The purpose of USDA loans is to level the playing field a bit. People who live in rural areas are often too far away from economic growth. When you don’t live in a big city, it might be hard to find a high paying job. To prevent people from all moving into the city, the USDA created their loan program. This way, there will still be someone out on the farms to produce agriculture. If you live in a rural area and want to buy a farm, you have a good chance of qualifying for a loan.

These loans are actually quite flexible and they come straight from the government. There’s no middle man like another bank. You’ll be working directly with the USDA. They will allow you to buy preexisting houses that are for sale in rural areas. You don’t have to start a farm from scratch. But if you want to build a house or a farm, you can do that as well. This option requires you to have a contract for the land before you can get the loan. You also have to have a plan in place with a builder to build your house in a timely manner. The government wants to make sure that you’re actually going to build a house with the money they loan you.

One of the great benefits of a USDA loan is that you don’t have to have a down payment. This enables people from low income areas the option of buying a house without any money upfront. Offering 100% financing gives many more people an opportunity to buy. If people in rural areas are just getting by with their rent payment, they probably wouldn’t be able to buy a house otherwise. With a traditional lender, they would have to come up with a 20% down payment. This enables them to get the house they want without having to save up for a down payment.

The USDA actually bases your loan payments on your household income. They won’t typically allow the payment to be more than 26% of your family’s income. This prevents you from getting in over your head with a big mortgage payment. In addition to these flexible payment terms, they also offer longer mortgages than you can normally find. They offer mortgages with 38 year terms in order to get the payments down to where you can afford them. These types of deals make it possible for a lot of people in rural areas to own their own home or farm.

There is much more information available on USDA loans and rural home loans. If you’d like to find out more about USDA loans, go to USDA loans. If you want to know about rural home loans, go to rural home loans.

Cut to about a week ago when I was hit with a blast of cold water in the shower. My first thought was that the pilot flame had been extinguished thus requiring a relighting. After a half hour without any results, I called the Sears help line. The lady on the line said they would be happy to help me – they could have somebody out to my home in a week. SERIOUSLY? Cold showers and baths for my kids for a WEEK? The answer didn’t change by talking to her manager and her manager’s manager, so I broke down and hired someone independent of Sears.

While talking to the independent plumber who fixed the problem, I found out that they get a ton of business from people who are unhappy with Sears customer service. He said the best thing to do is to have a good water heater installed by a plumber who offers 24-hour emergency service. Looks like he will be getting my business from now on.