://www.sdfcu.org/  

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Media Contact
Rachel Brown
[email protected]
(314) 266-7035