THDA’s Housing Search Database Helps Tennesseans Find Housing Across the State

THDA Builds Rental Data base
Looking for Rental Housing? See This Site

NASHVILLE – March 14, 2013 – (RealEstateRama) — One is all a renter needs, but the TNHousingSearch has 100,000 in the list.

Tennessee Housing Development Agency (THDA) built a website, www.TNHousingSearch.org, and has been inviting property owners to post Tennessee rental properties of all sizes, shapes, locations and costs on the site for each searching by households wanting to rent a home.

“We serve as a resource for housing and housing information,” said Lorrie Shearon, THDA’s chief strategy officer. “If THDA can make it easier to connect a renter with a landlord, we want to try.”

The state housing finance agency partnered with Social Serve, a non-profit organization that combines technology with effective customer service to provide customized housing locators, to build the site, beginning in 2008. There are now 100,000 properties listed in the database across Tennessee’s 95 counties.
Renters can initiate searches on-line by town name, requesting to see a list by bedroom size, or cost, or other requirement. Property owners can post pictures and list useful information such as pet rules, washer and dryer connections, or access to public transportation.

Posting properties and searching for properties is free. THDA covers the cost of the site.

“We developed the site as a service to Tennesseans, or those wanting to move to Tennessee,” said Shearon. “If a family is being transferred here from Oregon, they can check on-line first to plan what properties they want to visit.”

An important feature of the site for property owners, is the ability to “hide” a unit when it is rented so renters are not given property addresses that are not available. At the same time, as soon as a landlord knows a unit will be available, a few keystrokes make it visible to the next searcher. The site can be searched in English or Spanish. For those who want personal assistance, the customer service desk at Social Serve (1.877.428.8844) will create a search and mail the results to the caller. Assistance is available in English and Spanish.

THDA is a political subdivision of the State of Tennessee, established in 1973. THDA is the State’s housing finance agency, responsible for selling tax exempt mortgage revenue bonds to offer affordable mortgage funds to homebuyers of low and moderate incomes through local lenders, and to administer various housing programs targeted to households of very low-, low- and moderate-incomes.

THDA made its first mortgage in 1974. It has provided affordable fixed rate mortgages to over 107,000 households without using state tax dollars. The total contribution of the THDA-related activities to Tennessee’s economy in 2012 is estimated at $745 million.

THDA issues between $250 and $300 million in mortgage revenue bonds annually for its first-time homebuyer program.

THDA created the Tennessee Housing Trust Fund in 2006, using state, THDA and locally-generated match to support programs for households of very-low income, elderly and special needs populations.
More information about THDA is available on-line at www.thda.org.

Leading Tennessee Home
404 James Robertson Parkway, Suite 1200
Nashville, TN 37243-0900 www.thda.org
Patricia M. Smith, Director of Public Affairs, (615) 815-2185