Misconceptions About Home Affordability Could Be Leaving Families Out of Creating Generational Wealth

In a Nutshell: Buying a house isn’t always a straightforward process, and it can be especially confusing for first-time homebuyers. Greater Nevada Mortgage helps all homebuyers whether they’re in search of their first home or their tenth. The company educates homebuyers on moves they can make to keep costs low. The mortgage provider also works on initiatives to end homelessness in the communities it serves.

If you have ever had to prepare for a big test in high school or college that you weren’t ready for, you may be familiar with an approach to studying called “cramming.” When you cram for a test, you try to learn a massive amount of information in a short period of time. It’s not a strategy I’d advise you follow regularly, but, if you do opt for a cram session, I recommend you have plenty of coffee (or your preferred caffeinated beverage) on hand.

People in the market for new homes may not be too familiar with the world of mortgages. Mortgages are loans that people use to buy houses and other types of property. If you’ve found your dream home and need a mortgage, you may wind up cramming to learn all you can so you can get your mortgage application approved. 

Greater Nevada Mortgage is a mortgage provider that helps homebuyers in California and Nevada access the lending products and services they need to make the most of their homes. We spoke with James Anderson, Greater Nevada Mortgage’s President, to learn about the company and its commitment to the communities it serves. Greater Nevada Mortgage is a subsidiary of Greater Nevada Credit Union.

“We do all the standard mortgage products to get people into homes, including refinancing programs,” Anderson told us. “We also originate home equity lines of credit for the credit union, and they service them in their consumer lending departments. We service first mortgages that we sell to Fannie Mae and to our credit union, and that’s been a source of revenue for us, particularly over the past couple of years where things have been tight in the industry.”

If you ‘re not familiar with the name Fannie Mae, you may be wondering who she is and what she’s doing with mortgages. But Fannie Mae, in this context at least, is actually a government-sponsored entity that purchases mortgages from lenders so they have more money to lend to other borrowers.

Though Greater Nevada Mortgage serves both the California and Nevada markets, Anderson said the company is more active in certain areas of Nevada.

“Northern Nevada is really our bread and butter and where we’re the most established,” Anderson said. “We do have a sales center in Las Vegas as well because there’s so much opportunity for us to differentiate ourselves in that market. I also have a couple sales centers in other parts of the state, so we’re kind of spread out to reach more markets.”

Greater Nevada Credit Union (GNCU) offers services and banking to anyone who lives or works in Nevada, with locations across the state. To increase the visibility of its services, Greater Nevada Mortgage places loan officers in many of GNCU’s branches. 

Greater Nevada Mortgage’s loan officers work alongside GNCU staff to build relationships and gain business referrals. Anderson told us loan officers also work territories surrounding their offices to generate loans and revenue opportunities. 

Not everyone has time to meet a mortgage lender at a coffee shop or to stop by a branch to discuss lending products. Greater Nevada Mortgage’s call center attends to customer leads from phone calls and online inquiries. 

When the demand for a good outpaces its supply, prices for the good will likely rise. In recent years, the demand for houses in the areas Greater Nevada Mortgage serves has outpaced the supply of homes.

“There are a lot more people who’ve moved into communities we serve than we ever planned for, and it’s impacting housing and schools,” Anderson told us.”A low inventory of houses is a big problem here, just like it is across the rest of the country. Builders around here can’t build houses fast enough to meet demand, and they’re not building homes in the price ranges that first-time homebuyers can afford.”

First-time homebuyers may be surprised to learn about all the expenses that come with buying a home. Yes, a mortgage helps you by allowing you to buy a home today and pay for it over the course of many years. But, in most cases, you’ll be in better financial shape if you can afford to make a down payment on your home.

Down payments are a lump sum you pay toward the cost of your home, and they lower the amount of interest you’ll pay over the life of a loan. The larger the down payment, the less principal remaining on the home that’s subject to interest. If you make a down payment of at least 20% of a home’s selling price, you can also avoid other pesky expenses, including private mortgage insurance.

“Down payments are the biggest challenge first-time homebuyers face around here,” Anderson told us. “Assistance programs don’t necessarily level the playing field, but they can help bring people into the game. We tell people all the time that there are lots of ways to get into homes, so just ask us because if you go looking online, you’ll find so many answers your head will spin.”

One of the reasons first-time homebuyers can feel overwhelmed when attempting to secure a mortgage is because the process is packed with confusing terminology and insider-lingo most people aren’t familiar with. After all, you only buy your first home once.

Greater Nevada Mortgage educates new homebuyers to help them avoid common misconceptions about buying homes. Anderson told us the company can assist borrowers with accessing lending programs that make the most sense for them and their financial circumstances.

Greater Nevada Mortgage learns the ins and outs of different mortgage-assistance programs so they can share their expertise with homebuyers. In talking with Anderson, we learned that organizations in the mortgage industry define first-time homebuyers differently than we would’ve expected them to. He told us that the definition of a first-time homebuyer is someone who hasn’t owned a home in three years.

“We pride ourselves on telling the stories of people that never thought they’d get into a home due to assumptions they’d made about the process,” Anderson said. “And we’ve had some great stories over the last few years, including one about a person who grew up on a reservation and never thought they’d be able to afford a home of their own.”

Home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) allow you to borrow against the amount of equity you have in your home. People can use HELOCs to fund all sorts of things, including home improvement projects and healthcare expenses. 

Anderson told us Greater Nevada Mortgage has seen record levels of HELOC production in recent years as people have increasingly tapped the equity in their homes to fund additions.

The company educates people on how to use HELOCs and their versatility.

“A home equity line of credit doesn’t cost you anything unless you use it,” Anderson told us. “As long as you’re disciplined and pay down some of your principal when you have a balance, then you’re going to be in a good position. It’s a great product for a person who’s decided to stay in their home and wants to add on to it or enhance its value.”

Young people who haven’t bought a home before may wonder if it’s worth the hassle. Anderson told us that, although renting a home may be cheaper than buying one, buying a home allows people to begin building generational wealth.

Lenders use credit scores to gauge a borrower’s likelihood of repaying a loan. Greater Nevada Mortgage works with borrowers who don’t qualify for one of its mortgages to help them improve their credit scores. The company connects prospective borrowers with credit agencies to help them rebuild their credit, if necessary.

“We help people put together a plan for buying a home because we’re not just in this for the sake of securing loans — we want to build a relationship,” Anderson said. “We’re part of the communities we serve, and we want to deepen those bonds through our efforts to educate people about mortgages. We’re agile enough to move with the market and take advantage of programs that maybe we couldn’t access if we were inside the credit union.”

In the hustle and bustle of daily life, sometimes we take for granted the things that are essential to our well-being. 

According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, about 30% of the population of people experiencing homelessness in the U.S. is made up of adults and children in families. Greater Nevada Mortgage created a program called Keys to Greater to donate funds to local charities to eradicate homelessness, especially youth homelessness.

Anderson told us the company donates money to the program each time it closes a first mortgage, and its goal is to work with organizations that help people get off the streets to a place of self-sustainment where they can support themselves and their families.

The program started in 2021, and it has raised more than $200,000 during its existence.

“The culture of a credit union really gets you involved in the community,” Anderson told us. “And it really feels good to be part of that community instead of just doing business with it.”