Lots of cities states and counties got a slow start in doling out the stimulus dollars they received a year ago. Some have done a pretty good job, though, at picking up the pace and moving forward at a reasonable clip. Clayton County, Georgia, is one of those, and its experience is instructive.

The county received  $9.7 million in stimulus funds in April 2009 as part of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP), which helps communities buy foreclosed properties, rehabilitate them, and sell them. About 250 local governments and all 50 states have received some $2 billion total for this program through the stimulus. The county didn’t purchase its first home until March and faces a deadline of September 4^th by which to obligate all the funds. That's a pretty scary schedule.

One step that’s helped to move things forward there has been an interesting approach toward the  asset-management teams, which do the work of selecting, buying, refurbishing, and selling the homes. These are paired teams of general contractors and real estate listing agents. NSP Manager Mickie Williams chose to wait to form these teams because she knew that the county would have a much greater chance of success if it was not trying to manage the home rehabs and resales itself.  “The easiest way we could make this work,” she says, “was to use all of the private sector to be our partners.” Moreover, Williams wanted contractors to be able to rely on the market expertise of the listing agents and vice versa.

But the county wasn’t simply twiddling its collective thumbs while waiting for the teams to form. It took time to educate and train buyers’ agents in the area on NSP requirements for potential buyers as well as the benefits of the program. (That may have been the county’s most successful work: all of its home sales have been made by buyers’ agents.)

Williams and her staff also went out to the communities asking locals where they were having housing foreclosure and abandonment problems. Establishing rapport with existing homeowners was particularly important because one stricture of NSP is that homes must be resold for no more than cost. That means, as Williams explains, that the program can actually bring the home value down, which might not make local owners happy. By working with area homeowners, Clayton County staff nipped objections in the bud, and also spread word that refurbished homes would soon be available in the area. They also held block parties each time homes went back on the market—inviting the whole neighborhood. Many homes were eventually purchased by the friends and relatives of existing local home owners.

Williams also brought lenders into the fold, educating them about how the program works. That, in turn, sped up the turnaround when it came time for new homebuyers to secure loans. Williams says, “It is like running an assembly line here."

In the four months between March and June, Williams’s teams have purchased 57 homes, sold all but 11 of them, and has obligated 53% of its money, putting them right on pace to beat the September deadline.

Success? Not quite yet. Williams emphasizes that the goal isn’t just to sell these houses, but to make sure the homeowners stay in them. To that end, each new buyer goes through 12 hours of training in the inherent challenges of home ownership—not only in terms of financial requirements but also tips on home maintenance and neighborhood expectations.

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