Nonprofit fundraiser to teach new course at real estate school
Tom Bashwiner wants to teach real estate agents how to blend philanthropy with sales. And he’s going to. Starting this month, the development director with Daybreak Youth Services, a 20-year-old nonprofit that helps teens with drug and alcohol problems, will offer a fully accredited course to Realtors as part of their required continuing education curriculum. He’ll teach the three-hour course, titled "Using Charitable Strategies to Sell Real Estate," at the Don Relyeas Real Estate School in Vancouver for $25.
Tom Bashwiner wants to teach real estate agents how to blend philanthropy with sales. And he’s going to. Starting this month, the development director with Daybreak Youth Services, a 20-year-old nonprofit that helps teens with drug and alcohol problems, will offer a fully accredited course to Realtors as part of their required continuing education curriculum. He’ll teach the three-hour course, titled "Using Charitable Strategies to Sell Real Estate," at the Don Relyeas Real Estate School in Vancouver for $25.
The course will educate agents on the nonprofit’s new program called the "Ten Plan," in which home sellers can deed their property to Daybreak for fair market value and then receive payments from the sale over 10 years. Daybreak then sells the property and banks the profit toward its $3.9 million annual operating budget.
"It’s part sale, part gift," Bashwiner said of the program. "And the incentive to the real estate agent is that we at Daybreak would pay their sales commission on the property."
Bashwiner hopes the new class will give agents one more sales tool and benefit both the charity and the seller.
"If you’re an agent, you might say, ‘Well, this is some information I’ve never had in my life,’" he said. "So, we’ll see. It’s a brand new program."
While the course and the program are new to Vancouver, the idea, known as a charitable installment for tax purposes, began in the 1980s at Anderson University in Indiana. When the school needed to expand its property, it offered to buy neighboring homes at market value and pay the sellers in installments over 10 years, which is where the plan got its name. Bashwiner is banking on the model to tap the home market here for funds.
"It’s a very convenient way to close on a home, donate to charity and ensure in annual income for your family over a decade," Bashwiner said.
School founder Don Relyeas has been in real estate for nearly 40 years, and for 10 years ran the Lexington Academy, another real estate school. He said a course in charity such as Bashwiner’s has never been offered to agents.
"They’re all classes on how to help buyers and sellers operate properly in the market," he said. "This will be the only course I know of that offers an option to contribute to charity. It will be one that agents will decide to take based on their personal feelings."
Relyeas was instrumental in helping Bashwiner get the course certified with the state, and said he hopes the new course will develop into an integral part of real estate here.
"I really believe in what Daybreak does for kids and this is just one way I can help Tom get the program out there," Reyleas said.
