Homecare seminar, Part 3: The March of Dimes

There is something called AccessAbility Advanage that is a partnership between March of Dimes (MOD) and Quardrangle Architects.

March of Dimes does “Accessibility Audits” to determine what needs to be done to make a building easier to use for those with disabilities. They can also do the designs necessary for the modifications and they oversee the work that is done. In other words, MOD is a contractor with a ready, available, and exclusive market.

I think you might want to be the next March of Dimes! Or maybe you want to check its website where there is a long list of funding sources for renovators who have customers who need money for home modification.

MOD also works to educate renovators on how to do homecare renovations. If you want to get on to this gravy train, maybe one of its seminars is a good start.

But there is an underlying thread in the MOD speaker’s presentation that is showing me why this industry is hard getting off the ground. It is a market, at least with the MOD, of primarily poor people. I hate to say it, but that’s not a market that renovators think is worth serving. The speaker from MOD says at the end of the day, the money is given to the homeowner to use to hire a contractor and they have a hard time finding the guys with proper skills to do the work. I have a feeling that’s because they are poor and the only pool they have is underground guys.

I just asked a question of the speaker about how the money flows in a project being funded from MOD. In answering the question, she noted that the average homeowner applying for money to modify their homes, earns $35,000 per year.