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All you have to do to save is sign up.

The process for eligible Homes for Heroes participants is that simple, according to Navy Petty Officer First Class David Lyle and wife Frances.

The couple, who completed the purchase of a four-bedroom home in High Point last week, qualified for discounted fees from their Realtor, lender, attorney and home inspector through the national program.

The Lyles found out about the savings options from Bill and Katie Warmath with Keller Williams Realty in Greensboro.

The Warmaths and colleague Chris Pappalardo are among area affiliate members of Homes for Heroes, a Minneapolis-based company formed in 2002 to recognize community heroes after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The program helps military personnel, law enforcement officers, firefighters, health care workers and educators save money on real estate expenses.

More than 200 heroes in North Carolina have received assistance since 2010, when the first affiliate from the state joined the trademarked program, according to Homes for Heroes president Ruth Johnson.

Affiliate members who sign up with the company pay an annual fee that allows them to use the brand and marketing material, and they are assigned a coach to help them plan events to educate homebuyers and sellers, Johnson says.

Gary Smith, a Homes for Heroes affiliate lender with First Mortgage Corp. in High Point, says community education is the current focus, as Triad-area real estate companies have been active only since the beginning of this year. “Awareness is the goal for the first couple of years,” he adds.

Pappalardo, who found out about the program when he became a Realtor last year, has taken a grass-roots approach, including using Facebook and putting up posters in Guilford County schools. He says he is working with nine homebuyers — teachers, law enforcement officers and military veterans — who qualify for the discounts.

Background information is available online. When homebuyers or sellers who work in one of the designated fields sign up at www.homesforheroes.com, the company puts them in touch with an affiliate member in the area, who can then direct the buyers to “friends of heroes,” such as inspectors and lawyers who have agreed to offer program recipients discounts.

According to Johnson and information on the website, savings include:

• 25 percent off the gross commission paid to the Homes for Heroes affiliate Realtor, whether the hero buys or sells or both. The discount is credited as a direct rebate from the Realtor and real estate company.

• Lending fee discounts.

• Title closing fee discounts where allowed by law.

• Reduced fees for home inspections.

The connections to real estate businesses simplified the homebuying process for the Lyles.

“Every step of the way we didn’t have to find the people ourselves,” Frances Lyle says. “Once I made contact with Katie (Warmath), everything else just fell into place.”

In addition to the Warmaths, the couple worked with Darrell Boan of First Mortgage Corp., attorney Richard Foust with Stamey & Foust, and Vince Padgett with Vinspect Home Inspections Inc.

Homes for Heroes saved the Lyles nearly $2,300.

It was a “huge opportunity,” Frances Lyle says. The couple also qualified for a Veterans Affairs loan, and they didn’t have to make a down payment or pay mortgage insurance. “We actually walked away with a check paid back to us.”

The program made it easier for the Lyles to settle in a new community after the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan in March forced them to leave Yokosuka, where David Lyle is still stationed with the Navy. The Lyles are originally from New Jersey, but Frances Lyle chose to move here with the couple’s two children because she has a sister in High Point.

David Lyle plans to continue active duty service, but after moves from New Jersey to Italy to Japan and now North Carolina in the past seven years, the family of four has its own home base.

“We even have a guest room now,” Frances Lyle says with pride.

Sellers can take advantage of the discounts as well, which made a difference for Jeff and Carolyn Adams, who both teach at High Point University.

They also are working with the Warmaths and are scheduled to close on the sale of their home later this month. The real estate commission discount was “immediately beneficial,” Jeff Adams states by email.

“And for as long as we’re registered with the program, we’ll be able to get discounts on things like inspection fees,” he adds. “But I think the real benefit of the program is that it represents a genuine expression of appreciation to the military personnel, firefighters, police officers, health care workers, teachers and other members of the community who do such great work without much expectation of fanfare or public recognition.”

Bill Warmath echoes that sentiment. “It’s a very viable way to give back to the community where we live. We have so many people working in jobs where they are completely selfless. Unfortunately, too many times, their income levels make it prohibitive for them to purchase (a home) within the community where they live.”

He also has a personal stake, as he has two sons in the military, one in Afghanistan. “I would love to think they could get help” from real estate professionals and be rewarded for their service,
he says.

Homes for Heroes provides qualified buyers opportunities, Warmath adds. For some, “it’s the difference between being able to buy and not being able to buy.”