- 21:56 – 2024 program details $40 million budget with expanded eligibility
- 22:56 – Teachers, medical professionals, firefighters, law enforcement now eligible
- 23:08 – Lock in your spot now before funds run out in 9 weeks
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CORWYN:
So good morning, good morning, and great morning, you guys. Welcome to another fabulous episode of Exit Strategies Radio Show. Hey, I’m your host, Corwyn J Melette, broker and owner of Exit Realty Lowcountry group in beautiful, beautiful North Charleston, South Carolina. So hey, this is your first time listening to this show you sir or ma’am, are in for a treat because our mission here is very simple: to empower our community through financial literacy and real estate education. Guys, we’re legacy building, that is what we do. So I’m super excited about today’s episode we have one of our recurring guests, we usually is so fortunate to get them to land him maybe once a year, to come and talk with us about what he frames in talks about as being one of South Carolina’s greatest secrets, so to speak. So we have with us today none other than who I call who I’ll refer to as the man Claude Spurlock with South Carolina housing. Claude, how’re you doing today?
CLAUDE:
I’m doing great Corwyn. Hope you’re doing well.
CORWYN:
I’m incredible. I want to thank you so much. It’s always humbling to be able to land you on our show. I know everybody’s after you. Because you are looking at you are Road Runner this time a year?
CLAUDE:
Yeah, definitely. I’d say Well, I’m almost in probably 15 cities before so within the month of April, and I’m gonna be on vacation the first week of April. So only three weeks to do all that. So it’s gonna be crazy.
CORWYN:
You have it. It’s similar to having the magic dust or what have you. So you get to go sprinkle this around all over the state. And just change people’s lives is literally like magic pixie dust. If you look at it from the perspective that I do, It is awesome. What you guys do. So if you don’t mind, give our listeners high level overview who you are, what is you do? Let’s delve in.
CLAUDE:
Well, as Corwyn said, I’m Claude Spurlock. I’m the Business Development Manager for SC housing. And I’m basically the sales rep and the trainer, I go around the state and tell the people about what we offer at state housing because most people don’t know and are surprised when they hear about what we have. Currently, we’ve got our main program that we have called the homebuyer program. And that program has $8,000 in downpayment assistance, the rate today on a government loan is six and a quarter fixed rate, which is well below market in a lot of cases, and has a 620 minimum credit score, if you’ve not, but the lower your credit score, the higher rate you pay on a mortgage. So we don’t have that requirements. So whoever comes in with a 620, or better, they get that six and a quarter fixed rate, which is really great and $8,000 on top of it. So you can buy a house up to 225,000, and will pay your full down payment for a house up to 225,000. Now you can buy a house up to 395. But obviously, you’d have come up with a difference, of course, and in your area, like in Berkeley and Dorchester counties, the for one or two person in the household, the incomes 120 – one – five. Three or more can make 141 870. And we haven’t got the new number for HUD yet, which hopefully we’re gonna go up sometimes in late spring. So we’ll get those new numbers, those may see some changes those numbers in the near future. But it’s a great program here again, that people just don’t know about your debt to income ratio is 45%. And on the basic program that you get can go conventional, but it does have a 640 credit score on conventional with a six and a half percent rate set of six and a quarter. We also have several programs that are available in the area. One is called county first. Now that’s a rule initiative. So some rural counties had to look on our website and see there’s 23 counties, instead of getting 1000 get 8500 and you get a quarter percent off that rate. So he’s pay a 6% rate instead of six and a quarter on a government loan and get 8500 and downpayment assistance that also applies to someone’s 100% disabled, if you yourself, your spouse or your children that live or your parents will live with you. Anyone household is 100% disabled, we’ll give you $8,500 to buy your home and a quarter percent off the rate. And let’s see we also have a voucher program. If you are on a rental assistance voucher and think you’ll never be able to own a home. We have a program that will also give you 8500 caught up something right on FHA low. If you currently have a voucher for to pay your rent, you can go to your housing authority, get them to approve you to use your voucher for buying a home and then for 15 year if you can get that voucher to help make your house payment every month. A lot of things out there that you just don’t know about. Then going on to another program we have permit a home advantage. Now that’s a non bond program. No first time homebuyer requirements, no in house price limits. So you’re going to buy a house up six 700,000 on that program. Now the income. because incomes 124,000 Max income, but just the borrower’s income, unlike the bond program, it’s total household. This is just the borrower’s income. And that one comes with either three or 4% downpayment assistance. And if your credit score is not great, and you’re over income for the month, that’s a great program because we have a zero awning downpayment assistance, and some I didn’t say on the bond we have just opened up I keep forgetting about mentioned that on our bond program. If you don’t need downpayment assistance, but still want to use our program and qualify, you can get a 5.75 fixed rate if you do not take our downpayment assistance. That is a huge seller.
