Center for REALTOR® Development 114: Center for REALTOR® Development: Down Payment Assistance Options in Action with Skyler Lemons
Welcome to NAR's Center for REALTOR® Development podcast. I'm Monica Neubauer, your host. How many of you would like some more help getting buyers into homes? Um… I think everybody's hand would be raised right now.
Even my guest is saying that, and he's going to teach us how to do that! Our guest today, Skyler Lemons, is known as Chicago's Down Payment Grant King. He is one of NAR's 2025 Class of 30 Under 30 award recipients. Skyler is helping people buy real estate who didn't think they could buy real estate or didn't know that they had the money to buy real estate. Welcome Skyler!
[1:03] Skyler Lemons is an NAR 2025 30 Under 30 Award recipient. He is helping people buy real estate who didn't think they could buy real estate or didn't know that they had the money to buy real estate. Welcome Skyler!
[1:27] Skyler thinks that every agent should know and have in their arsenal what Skyler has discovered in the world of down payment assistance. He's on a mission to empower more agents to do this.
[1:53] Skyler is known as Chicago's Down Payment Grant King. He's a real estate broker with Exit Strategy REALTOR®, and he's helping first-time and low-to-moderate-income buyers access home ownership with minimal up-front costs. In 2024, Skyler helped secure over $250K in financial assistance.
[2:20] Born and raised in Chicago, with a financial degree from Howard University, Skyler combines data-driven strategy, branding expertise, and a deep knowledge of the city to empower buyers and agents alike. He has 18K Instagram followers and 1,700 leads generated this year.
[2:43] Skyler's mission is simple: bridge the home ownership gap through education, strategy, and community impact.
[3:17] Skyler was licensed on December 26th, 2020. He was 24 years old. He started to work his sphere of influence. All his friends of his age told him, "Skyler, you know this sounds good, but show me some apartments. I'm ready to rent an apartment."
[3:42] Skyler realized that the biggest barrier for himself and a lot of his peers wasn't the job or the credit score; it was the down payment. Most did not have the capital to buy, and it was also the middle of a pandemic.
[4:09] Interest rates were low, and banks did not have any incentive to have these types of programs because of low interest rates. Initially, Skyler did not sell a lot of real estate. He did not know how to bridge that gap.
[4:23] Once interest rates started to rise, Skyler saw that banks started to come out with different programs. The main problem between the programs and Skyler's community was the information gap. A lot of people don't know that these things exist.
[4:44] Skyler shows people where the money is. He explains to people that if they buy a $250K property, they'll need about 6% to close, including down payment and closing costs. He suggests talking to a lender who will give $5K toward a down payment and $7 or $8K toward closing costs.
[5:08] He goes out with buyers already figuring out a huge piece of the financial puzzle.
[5:13] Skyler believes a lot of agents are afraid of the numbers. He reminds his clients that they need to call the lender, but he helps them paint that picture of what they are going to try to accomplish. That gets them excited.
[5:32] Once they have pre-approval and secure the $5K for the down payment, and the $7 to $8K toward the closing cost, it solves a big piece of the puzzle for them.
[6:17] The first opportunity fell into Skyler's lap. An agent had connected him to a lender that had this product. At the closing table, he realized that his client was getting a check back. Skyler started talking to different lenders and learning their requirements for credit score and income.
[6:59] Skyler talked to clients about which lenders might work best for them in their circumstances and why. Cook County has a $25K grant program, but after running the numbers, sometimes a lender can do better for the client without the Cook County grant.
[9:07] Skyler is always painting that picture. If an agent starts painting the picture for people, the agent will get a lot more callbacks because people will feel that the agent can take them to the next step. Skyler is an educator for his clients, right off the bat.
[9:44] Skyler is an introvert, so he had to learn how to sell as an introvert.
[10:42] Skyler always asks his clients how they found him, and nine times out of 10, it's on Instagram or TikTok. He uses Instagram as his digital business card, and he's always posting.
[11:09] Skyler came up with a homebuying guide. On the back of it were over 30 down-payment assistance programs in the state of Illinois. He leveraged that value to get people to download the guide. A hundred people downloaded it.
[11:31] Only ten of those people were very serious at that point. That only led to making three deals. Skyler came to learn that he had to nurture clients.
[11:42] If you go to Skyler's Instagram and comment the word home on any of his posts, an AI assistant will respond to your comment and DM you with a link to join Skyler's down payment grant newsletter.
