It's 10 a.m. in Brooklyn and time for "screw school" - learning about screw guns and drywall, that is. The concept is foreign to me and 23 real estate brokers as we work on Habitat for Humanity's largest multifamily project in the world.
That's right, the sellers of million-dollar properties were installing drywall in upcoming Ocean Hill-Brownsville condos on July 30. They were part of Brokers Build, a year-old organization that has raised $135,000 for the $13 million Atlantic Avenue complex.
"This is the first time brokers are joining together across company lines in a program," says founder Stan Ponte, president of Coldwell Banker Previews International. "We compete with each other all day, every day, but planning, raising money and building together for this effort has been extraordinary."
The campaign isn't over yet. The group aims to raise $1 million to fund 11 of the 41 condos. The three, four-story buildings will be completed next year. Brokers Build is one of many organizations and community groups to volunteer at the only current project by Habitat for Humanity's NYC affiliate.
Brokers who raise at least $500 are invited to build during outings such as this. Ponte went with a small group to the first one last November, but more participants from New York's top real estate companies showed up on this day. My group was ready to start the day with team leader Annie Ledbury's "screw school."
She began class by demonstrating how to aim and hold the screw gun before pairing us up with a practice piece of drywall. My partner was 63-year-old Claudia Fox, West side office manager of Coldwell Banker Previews International. After an hour of struggling, she lined up the screw, pulled the trigger and pushed it through the drywall and metal. Fox squealed with joy.
"This is so different than doing a sale," Fox says. "I've sold condos in Trump Plaza while in hard hats, but I've never done anything quite like this. It gives you a real appreciation for a trade that requires a lot of experience and practice."
Arcadio Garcia, 25, gets such practice here every Saturday, when he builds with his future neighbors. Habitat-NYC accepted his family's condo application four months ago. Since then, Garcia and his wife are each working off the 300 required volunteer hours. They can't complain, since that time counts as a down payment. Today, he's laboring with the brokers before he heads to his job as a sales support associate at John Wiley and Sons.
"If the volunteers weren't here, we wouldn't be here," says Garcia, who uses more than half of his $32,000 salary to pay rent in Ridgewood, Queens. "This place is going to be a great environment for my 2-year-old son to grow up in."
The Garcia family is one of 36 families already chosen for the 53,000-square foot complex. The one-, two- and three-bedroom units received 8,000 requests for applications. Habitat-NYC is the developer, but that doesn't make it easy for applicants to be selected. The organization examines credit scores, income tax returns and the current dwellings of all prospective residents. A committee then approves or rejects applicants, who must be first-time home buyers.
"We serve families based on need," Habitat-NYC executive director Josh Lockwood says. "People typically think of Habitat building single family homes in a field. We build upward in New York because the demand here is so high for affordable housing."
The purchase price depends on how much money the occupants make. Each unit costs about $325,000 to build. The exact value of each apartment is based on family earnings, and it can be resold for its entire worth after 30 years. In a mortgage as long as that, Habitat-NYC finances payments that are not more than 33% of what the family brings home. Ocean Hill-Brownsville's median income is $22,000.
More complicated numbers awaited us after lunch, when we applied our morning class to a 4-foot-by-9-foot sheet of drywall. Fox and I formed a new group with Halstead senior vice president Alan Pfeifer, 66, and Coldwell Banker associate broker Michelle King, 46. Team leader Lydia Hicks extended her measuring tape along the metal framing and called out where the "studs" or screws needed to go. I wrote down the details in my notepad while having painful flashbacks to high school geometry.
The math got worse. We had to cut out a spot for a wire to come through the wall. Pfeifer marked the dimensions on the white sheet before slicing it with a razor blade. He and King broke off the excess pieces. With Hicks' guidance, we took turns securing the wall with screws.