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If you are having difficulty saving for a down payment on a new house, you should look into the USDA Rural Development Loan. USDA home loans provide mortgages with no down payment for rural homebuyers. It is ideal for people with modest incomes who do not wish to live in a city or metropolitan setting. This initiative has assisted many people who would not have been able to acquire a home otherwise. Read on to find out about the eligibility criteria and how you can apply!

What are the Eligibility Criteria for a USDA Loan?

To be eligible for the USDA Guaranteed program, you must:

• Be a permanent resident of the U.S.
• Be constructing or purchasing a home in a rural location.
• Have a household income that falls within the program’s guidelines for your area.
• Have a minimum credit score of 640.
• Live in the house as your main residence.

How Do You Apply for a USDA Loan?

If you satisfy the USDA loan qualification requirements and are ready to buy a property, follow these steps:

Contact a USDA-Approved Lender

If you want to construct a house, locating a USDA-approved lender is a good place to start. Working with a lender who specializes in the rural home program can have a significant impact on prospective homeowners.

Get Prequalified

Once you’ve decided on a lender, the next step is to become pre-qualified. Pre-qualifying for a USDA loan is a straightforward process that offers an estimate of what you can pay and whether you are eligible for the program. During this phase, your lender will examine your affordability and notify you of any red flags that may prevent you from securing a USDA loan.

Find a House in a USDA-Approved Neighborhood

After you become pre-qualified, look for a property in a USDA-eligible neighborhood and put in an offer. Your requalified letter demonstrates to sellers and brokers that you are a lender-verified USDA buyer who is ready to close.

Sign a Purchase Agreement

After you’ve found the ideal home, you’ll collaborate with your lender and agent to submit an offer. Your lender will request a USDA loan appraisal as soon as you and the seller sign a purchase contract. The appraiser will make certain that the house is move-in ready and that it fulfills USDA requirements. If anything does not match industry standards, it must be corrected before the closing.

Complete Processing and Underwriting

After you have signed the contract, an underwriter will check your information and the file to ensure that your application and supporting papers are authentic and correct. Because the USDA program employs a two-party approval system, the underwriting procedure for USDA loans may take longer than for traditional mortgages. The loan file will first be reviewed by your lender to make sure it complies with all USDA standards. They will then certify the file, either automatically or manually. 

Close the Deal

When both the lender and the USDA approve your loan file, you’ll get a “clear to close,” which indicates you can proceed to closing day. You’ll sign the loan note and other documents on closing day and receive the keys to your new residence.

If you’re unsure if you and your proposed property are eligible for a USDA loan, contact us today!

Do you have chevron-printed toss pillows? Is your favorite food lasagna? Are you rocking baby Yoda merch? Do you wear golf polos when you’re not golfing? These are tell-tale signs you, my friend, are a major cheug.

What’s “cheugy”?
According to the Urban Dictionary, cheugy (pronounced chew-gee) is the opposite of trendy. It was something that was popular but cookie-cutter and unoriginal a few years ago. A cheug is a person who follows these slightly out-of-date trends.

There’s no shame in being a cheug. Most of us indulge in some cheugy things, and that’s a little of what makes talking about it fun. Cheugy people wear their likes and dislikes openly – if they like The Office, they’ll wear Dunder Mifflin shirts and drink from a “That’s what she said” mug. If a cheug likes baby Yoda, Harry Potter, Friends, Minions, Disney, owls, rose gold, sparkles… they decorate their lives with it.

Is your home décor cheugy?
The way you dress, the way you text, how you act on social media, and even how you decorate your home can be considered cheugy. Do you have motivational quotes as art? Have you painted your walls gray? Below is a list of home design items considered cheugy. How many of them do you still have in your home?

• Quotes as art. Like, “live, laugh, love”, “bless this mess”, “good vibes only”
• Chevron print on bed sets, toss pillows, rugs, walls
• Shiplap (unless it’s historic and not a remodel)
• Simple geometric Moroccan rugs (unless they’re authentic)
• Chalkboard walls
• Subway tiles with dark grout (again, unless they’re in a historic home)
• Farmhouse-vibe without being an actual farmhouse
• Kitchen pottery with words like “butter” on a butter keeper and “tea” on a mug
• Rolling barn doors instead of regular doors
• Kitchen islands that are a different color and style than the other cabinetry
• Cheeseboards as kitchen decorations
• Mason jars as plant holders or drinkware
• All-white kitchens
• Wood crate tables, shelves, and furniture
• Gray painted walls
• Marble-topped accent tables
• Macramé plant hangers and wall hangings
• Brass and rose gold
• Hanging Edison lightbulbs or lighting fixtures with exposed bulbs
• Keep calm and ____ on prints

What do you do if you or your home are cheugy?
Nothing. If you like your home’s style or your clothes, keep them. In a few years, they’ll be back in style anyway.

