USDA Loans: Why It’s a Great Option for Most New Mexico Home Buyers

(Transcript Snippet): “Tracy:

Let’s talk about USDA loans.

Tego:

Yes. Yes. So we

Tracy:

Keep diverting from the top. Well,

Tego:

You had, you had the opportunity to bring all the team into one of the, the, the top lenders here in Albuquerque. It was just a, it was just part of the ongoing at education and training that we do for everybody that, that works with us. Learning about how the loan process works. I mean, as a realtor, you know, it’s interesting. We would all think everybody understands that. Well, not really,

Tracy:

You know, we know it enough. Yeah. Right. But that’s not our specialty. We’re not the experts in lending. That’s why we partner with great local lenders whenever possible. Right. So we had 15 or so of our sales team at primary residential mortgage for a, in depth, how the lending process works. You know, we talk to home buyers and we say, Hey, let’s get you set up with the 15 minute phone call with great local lender in 15 minutes. Pretty much you can have a good idea of what you qualify for, what, what monthly payment you’ll be comfortable with, what the other costs might be. And and we’re, we’re, we turn ’em over to great lenders to hold their hands. So we, we really we’re, it was very eyeopening com. We know why local lenders are important, right? Yeah. Versus somebody getting online and getting an online lender that’s out of area. And it was eyeopening for us on a lot of bullet points that we didn’t really know about, like why it’s so important to have that underwriter sitting locally, that you can just talk to

Tego:

About the underwriter is the person that looks through all the stuff and verifies that, that the person qualifies

Tracy:

Stuff, as in, you know, Verifi verifies your income, your job, and yeah.

Tego:

Taxes, taxes

Tracy:

Looks at the whole package that the lender puts together to make sure that it’s complete, that this person qualifies for the loan. But it was, it was really a great opportunity to get the nuts and bolts and, and a lot of offers these days. You know, it’s the agent, the buyer’s agent is saying we will order the appraisal within two days a contract being accepted. And we’re like, is that realistic? Right? And, and so a lot of those questions got answered. It was really great. But one of the things that came up is talking about the USDA loan, which is a great loan for a lot of new Mexicans. You know, it’s a, it’s a hundred percent loan for borrowers, right? So there’s only two loans out there where you don’t have to put any money down the VA.

Tracy:

Yep. Which is great for our veterans great program. And the USDA. Now the USDA might still have some closing costs. And there might be ways a local lender can also get those covered, but in general, it’s a hundred percent for the loan. And then there’s some closing costs like your first year homeowner’s insurance, a couple months of tax property taxes, prepaid, but what’s great is there’s some income guidelines. Of course you can’t make over a certain amount. I think it’s 115% of the median income for the area, but there’s a lot of New Mexico that is covered by the USDA Loan. Yeah. So Albuquerque is not

Tego:

So USDA is all about, you know, rural development in this case. Right, right. And so what, they’re, what they, they help basically guarantee these loans. And so if you look at New Mexico, most of New Mexico is eligible for this program except,

Tracy:

You know, Albuquerque Rio, Rancho, Santa Fe, Clovis, I

Tego:

Don’t CLO crus crus. And I think some, some dense parts of Farmington, but it’s, it’s really just, you know, the, the main Metro area. So if you get out to Edgewood, Morty, Los Luna you know, some of these communities that we do consider bedroom communities of, of the Albuquerque area, you may qualify for one of these programs not, they don’t work on manufactured homes, correct. Only stick built,

Tracy:

Stick built, so to speak has to be built onsite. Can’t be an offsite built home.

Tego:

So it’s a good program. And, you know, if somebody’s out there, they’re a buyer and they’re looking at, you know, one of those areas and you’re working with a lender, they should bring that up. If they’re a local lender, cuz they should know that those programs are available. Right.

Tracy:

It does have, have a little bit higher credit score requirement. Okay. In addition, because you know, they’ve got no money outta pocket basical basically to get into a home. So they wanna make sure that they’re more credit where they they’re they’re solid. Anyway, that’s the USDA loan.

Tego:

Got it.