[12:01] Once you opt into his newsletter, you get an email with Skyler's guide on buying a property with little-to-no money down. From there, you get on a 36-touch email nurture campaign. That keeps a lot of people on his Calendly. People can make appointments with him at any time. [12:24] The email newsletter overcomes clients' fear and objections. For most people, buying a house is new. It's one of the biggest purchases people are going to make in their lives. There are some fears with that. After some emails and the buying guide, people call Skyler ready to buy.
[12:53] They become a client when they call Skyler, ready for the first step. That's Skyler's funnel. At the top of the funnel, he provides value by email. At the bottom of every email, there's a call to action to make an appointment.
[13:40] Skyler doesn't just say, "Let me help you in real estate." He has a niche. "Let me help you with your down payment." If down payment assistance is not your niche as an agent, Skyler suggests pulling up your MLS sheet and looking at your deals.
[14:05] Your deals tell a story. You've built a skillset in one area versus another. Start thinking about what the pain point of your client was when they bought that multi-family, or when looking for that apartment, or buying a luxury home.
[14:24] The services you're going to provide in that space may look a little bit different. Maybe you have some concierge services. Maybe you call the moving company and schedule the move. Whatever it is that you offer, speak directly to that pain point and how you solve it.
[14:45] On Instagram, you only have five seconds to capture somebody's attention. If you capture that attention, you may have 30 seconds more. Get to the point. They don't care about fluff. Get to the house and tell people how they can get it today if they give you a call.
[15:29] In Skyler's market area, a lot of state and government money is available for homebuyers. IHDA has downpayment assistance programs. Chicago is one of the most segregated cities in the U.S. It's easy to map where the low-to-moderate income people are.
[16:09] A lot of areas in the South and West corridors in the city are low-to-moderate income areas. Most of Skyler's business is on the South Side. A lot of the properties he showcases on Instagram are on the South Side. He is attracting a buyer who usually qualifies for a program.
[16:42] When Skyler doesn't use a state program because of its stipulations, he likes to use Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) lenders. To do more lending in low-to-moderate income areas, they have in-house down payment assistance programs without as many stipulations.
[17:19] The closing costs go to the client at the time of close. If rates drop and they want to refinance, they can do so.
[18:02] Skyler also works with the VA program, but often the CRA program works better for his clients.
[19:26] Skyler says there are about five ways to get real estate clients: content marketing, referrals, paid ads, affiliates, and face-to-face events. Look up areas where there are more renters than buyers. Run an every-door direct mail campaign.
[20:36] A lot of Skyler's programs specify that a buyer is qualified for a program based on the address being in the low-to-moderate income area. That's how it's done in Chicago. In other markets that may not be as segregated, they may have different qualification requirements.
[20:58] If you are in a market similar to Chicago, you probably could go after renters with direct mail or local events.
[21:12] Monica suggests becoming known for a weekly meeting at the library, offering education.
[21:39] In Chicago, there are a lot of triplexes and quadplexes. Skyler tells clients that in those cases, down payment assistance doesn't apply.
[21:53] For three- and four-unit properties, lenders require the buyer to have either a three-month or a six-month reserve in the bank account at the time of close. The reserve may be a 401(k) or a savings account.
[22:35] If you don't have the reserve money, you may hone in on a two-unit because you can still access the down payment assistance programs, and there is no reserve requirement.
[23:13] If you buy a two-unit, most of the time, you have to live in one of the units for a year. Then you can move out and rent both units and maybe have a small cash flow.
[24:13] Skyler's Mom is Marki Lemons Ryhal, a real estate keynote speaker and the host of the Drive with NAR podcast. Coming into the business, Skyler says there are big shoes to fill.
[24:26] Marki is not actively practicing now; she is on the education side. When she was in the field, she used to sell 70 to 80 houses a year. Starting in the business, Skyler learned how many moving pieces there are in real estate. His mother did it all without nearly as much technology.
[25:40] Skyler asks, Who do you know, selling 70 to 80 houses a year as a solo agent? That's who she is. Every idea Skyler comes up with, he shares with his mother, and she takes it and amplifies it for him. They have a really good working relationship.
[26:23] Monica is excited for Skyler. She knows his Mom pretty well. Seeing Skyler find his niche and grow his business is exciting, helping so many people find a home. Monica believes in what Skyler is doing, and she loves that he shared it on the Center for REALTOR® Development.
[27:03] Skyler's final words of advice: In this business, it's easy to think about what you don't know and what you don't have, and get the shiny object syndrome. We have all the tools that we need already to do everything.
[27:23] If there's something you feel like you don't know, it's already on the internet. Somebody has already figured it out. Put some time into some deep learning, be consistent with it, and I think that you'll be surprised.
[27:34] Skyler is automating his business systems with AI. He has had to go through the flow and learn things to get to this point. When you feel like you're not doing enough, take the moment to realize that we already have everything that we need. Just spend $20 a month on ChatGPT.