Going forward, avoid trends – especially very hot ones you see everywhere. Instead, buy well-made items you like and find unique decor as you travel, at an antique store, or at a garage sale. Don’t feel pressured to keep up with what’s hot. If you like baby Yoda, sparkly water bottles, and gray walls, that’s totally ok. Your home should be a place that makes you happy.

We’ve gone through endless online cleaning tips to find ones we’re certain you can easily incorporate into your routine to get your home extra clean. Our only requirements were that the cleaning tip was quick to do, didn’t require any special equipment, and made an impact on how clean our house feels. Only the best-of-the-best and most useful tricks have made it into our field-tested tips.

Remove mold and stains from your toilet water tank

Citric acid occurs naturally in fruits like lemons and limes. It’s often used as an active ingredient in kitchen and bathroom cleaning solutions. You can find it wherever home canning supplies are sold.

To clean your water tank, make sure the water is turned off and flush the toilet to drain as much water as possible. Pour a bucket of warm water into the tank and add about ¼ cup of citric acid. Let it sit for an hour, then turn on the water and flush.

Freshen your garbage disposal
“Something I learned is to make sure to clean the rubber cover over your disposal. The bottom part gets dirty with food,” says Alexandra. Run baking soda, vinegar, and hot water through the disposal to neutralize the odor and clean out the remaining food.

Keep your mattress clean
Dan found keeping his mattress fresh and moisture-free was easy using common household baking soda. “Shake baking soda on your mattress and let it sit for a while. Then, just vacuum it up!”

Baking soda works wonders as a cleaner and deodorizer. It’s gentle, non-toxic, and an alternative to expensive store-bought solutions. Sprinkle a little on your cutting board, scrub, and rinse to freshen it. Add ½ cup of it to your load of laundry to boost colors and help remove stains. There are endless ideas for ways to clean with it.

De-stink your frontload washing machine
Ever notice the little hatch on the bottom of your machine? It’s how you access the machine’s filter. Pry open the hatch, drain the water from the tube, then pull the filter out to clean it. If you haven’t done it before you’ll probably find all sorts of gunk that’s causing your laundry (and frontload machine) to smell musty.

Stephanie learned to keep her machine fresh by wiping the door, soap drawer, and rubber gaskets with a little water and vinegar. She recommends this video for a quick tutorial on how to get your frontload machine stink-free.

Dust fan blades
Spray the inside of an old pillowcase with a cleaner, then place the whole blade into the case. Now, wipe the top of the blade with the case and the excess dust will fall into the case, not onto you or your floors. “I always do this when I’m cleaning my bedroom fan now. It hangs over my bed, so this trick keep my fan and my bed clean!” says Jessie.

Don’t forget about baseboards
A lot of dirt and pet hair builds up on and alongside your baseboards. Dedrean found that going over his with the vacuum every time he cleaned his floors helped keep his home clean. Another easy trick is to run a dryer sheet along your baseboards to repel dust for a few months.

Clean the outside of your fridge
We all know to clean our shelving and drawers, but Pete says cleaning the outside of your fridge is just as important. “The old ones get especially dusty, so pull it out and vacuum the coils on back as well as the area under the fridge.” Newer models have coils under the fridge. Pete recommends cleaning them once in a blue moon, but experts recommend doing it every six months.

The benefit to getting rid of all that dust and pet hair? It helps the coils push out heat and keep your foods colder.

Still want more tips?
For those of us who can’t get enough tips, Amber recommends almost everything on Go Clean Co’s Instagram page where they go over ways to clean almost everything using basic household cleaning products like powdered Tide, Windex, Dawn dish soap, white vinegar, and scrub brushes.

Half of us knock on wood, wish upon a star, and won’t open an umbrella inside. We’re superstitious. And a home with murder, death, and ghosts are definitely bad feng shui. But how do you know if a house you’re considering buying has had any of those spooky occurrences? What does the seller have to disclose?