CORWYN:
Hold on, say that one more time. You can get what?
CLAUDE:
If you don’t need our downpayment assistance, but you still qualify for our bond programs, income house price and that kind of thing. Even a six and a quarter fixed rate, you get 5.75 fixed rate for 30 years.
CORWYN:
Mind blown.
CLAUDE:
That’s right. Yeah. Wow. I mean, this is great.
CORWYN:
So Claude, you guys have a massive suite of programs and don’t want to stop maybe towards the latter and work back up through some of them. Because not every real estate professional one, not every real estate professional knows about and understand state housing, our relationship is spanned for a very long time. Most things when they think downpayment assistance, they start thinking to be blunt, they think low price points, agents that are interested in that kind of stuff. And oh, I don’t know how to do that. They don’t want to do the brain damage, if you will, to understand how things work and more importantly, how to help their consumers take advantage of these options. So what has been one of the biggest challenges you think that you’ve seen in administering this program around the state?
CLAUDE:
The main thing is people just don’t know about it and don’t understand it. When you hear state housing, you think about low income housing, vouchers, big apartment complexes, and things like that, and we do some of that, we do. But our biggest thing is our homeownership. And we have that always available out there for you to get a home. And that $8,000, the bond program is always available for you to use. And people shy away from it, they think there’s a lot of paperwork, there’s a lot of things, we only have three forms that you have to fill out at the lenders office. Even at our office is that the lenders office, and they do all the paperwork, they close the loan in their name, and we bought after closing. So we’re not even involved in that part of it, except for a quick check to make sure that they comply with the income and house price limits and things like that. But it is our biggest promise people here again, shy away from it, because they’re scared, there’s too much work is gonna take forever. And all most of our loans closed within 30 days, we had three that close in 17 days from ratification of contract to closing and 17 days. As long as the lender gets it to us, we’re good.
CORWYN:
So it really is just misinformation which we have, unfortunately, a tremendous amount of that. Social media unfortunately, just makes it rappin. And people believe what they see there versus what they verify elsewhere. It’s impressive to me, but that’s the biggest thing, we have an opportunity if our listeners guys are able to get the information today, quote unquote, from the source, you ain’t got to be in line to well and wait for the water to be passed to you. And by the end, a lot of us don’t spilled and you might not have anything in the cup by the time it gets to you. You have the opportunity today to be at the well and get the information firsthand, so Claude, the voucher program. So you know, I’ve done a few of these two guys over the years. And one of the challenges that we’re seeing is that a lot of housing authorities locally, do not,are not offering the voucher purchase program. I know that least one of the counties where I am, one of the agencies, and I think a few others actually do not offer it. But let’s talk about it. So for those that do, and those that are with maybe at a housing authority that they do offer this, talk about that how does this program? What does this offer someone who may otherwise think the homeownership is completely out of their range,
CLAUDE:
as long as you’re getting that voucher every month, you’ve got it for a minimum of a one year. And in that county, you can go to that county and ask them cannot convert this over to a voucher. Like I said, a lot of counties won’t do it, but what you know, a lot will in South Carolina, and so they will put you through 12 or 15 hours of in person training. They make you save up 1% of the sales price as reserves. And then after you’ve completed all that work, they will give you a certificate they’ll say you’ve completed all the paperwork. You can now buy a house and you can get say $1,000 a month I’m just making up a number $1,000 a month towards your house payment. So then you’ll take that letter that you got and then take it to the who will let one of our approved lenders and they will put you through an FHA loan, they will use that thousand dollars as additional income. So you must have a good 25 or 30,000 in your own income coming in each month each year, unless the voucher to see when you can qualify for, then they will tell you, you can buy a house valued at 150,000 or 100, whatever it