New Lease on Life for Homebuyers

Last July, working with William Ryan Homes and Marketplace, Linda and Matthew Serafini were able to afford a new $330,000 four-bedroom house in Lockport. The couple had paid $230,000 in 2006 for a two-bedroom townhouse in Joliet. After their daughter, Mia, was born, they desperately wanted to move into a larger residence, but they learned that their townhouse was now appraised at about $155,000. “We couldn’t sell it for that,” Linda says. “It would be too much of a loss.”

Here’s how it works. Buy a new house from William Ryan Homes, and Marketplace will manage your old home as a rental for up to six years. According to Mike Kalis, the company’s founder and managing partner, Marketplace covers all utilities and handles all maintenance and repairs. You get an agreed-upon monthly check—based on current market rates—whether or not your former residence is leased out. Best of all, you pay Marketplace nothing; instead, it collects a commission from the homebuilder. If after six years your home hasn’t sold, it reverts back to you. Marketplace, which operates in 25 cities, has struck bargains with 166 Chicago-area homeowners—and its work here has earned it an A-plus rating from the Better Business Bureau.

The Serafinis now carry two mortgages, but they receive a monthly rent check that covers the payment on the Joliet property and leaves them with an extra $50. “We didn’t see it as a gamble,” says Linda, who teaches family and consumer science at Schaumburg High School (her husband is a banker). “We saw it as an educated risk. In six years, we hope the real-estate market will be at a point where we can afford to sell the townhouse.”