A peaceful death in the house

It’s usually not necessary for a seller to disclose a peaceful death unless the buyer asks. Keep in mind that a vast majority of us (80%) hope to die at home. So it’s not always a bad thing to have someone have died in the house. A peaceful death in a home is fairly common (20% of people die at home) and not something most states require a homeowner to disclose. California, South Dakota, and Alaska are a little different though. In these states, they do have to disclose it if it happened within the past three years. Everywhere, however, some types of death (such as by AIDS) cannot be disclosed.

If the death was directly related to the house, as example, if someone was killed by falling down the basement stairs because there was no railing, almost every state will require it to be disclosed (even after the safety issue was corrected).

Violent death in the house

Murders and suicides are a different story. Most people don’t want to build a life where tragic things happened. In the case of a violent death, the property is considered stigmatized. Like a physical defect such as water or fire damage, a violent death is something that can affect the home’s value. Sellers in many states are required to disclose the events.

See what must be disclosed in your state: nolo.com/state-seller-disclosure-requirements

Ghost in the house

If a home is known to be haunted – either in the community or nationally, it’s treated differently than if the homeowner only feels like it’s haunted. Famously haunted houses are stigmatized and its value and potential to sell is impaired. These types of hauntings should be disclosed. If an owner has seen a few strange things during their time in the house, but it has never been officially documented, they’ll probably keep this knowledge to themselves.

What can you do?

In general, the rule is “buyer beware” when looking to purchase a property. Do your own research. Ask questions. And talk with your real estate professional if you have any concerns. Companies like diedinhouse.com can even provide you with a report on deaths, drug activity, fires, and other information you may want to know before you buy.

If you have any questions about getting a loan for a spooky property, talk to your local Mann Mortgage loan professional. They live in your community and can help you find the neighborhood with the best Halloween parties. Find your local loan officer: mannmortgage.com/find-a-loan-officer.

Mann Mortgage announced the winners of its annual loan officer awards program, the Champions Club. Membership in the club is based on how many loans the individual has closed in their communities over the year. This year’s winners come from offices across the United States and represent the best of the best.

“These men and women have done an incredible job. They’re all small hometown lenders and they’re working directly with borrowers. They’re creating personal connections and really getting to know each borrower so they can suggest the right loan product for their needs,” says Cassidy O’Sullivan, chief strategy officer.

Award recipients are broken into two categories. Champions Club and ChairMANNs Elite.

Champions Club members are our top 20% of performer. This year, they are:

• Tony Reynolds of Kalispell, Montana
• Bernie Dittenhofer of Hood River, Oregon
• Betsy Rispens of Helena, Montana
• Brady Angelos of Allied Mortgage Resources in La Grande, Oregon
• Brody O’Connor of Homeseed Home Loans in Bellevue, Washington
• Chad Cole of Missoula-South, Montana
• Christa Nadeau of corporate loans
• Colin Myers of Monument Home Loans in Arlington, Virginia
• Cory Henderson of Reno, Nevada
• David Dohman of Wet Lynn/Lake Oswego, Oregon
• Davis Kempton of Silver City, New Mexico
• Doug Olson of Kailua, Hawaii
• Jake Van Cleave of Redmond, Oregon
• Jennifer Bunton of Great Falls, Montana
• Jodi Krause of Life Mortgage in Longview, Washington
• Jonathan Hughes of Lewiston, Idaho
• Juan Baltazar of Homeseed Home Loans in Bellevue, Washington
• Justin Blodgett of Missoula, Montana
• Keith Valentine of Kalispell, Montana
• Lara Hawkinson of Clatskanie, Oregon
• Matthew Brown of Eugene, Oregon
• Matthew Fleming of Las Vegas, Nevada
• Michelle Fiala of Allied Mortgage Resources in Baker City, Oregon
• Mike Hogan of Chimney Rock Mortgage in Spokane, Washington
• Mike Yutzy of Las Vegas, Nevada
• Narda Lopez of Idaho Falls, Idaho
• Salvatore Viti of Las Vegas, Nevada
• Sarah Bender of Homeseed Home Loans in Bellevue, Washington
• Shane McChesney of Kalispell, Montana
• Steve Thurston of Great Falls, Montana
• Tanya Torres of Eugene, Oregon
• Toby Gilchrist of Whitefish, Montana
• Valerie Mills-Smith of Allied Mortgage Resources in La Grande, Oregon
• Vickie Tuskan of Virginia, Minnesota

