Why the “Farm Bill” Can Save the USDA Home Loan By Rich Obermeier
AUGUST 2013 n Texas Mortgage Professional Magazine n
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On Oct. 1, 2013, more than 900 rural communities, along with millions of low-income rural families, will lose their eligibility for what is often their only source of federal affordable housing assistance. On June 10 of this year, the Senate passed the Farm Bill, a bipartisan bill that will reduce the national deficit, save taxpayers money and will abolish outdated government programs, while consolidating and streamlining others, allowing for rural American communities to be modernized and updated for the 21st Century. The bill's proposed programs and initiatives would allow for greater accessibility of USDA programs to small, rural communities nationwide. The Rural Housing Section 502 loan program, which is primarily used to help low-income individuals or households purchase homes in rural areas, are advantageous in providing opportunities for homeownership for families living in rural communities. These loans can be used to build, repair, renovate or relocate a home or to purchase and prepare the building sites. This also includes water and waste water programs that will assist rural dwellers with well water improvements, and it will also assist those areas that need water improvements and clean up. The Farm Bill includes language to ensure that rural communities that are currently eligible for USDA’s rural housing programs and would lose eligibility due to USDA’s use of 2010 Census data are able to continue their eligibility through 2020. The bill raises the population limit used to define an area as rural from 25,000 to 35,000. To maintain rural eligibility, communities would still need to be rural in character and have a serious lack of mortgage credit for lower and moderate-income families. Communities should not be excluded from rural housing programs because they have outgrown an arbitrary cap that has not been adjusted to reflect demographic trends. It is important to realize that the bill is revenue neutral. It does not expand funding levels for rural housing programs. It updates the pool of communities eligible for its services. Without Congressional action, the current definition of "rural"—for USDA Rural Housing programs—will expire, leaving these families without the help they need to access clean, decent, and affordable housing. The USDA program continues to be the only source of non-military 100 percent financing in the marketplace. In 2012, before the Refinance Pilot Program was released in March, 97 percent of Rural Development (RD) production was purchase money and after its release, 92 percent of total production are purchase transactions. All 50 states currently have areas of eligibility. USDA offers some the lowest rates of any loan and you will always have a fixed interest rate in the market. Even today, many lenders don’t actually have much experience in approving USDA loans and take a “learn as you go” approach, which isn’t always great for homebuyers. Truly understanding the USDA eligibility requirements and how to approve these loans is important. For this reason, it is important for homebuyers to work with a mortgage company that “gets it” when it comes to USDA loans. Doing so will insure that their loan will close seamlessly and under the quoted terms. With more than 25 years in the mortgage industry, Rich Obermeier, branch manager for GSF Mortgage Corporation, has worked with some of the largest mortgage companies in the county developing retail and wholesale channels. Rich has assisted in developing and implementing operational protocols for sales managers, originators and loan processors. In recent years, Rich has developed the USDA Rural Development Product in multiple states and locations. Rich may be reached by phone at (262) 957-8901 or e-mail robermeier@gogsf.com.
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How to Position Yourself for Your Next Career Move Develop a written vision for your career spanning a Have you thoughtfully short-term, medium-term planned out your next and long-term horizon By Dr. Marty Martin
career move? Most people have not. While they may have a vague idea of what their profession will look like in the future, they aren’t sure how to position themselves for optimum growth. But because the work world is changing so rapidly, planning your path and positioning yourself for the next advance is a critical step all professionals must take. Of course, since no can foretell the future, planning often involves ambiguity—and that’s where the challenge lies. Most people have a low tolerance for uncertainty, so they don’t bother creating a plan. And while it’s true that neither you nor anybody else, not even experts, can predict the future, you can map out possible scenarios. Doing so increases your ability to adapt to changing situations and helps you see future opportunities others may miss. The following are some suggestions for making your plan as realistic as possible so you can properly position yourself for future success.
Conduct research on the current and future job market You can find many online resources to help you better understand which professions and industries are growing, which are shrinking, and which are evolving into something different. One is the Occupational Outlook created by the Bureau of Labor Statistics www.bls.gov/ooh/). The other is O*NET Online (www.onetonline.org/), which is a partner of the American Job Center Network. Both of these resources will give you an accurate overview of a variety of professions, including both current and future trends. Use this information as a way to gauge job growth (or possible shrinkage) in your industry.
Read magazines that focus on future trends There is an entire profession focused on future studies in which people called Futurists analyze trends in particular areas and make educated predictions about where we as a society are heading. Sometimes, the predictions focus on a key area or profession, such as healthcare or robotics. Other times the predictions are more general. The World Future Society (www.wfs.org) is the leading futurist organization. In addition to their Web site and blog, they publish a magazine called The Futurist. Read some current issues or subscribe to it so you can keep up-to-date on upcoming career and industry trends.
Using the information you gather about the probable future of your profession or industry, combined with what you know or personally see going on around you, create a vision for what your career could look like in five years, 10 years and 15 years. Granted, as you extend the timeline, you increase the level of uncertainty, but the goal is not perfection. The goal is to give you a vision of what’s possible so you can start positioning yourself for that future vision today.
Map out more than one path to get to your destination as depicted by your career vision With your vision of what reasonably could happen, write out what you deem the most logical path to reach that vision. Then, write out an alternate path that is just as viable, but perhaps not what you deem as ideal. For example, maybe in one path you continue working in your current organization, helping to shape the future of your position. And perhaps in an alternate path you open your own firm, go to work for a competitor, or become an outsourced employee to your firm (as a freelancer or consultant, for example). Feel free to come up with several paths to the vision. Of course, you have no idea which path will actually transpire. But when opportunities present themselves from any of the outlined paths, you’ll be able to recognize them and act on them because you’ll have already done some planning. As a result, you’ll find yourself a step ahead of everyone else. Sometimes it’s those little steps that position you the best.
Engage in scenario planning by fully detailing the various paths to your vision The more detail you can give the various paths you outline, the better. While there’s no need to go overboard with a 50-page document, you should detail each path as much as you can, including timelines, new skills or training you’d need, resources that would help you at key junctures, etc. Some people naturally think in pictures and graphs, so they create a series of diagrams. Other people think in the narrative form. Regardless of your preferred style, you need to capture the information, record it, document it, share it, and then continuously refer to it and update it as things change.
It’s your future … plan it! While all this may seem like a lot of work for something that may or may not transpire exactly as you plan, it realcontinued on page 59