From the February issue: When business is slow, some real estate agents hear bells. Wedding bells, that is. Faced with a market where down payments of at least 20 percent are the norm, Canadian agents Patricia Kiteke and Christina Carrick decided to help potential homebuyers by launching a down payment registry.
Launched in January, their site, Home for the Honeymoon, serves as an online wedding registry, allowing guests to use PayPal to make cash gifts to a registered couple. The gifts can then be used toward a down payment on a home.
Kiteke and Carrick, who are based in British Columbia, noticed that many otherwise well-qualified homebuyers had difficulty saving up money for a house. [more]