might be. And then you’ll find your realtor which are in theirs right here. We have a realtor right here for that. And he’ll find you a house that in that price range, go back to the lender, they’ll do all the paperwork, they’ll close that loan. And after you close the loan, you will make your payments to SC Housing. And then the whatever county is doing the voucher will send their check to us each month. And we’ll marry that with your payment you send each month to make your house payment. And you have to recertify every year just like you do a regular voucher and things like that. And the whole concept of this is, as you make more money, your voucher will start going down at the end of 15 years, you will make your full payment. That’s the concept of it. And so it’s a great program, we’d only do maybe 30 of these a year, statewide, because most people don’t want to do the work. I hate to say that, but a lot of them, a lot of them don’t have the credit score, and I’m hate that you can get with the lender and they can help you get your credit score up. A lot of the realtor companies will have somebody that can put you with to get your credit score up. But please go to a HUD approved, someone that does credit counseling, don’t just go on a sign on the side of the road and says call me and I’ll fix your credit. Don’t fall for that because they’re gonna take your money and not do anything for you. So please make sure on that. But actually, there’s a lot of different ways that you can get into a house. And this is one of them.
CORWYN:
One of the things that you touched on in there. And then this also, unfortunately, keep that same vein of misinformation, you guys are not doing a lot of these, because what happens is lenders and agents, they just don’t know about them, most of them don’t. And then so they don’t know how to advise someone. And then on the other side of it, the lender is probably looking at this and saying I don’t want to have to work, you don’t need the vouchers, let’s not even worry about it or what have you. And they never even explore it, which means that the consumer who may have heard about you maybe about you was paying three, four or $500 a month, that time they are working on being more self sufficient. But that little bit helps. So why not do the work to utilize the voucher and make the purchase even though you have to recertify even though it may change as you go forward, which it should the idea and the concept is to help make it more attainable for you now. So that’s another reason why you want to make sure that you’re working with lenders who are approved with state housing for this program, but also agents who’ve taken the training and have that certification as well because you guys give a certification to lenders, as well as realtors, correct.
CLAUDE:
Correct. If you go to one of our in person training classes, you realtors and lenders get on our website as an approved state housing loan officer or realtor. And you stay there for two years by going to that class. And we have those three or four times a year we have large group training classes. And if your office so you have at least 10 people in your office, I can come into your office and do a training class just for you. I just want to leave 10 people because coming from Columbus, I want to drive two hours and have one person there. But I’ll be glad to come in and do it and I do first time homebuyer seminars on Saturday, a lot of times people set those up and I come in and talk about state housing for 30 minutes doing that I was down at the event last Saturday for a 10 mile something I know that I can’t remember down in Mount Pleasant and great of them get 70 Something people there or anything like that, just let me know. And if I can fit my schedule, I’ll be there.
CORWYN:
Let’s get into some of the other programs, the basic program, and I call it a basic I refer to it as that way because it really is just the bread and butter so to speak, is just your homebuyer program and you guys do this conventional FHA, you have a VA offering and USDA. So you can put downpayment assistance on I won’t purchase downpayment assistance, but assistance on because on a VA and FHA USDA loan, there is technically no downpayment requirements so that money can be used for other expenses, all the items in the transaction, correct?
CLAUDE:
Yeah, for closing costs, prepaid items, downpayment, whatever you need it for, and I can own a VA loan, it’s a little stricter because of what you can pay on a VA loan and what you can’t, but you can use whatever you can for those costs, and then the balance just reduce the loan amount. That always helps to reduce that payment a little bit no matter what. But yeah, we do a lot of VA loans a lot of USDA that are 100%.
