“Hop to Run King Trips Right Tear 52 Sway All Go Special X-Shallow Cross H-Wide.”
Translated into my Earth language of choice – English – that means, “Welcome back to football season!” Well, it’s actually a typical play call from what’s known as the West Coast Offense, but to break down this football-speak into something understandable would take quite a bit of time, so I’m sticking to my translation. In all honesty, this play call is more complicated than the launch sequence of my spaceship.
Nevertheless, the start of a new season of football has my eye stalks quivering. To help celebrate the kickoff, some of the myCUmortgage experts put together a collection of fun football trivia as a team building exercise. As we started compiling questions that would test the craniums of even the greatest football fans, we realized that not everyone may be as into football as we are. We wanted to make this fun for everyone, so we created a second set of questions where specific knowledge of the game of football was not needed. For example:
- Which two actors played parts in both the 1974 and 2005 releases of The Longest Yard?
- Which former NFL player is the most recent host of The Bachelor?
- Which NFL team had its quarterback and mascot kidnapped in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective?
I’m sure you have a good idea of what the answers are to these questions – please share them in the comments below and I’ll let you know if you scored a touchdown or missed the field goal. No Googling permitted!
This trivia exercise is an excellent example of recognizing and accommodating individuals with various backgrounds, lifestyles, likes/dislikes and experiences to provide the best possible service. When we apply this to credit union mortgage lending, we generally identify two distinct groups: credit union loan originators and members with various levels of experience in the homebuying process. And when we further apply the specific realizations attained from our football trivia exercise, we recognize that the loan originators’ homebuying lingo is much different than the members’ knowledge of the home loan process.
This reminds me of one of my previous posts titled, Can I Get an Ayyyyyy. If you’re a Happy Days fan, I strongly urge you to check it out. The general idea of the post is that everyone is an expert in their own field. Credit union mortgage lenders know home loans and naturally default to using Mortgagese, as I like to call it. For most members, they may as well be speaking in my native tongue, Amicitian.
We must always remember that while we live and breathe mortgage lending, most members only go through the homebuying process a few times in their lives. We need to break things down into easily understandable pieces and answer their questions in a way that they readily understand the answers. While many members may be waiting on the sidelines to buy a home, this is an ideal time to nurture those relationships and help increase their knowledge of the process and the vocabulary.
Another component of helping make the already complex mortgage process easier for members to navigate is to educate them. There are many ways of accomplishing this through seminars/webinars, marketing campaigns and general communications. An excellent piece to include in your member education is a mortgage glossary.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has the most in-depth and thorough glossary of housing and loan terms that I’ve ever seen. It can be found by Clicking Here.
As you’ll see, it’s not very concise and pretty much equals the length of my flux capacitor owner’s manual. While it’s still a strong reference piece that you can share with members, I recommend something much more concise and user-friendly that you and/or your credit union can easily create. To get you started, here are a few high-level terms I would include:
Adjustable-Rate Mortgage (ARM): A mortgage loan that does not have a fixed interest rate. During the life of the loan, the interest rate will change periodically based on the index rate.
Annual Percentage Rate (APR): A measure of the cost of credit, expressed as a yearly rate. It includes interest as well as other charges.
Closing Costs: Fees for final property transfer not included in the price of the property. Typical closing costs include charges for the mortgage loan, such as origination fees, discount points, appraisal fee, survey, title insurance, legal fees, real estate professional fees, prepayment of taxes and insurance, and real estate transfer taxes.
Contingency: A clause in a purchase contract outlining conditions that must be fulfilled before the contract is executed.
Debt-to-Income Ratio: A comparison or ratio of gross income to housing and non-housing expenses.
FHA: A mortgage guaranteed by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA).
Fixed-Rate Mortgage: A mortgage with principal and interest payments that remain the same throughout the life of the loan because the interest rate and other terms are fixed and do not change.
PMI: This is Private Mortgage Insurance offered by privately owned companies for standard and special affordable mortgage insurance programs for qualified borrowers with down payments of less than 20% of a purchase price.
USDA Mortgage: A mortgage guaranteed by the United States Department of Agriculture. It is often referred to as a Rural Development Mortgage.
VA Mortgage: A mortgage guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
The wonderful thing about putting together a mortgage glossary for members is that it can be customized with terms, words and acronyms frequently used at your credit union and in your general geography. You can also make the definitions as concise or as long as you see fit so that your members fully understand.
As you compile information for your educational materials, remember that just as in the game of football, it’s your job as the home loan quarterback to make sure your team of members understands the plays you’re calling. Doing so will help you march right down the field and score the victory known as homeownership!