{"id":1024,"date":"2007-02-09T19:07:25","date_gmt":"2007-02-10T02:07:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=1024"},"modified":"2007-02-09T19:21:43","modified_gmt":"2007-02-10T02:21:43","slug":"home-gain-helps-the-hoi-polloi-get-happy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1024\/home-gain-helps-the-hoi-polloi-get-happy\/","title":{"rendered":"Home Gift Helps the Hoi Polloi Get Happy"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had a chance to talk to Mark Sennott, President of Home Gift<\/a>, this week. Home Gift is an affinity marketer much like MBNA. MBNA<\/a> started as a credit card marketing division of the old Maryland National Bank. Their model was to offer credit cards to alumni association members that were “branded” as the official card. MBNA then rebated a portion of their income to the alumni association. Joe College felt good about racking up the old debt because he was supporting State U.<\/p>\n

It was a wildly successful idea<\/strong>. It was so successful that MBNA spun-off from Maryland National Bank in 1991 in a public offering.. They grew to a 12% market share of all credit card customers before being bought by Bank of America in 2005.<\/p>\n

Enter Mark Sennott. His company offers a consumer access to a network of real estate agents and mortgage companies who are willing to “rebate” a portion of their fee to the consumer. Portions of that “rebate” are earmarked for a certain charity. Home Gift takes an administrative fee. It’s relocation company meets Redfin wrapped up in the warm and fuzzy blanket of philanthropy. Check out Mark at his web log<\/a>. He’s passionate, engaging, and claims to be an avid reader of Bloodhound Blog (so he can’t be all that bad).<\/p>\n

I found out about Home Gift some two months ago. I was trying to help a little Carmelite Monastery in Massachusetts<\/a> make American Tower Company<\/a> honor a contract. ATC found out that the land the monks bought for their monastery was the perfect location for a wind farm and pulled out of the sale. The monks are suing the cell tower behemoth for specific performance. I posted “Don’t Mess with My Monks<\/a>” on Active Rain and was referred to Mark by the Prior of the Monastery.<\/p>\n

Mark’s doing what so many real estate professionals deplore. He’s rebating fees to the consumer and charging a toll for access to the customer. Customers, however, like the idea. They deal Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had a chance to talk to Mark Sennott, President of Home Gift, this week. Home Gift is an affinity marketer much like MBNA. MBNA started as a credit card marketing division of the old Maryland National Bank. Their model was to offer credit cards to alumni association members that were “branded” as the official […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1024","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-real-estate","8":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5990,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/5990\/the-tangled-web-of-tarp\/","url_meta":{"origin":1024,"position":0},"title":"The Tangled Web of TARP","author":"Brian Brady","date":"December 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"It's deja vu, all over again. Republic Window and Door announced it would be closing its doors next month.\u00a0\u00a0 Republic lost over $5 million YTD and $12 million in 2006 and 2007.\u00a0 Bank of America suspended its line of credit.\u00a0 Faced with the prospect of going it without any money,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7344,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/7344\/the-subprime-bank-of-america\/","url_meta":{"origin":1024,"position":1},"title":"The Subprime Bank of America","author":"Brian Brady","date":"March 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Remember those impetuous, ne'er do well subprime borrowers and those greedy subprime lenders?\u00a0 Writing about them is sooo... 2007 but I'm happy to report that both greed and reckless abandon are alive and well today.... ...at Bank of America. Remember Ken Lewis?\u00a0 He's that sober-faced, bespectacled CEO of the Charlotte-based\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Investment"","block_context":{"text":"Investment","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/investment\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3317,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3317\/farewell-countrywide-how-the-bank-of-america-merger-will-keep-wells-fargo-as-the-mortgage-origination-leader\/","url_meta":{"origin":1024,"position":2},"title":"Farewell Countrywide: How The Bank of America Merger Will Keep Wells Fargo As The Mortgage Origination Leader","author":"Brian Brady","date":"July 2, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"WARNING!\u00a0 Long commentary about the Bank of America\/ Countrywide merger ahead: Bank of America Press Release from July 1, 2008 (italicized) with my commentary: CHARLOTTE, N.C., July 1 \/PRNewswire\/ -- Bank of America Corporation today completed its purchase of Countrywide Financial Corp. to create the nation's leading mortgage originator and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12341,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/12341\/first-time-home-buyers-tax-credit-the-morning-after-the-governments-gift-to-new-home-buyers-a-house-immediately-worth-8000-less-than-they-paid-for-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":1024,"position":3},"title":"First time home-buyers tax credit, the morning after: “The government’s ‘gift’ to new home-buyers? A house immediately worth $8,000 less than they paid for it.”","author":"Greg Swann","date":"June 22, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"From the National Review Online:Things are looking worse on the housing front, with a severe drop-off in existing home sales following the expiration of the home-buyer tax credit. It's hard to overstate how stupid this policy was. The government marketed it as a measure to boost residential real-estate prices by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Mother"","block_context":{"text":"Big Mother","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/big-mother\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10203,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/10203\/the-net-effect-of-government-intrusions-in-the-real-estate-market-is-to-create-a-standing-wave-of-foreclosures-amid-steadily-declining-home-values\/","url_meta":{"origin":1024,"position":4},"title":"“The net effect of government intrusions in the real estate market is to create a standing wave of foreclosures amid steadily-declining home values”","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 1, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"This from my Arizona Republic real estate column: As I write this, the entire real estate industry is on tenterhooks, waiting to see if the $8,000 first-time home-buyers tax credit is going to be extended. 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The bill signed late Wednesday reverses a decision made earlier this month by state regulators to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1024\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}