CORWYN:
Your processing again is not longer and this again all this misinformation quad because consumers for years and years, I’ve had the explained to people that agents that working with sellers and have no idea about state house and how it works. And you bring them a contract that is the state housing contract and they automatically know because that’s not like going totake too long and all these other misconceptions because they don’t understand, or because someone may have had a bad experience years ago, working with a lender who really wasn’t committed because a lot of lenders don’t want to do state hours.
CLAUDE:
Even they’re set up to do them. Yes, exactly. That happens a lot, unfortunately. But yeah, that’s one of the problems is people, our turn times in our office are normally 24 to 48 hours for initial review. And one day on the conditions if their files not complete, and they send it back in. So it’s very efficient, everything is automated. When I started, I hate to say this, the first Vaughn deal I worked on in 1979, when I worked for saving the loan, it took 90 days plus to get a loan approved at state housing. Now, two days, and you normally have a review or an approval in two days. So it is very efficient, very quick, all automated, we don’t even get used to have copies of everything we do. It’s all sent in through our portal. And they are done very quickly. So that is not here. Again, I said earlier, most of our loans closed like 30 to 35 days is how most of our loans close.
CORWYN:
Now, that is so interesting. And that is part of the challenge, because the agents who might have been practicing back in the late 70s, or the 80s, they remember that so they still have this stuck in their mind. And then they give that to, and I’ll say, they may not be given to the agent of today, but they gave it to the agent that may have started when I did 20 years ago or so. And they’re still carrying at full width at times, which I’ll use every now and again, still bump into him because I have this old saying about real estate and most realtors will finally fall over him and leave he at the closing table trying to get one last deal. And before the last day, it’s time to come on home. And they’re still practicing. And they still have that mindset or that remembrance. And they’re still applying it today. Even though everything is completely different. Your term times are impressive. And most lenders or lender knows your turntable and just pick up the phone and call and say or send an email Hey, what’s your average, all you got? Thank you guys even have a site for lenders that keeps up with the term times from submission to quote unquote, approval or review.
CLAUDE:
It doesn’t tell them exactly, it just tells him which, um, three to five business days to be on the same side. But here again, we’re on a 24 for two hours, about 98% of the time on all the approval. So it goes very well. And just another quick story about people remember. In 2004, we had to close down for two weeks because we ran out of funding and waiting two weeks. I still hear today, that realtor goes that I had four deals that fell apart because y’all didn’t have any funding for those four days, two weeks, and I’m going really one time and 20 something years I’ve been in the housing authority, we were closed down for two weeks because we didn’t have funding. And that’s what I hear about all the time still. So it’s just like real.
CORWYN:
That’s hilarious again, 20 years ago, and you got to remember this one thing for 20 years ago, but forget everything that has happened and how I got this you guys have been been ever since then. So Claude, let me ask you this, what is that thing that you just want people to know about these programs, about this offering? And being I’d be remiss if I didn’t just at least get pretty close or closer to this new program release is coming up pretty simple.