And the ChairMANN’S Elite winners, who represent the top 5% of our loan officers:

• Angelina Rice of Life Mortgage in Longview, Washington
• Carolyn Cole of Polson, Montana
• Chris De Leon of Homeseed Home Loans in Bellevue, Washington
• Corey Hill of Helena, Montana
• David VanScoyk of Safford, Arizona
• Deb Criddle of Idaho Falls, Idaho
• Isaac Morris of Stafford, Arizona
• Julie Lapham of Missoula, Montana
• Mike Flores of Low Cost Mortgage in Colorado Springs, Colorado
• Rob Fleming of Missoula, Montana
• Robert Martinson of Monument Home Loans in Arlington, Virginia
• Ru Toyama of Monument Home Loans in Arlington, Virginia
• Ryan Howard of Las Vegas, Nevada

Congratulations to this year’s winners. Each receives travel, lodging, and meals for themselves and a guest at the next award ceremony location in addition to a selection of other perks.

Join Mann Mortgage’s award-winning team. See job opening at mannmortgage.com/careers.

The first step in determining whether your house is haunted is trying to debunk what’s happening. Older homes, failing appliances, and living pests are sometimes to blame for odd occurrences. Start by looking into the most common home issues that are mistaken for hauntings.

Easy to debunk

Doors slamming shut
Check for drafts. Try opening and closing a few doors and windows to see whether they create a breeze or pressure that can open your doors. You should also grab a level to check whether your home is off a few degrees. It’s possible gravity is pulling your doors shut. For windows, check to make sure they’re being held open securely.

Knocking on walls
A lot of older homes have plumbing or heating elements that make noise. Pay attention to when the knocking begins – is it right after a toilet is flushed or the heater kicks on? You can also contact an exterminator to look for mice, raccoons, or other animal infestations. They might be responsible for noises as they walk through your home or get stuck in your walls.

Strange smells
If you smell something odd in your house, stop and take a moment to figure out where it’s coming from. As a human, you’ve got a better sense of smell then you likely realize. You can recognize thousands of smells, even when they’re practically imperceivable. Dead rodents, old food, outdoor smell, even scents left by previous homeowners can make their way into your nose. If you smell something odd, pause, breathe deep, and try to follow the scent to its source.

Objects falling from shelves or walls
Like doors slamming shut, this might be due to a breeze. Check for open windows and try closing and opening doors in the room where the object was location to see if it creates airflow that might knock the object down. Vibrations could also be to blame. Do large trucks regularly pass by your house? Sometimes even heavy footsteps can be enough to jolt an object.

Harder to debunk

Dark shadow forms
This one is a little harder to blame on common household problems. If you see an odd shadow, remain calm and investigate where you saw the shape. Perhaps there’s an old water stain on the wall or shadow being cast by a car’s headlights outside.

A weird feeling
Check for carbon monoxide in your home. It’s a colorless and odorless gas produced through burning wood, propane, and other fuels. Being poisoned by it often has symptoms we’d associate with a classic haunted house: headaches, paranoia, a sense of dread, weakness, confusion, and more. Make sure to check your carbon monoxide detectors are working or ask a professional to check for leaks.

Learn more about carbon monoxide and its impact on you: cpsc.gov//carbon-monoxide/carbon-monoxide-fact-sheet

A house in disarray
If you come home or wake up to a house that’s been ransacked – cabinets opened, contents spilled, chairs upturned, install a camera. Your pet or an animal intruder may be causing the mess, but it’s more likely a human doing it. Sleepwalkers or intruders may be to blame and catching them on camera is your best way to know for sure. Set up a camera to see whether you can catch the disruptor.

Next steps

If your house needs improvements more than it needs a ghost hunter, Mann Mortgage may be able to help. Your local loan officer can go over your options for a cash-out refinance or other way to get funds to make needed repairs.

Find your local Mann Mortgage loan officer: mannmortgage.com/find-a-loan-officer/

If you can’t debunk the weird things happening in your home, share your experiences with your roommates or family members. A Newsweek poll shows 45% of Americans believe in ghosts, so you’ve got a good chance they will take your experiences seriously.