Helping Veterans with Homes

A new home is being built on Long Island. Not really big news right?  Well, it should be; Using volunteer labor and supplies donated by his fellow builders, Mark Baisch of Landmark Property intends to have the home ready for occupancy by April. The price tag will be $100,000, although Mr. Baisch put the actual market value of the house "well over $300,000."

There is just one condition for any prospective buyer: he or she must be a veteran returning from Iraq or Afghanistan.

The house is one of four in Suffolk County that Long Island Home Builders Care is planning to build for soldiers coming home. Mr. Baisch donated the $80,000 property to Long Island Home Builders Care, a nonprofit group that is the charitable arm of the Long Island Builders Institute, which has more than 500 builders and re-modelers. The house is one of four in Suffolk County that Long Island Home Builders Care is planning to build for soldiers coming home.

Lois Fricke, the director of development for Long Island Home Builders Care, described the homes for service personnel as the newest mission of the builders' group. The house can be customized to the needs of the veteran.

In Nassau, Long Island, work is under way on a similar plan "that will substantially include veterans housing," said Carl Schroeter, the director of Nassau County Real Estate Planning and Development. Some of the homes will be refurbished for returning veterans.

Nassau is also working with Homes for Homecoming Heroes, a nonprofit group in Jericho, to acquire a vacant lot in Hicksville for a new below-market-rate single-family home for a returning veteran.

Larry Sklar, the director of Homes for Homecoming Heroes, said the house, to be built with volunteer labor under professional supervision, would be the first of a succession that he intended to build for veterans across the Island. Veterans will be required to put down only 1 percent, versus $700 on houses costing $9,000 each in Levittown, the large postwar planned community.   What a great idea, let's hope it catches on.  

 

Karl Hess, Ocean County Real Estate