[28:02] Get on ChatGPT and figure out how to get through what it is that you need to get through to generate more business.
[28:09] Monica says, Treat it like a business. Get some education.
[28:29] Tyler suggests getting to know loan officers can be a waste of time. You won't do business with a lot of them. Save the lunch for when you have a loan officer selected, and work out with them how to maximize your business.
[28:59] Figure out some questions to ask. A lot of people have credit challenges. Skyler points people to agencies that offer free credit counseling. He's putting together a guide of free resources for home buyers.
[29:21] Start asking your loan officers what they have available, and what the income requirements, credit requirements, and capital requirements are, if there are any. Are they stipulated to buy in a particular area? You can do that via phone call and email.
[29:43] Put that information in a database so when you're talking to a client, you have all this information pulled up, and you'll see this client is a good fit for this loan officer. That will save you and the loan officer a lot of time. Loan officers tell Skyler he sends so many qualified people.
[30:00] When somebody tells Skyler they have a credit challenge, he's already deferring them to something else because they're not ready to talk to the loan officer. He directs them to a credit counselor for free through a housing agency.
[20:28] Once you start closing deals, then have lunch with a loan officer who works with you, to see how you can multiply.
[30:35] Monica says, I love all your system suggestions. So many great takeaways! Thank you so much, Skyler Lemons, for sharing your wisdom with us today!
[30:46] As I hope now, you all start learning about what's happening in your area and what grants are available that you're going to plug this in. This is a great way to help homebuyers find financing. Go, find the program, then find the buyers. That's going to help everyone.
[31:05] In our other episode on grants, I'm interviewing Cameron Kang, from D.C., and he's going to talk about what he's doing over in his area, because everywhere has different programs.
[31:18] We're so glad you joined Skyler and me today to learn about this. I'm Monica Neubauer for the Center for REALTOR® Development, and I hope you go out there and sell some houses! Thank you very much!
Tweetables:
"What I've discovered in the world of down payment assistance, I think that every agent should know and have in their arsenal. I'm on a mission to empower more agents to do this." — Skyler Lemons
"If you start painting the picture for people, you'll get a lot more callbacks because people will feel like, OK, he showed me how to do that, but then I need to figure out how to do this. And they'll just naturally feel like you're the best person to take them to the next step." — Skyler Lemons
"I am an introvert, so I had to learn how to sell as an introvert." — Skyler Lemons
"When I don't use a state program because of its stipulations, I like to use Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) lenders. To do more lending in low-to-moderate income areas, they have in-house down payment assistance programs without as many stipulations." — Skyler Lemons
"If there's something you feel like you don't know, it's already on the internet. Somebody has already figured it out. Put some time into some deep learning, be consistent with it, and I think that you'll be surprised." — Skyler Lemons
"Save the lunches for when you have that loan officer selected, and you've figured it out, so that you can go to lunch and talk about how you are going to maximize it. That's what you should spend your lunch time doing." — Skyler Lemons
Guest Links:
Skyler Lemons, Associate Broker at Exit Strategy Realty
Additional Links:
Learning.REALTOR — for NAR Online Education
Training4RE.com — List of Classroom Courses from NAR and its affiliates
CRD.REALTOR — List of all courses offered
Host Information:
Monica Neubauer
Speaker/Podcaster/REALTOR®
Monica's Facebook Page: Facebook.com/Monica.Neubauer
Instagram: Instagram.com/MonicaNeubauerSpeaks
Guest Bio
Skyler Lemons
My goal as a REALTOR® directly aligns with Exit Strategy Realty's mission to provide strategic counsel, creative solutions, ethical advice, and dynamic services while empowering lives through real estate. I'm passionate about securing the best deals for home buyers and sellers in the Chicagoland area. I create authentic long-term relationships while assisting clients with purchasing a dream home or selling property.
Born and raised in Chicago as a sixth-generation entrepreneur, I have developed a wealth of knowledge on our City's history as well as its future plans. My extensive knowledge of the Chicagoland real estate market spans across all of our 77 communities. As a second-generation REALTOR®, I have cultivated a network of REALTOR® over the past 20 years to help me identify properties for buyers and find new owners for sellers.
Equipped with best practices gained from my successful experience as a consultant to Fortune 500 Companies and a finance degree from Howard University, I combine predictive analytics and proven methods to structure winning offers while selling homes quickly. Through exceptional communication and transparency, clients trust that I will find the perfect opportunity at the right price. When people choose me to assist with this important and sometimes stressful aspect of their lives, they receive my undivided attention.