CLAUDE:
Main thing to remember is that state housing here, we always have funding, and it’s easier than you think to get a state housing loan. That’s about the basics of it. Because people think it’s hard. They think we’re always out of money. This I get called constantly your random money. No, we haven’t run out of money. We have plenty of money. We’re always available at funding and all and then of course, we’ve got our newest initiative that will come out. This will be our 16th year with our 2024 Palmetto Heroes program that’ll be coming out. I don’t have any big details of what the down payments gonna be, what the rates gonna be. I do know it’ll be out sometimes in mid to late April. It will be out. It will be for $40 million this year be $5 million more than we had last year. So hopefully, it’ll last a while. And this is a program here again has additional downpayment has a better rate than our regular program. And it is for educators. And when I talk about educators, I’m combat certified teachers that’s teaching in a South Carolina school. They have active teaching certificate will also now include your librarians, your school counselors, your school psychologist, and your speech language pathologist will all qualify under the schools. Now your crossing guards, your people in the lunchroom will not qualify. It’s got to be one of those positions. We also have law enforcement included in this. This is your full time. Police officers. Their job title must be police officer. Correctional officers at any state, county, federal city prison, whatever will qualify. And here again, job title, correctional officer, they can’t be an HR, the firefighters, EMT, paramedics, even volunteer firemen can qualify for this program. A veteran has been discharged last 25 years anything of the dishonorable any active military in any branch of the Armed Forces qualify any South Carolina National Guard, Air or Army National Guard in South Carolina. And then you’re licensed medical professionals. This is your CNAs at the hospital, your techs, your nurses, it’ll anyone with a state or federal certification will go even as far as your pharmacy techs, and your dental hygienist can qualify for this. So tons and tons of people qualify for this program. That’s why it is so popular. And it goes so quickly. Normally, it’s available well to 16 weeks. Last year, we had $35 million, and it was gone in nine weeks, we had over $8 million and reservations day one on this. So people have been calling since December about this program going, when’s it coming out. I said, I wish I can tell you, we’ve got all this we’ve got to worry about. But it’s a great program. For any ones. If you realtors out there. If you have a client, that they fall in one of these categories. Go on and get them pre qualified at one of our approved lenders. We have 130 of them. So there’s a lot of them to choose from. And make sure you get them pre qualified, get them to a realtor. And I’d say first of April, so start looking for a house that because you had to have a house contract ratified before you can lock that loan. And when you lock that loan, we have those funds available for you. It’s not like we have 100 I mean, I don’t know how many people but 1000s. But we only want this money. But we only have enough for say 200 homes. Then when it runs out, if you lock that loan, if that you will enter locks that loan with us. We hold those funds for you. And you’re guaranteed those funds until you tell us you don’t want them.
CORWYN:
That is like the icing on the cake. Right Dr. Claude? Again, this is sockliners best secret. This program is only available in South Carolina correct.
CLAUDE:
Now, other housing authorities have heroes programs and all but doc said this one is only good in South Carolina.
CORWYN:
There you go see South Carolina’s best. I love it. I love it. I love it. So, Claude, one last question for you. And this is probably and you maybe hit on a couple of things related to this as we’ve been talking, just to get it like, right here. The biggest challenge that you faced with this over the years, what is the magic wand that would fix it all? What is it we can do? That would just fix everything?
CLAUDE:
That’s a loaded question. The main thing that the problem that I see with a lot of people that come in talk to us is credit. That is the magic thing, you’ve got to have decent credit and it’s got to be decent doesn’t have to be perfect, you don’t have to have that 800 credit score, you can have that 626 40 credit score or 650. And you can get a state housing loan. And so many people call and say I’ve got a 550, I got a 520 I got some to call them say I have a 400 and something and you’re going that’s something just you’re going to have to work on, it’s going to take you years to get that credit score back up and get it where it should be. And we can’t fix that. That’s something we can’t help. Now we can help on getting things done quickly. We could get all that kind of stuff. We’ve got that down pat. Now we’ve got everything is done very fast. You can close in 30 days, and all that but you got to have the basics, which is the basic is your credit score.
CORWYN:
Okay, and that is huge. So for our listeners, guys, you have gotten it today, you quote unquote, gotten it from the horse’s mouth from the well. You don’t have to wait for it to be disseminated to you or otherwise. Cut. You got the real product right here. None other than Claude Spurlock for a lot with South Carolina Housing.. Claude, I want to thank you as always for taking time out of your busy schedule to be on the show with us for sharing that wealth of information and knowledge for our listeners. We’re going to get this information this word out, we’re going to spread it we’re going to disseminate it. We’re going to make sure that people know that hey homeownership is possible. No matter what your situation is. You just have to find the right avenue in order to achieve it. Is that fair?
CLAUDE:
That is fair. Any of your realtors that are on the call or even loan officers will be in Charleston on April the 10th. At the county offices offer leads Avenue and the county council chambers. I’ll do a class at 10 o’clock for loan officers. I’ll do a class at one o’clock for realtors. You’re more than welcome come as a free class and for that and listen to me ramble on for this for about an hour. You will get on our website as an approved stay healthy realtor or loan officer for two years. had to come back and listen to me for two years and to do this, but it’s a great opportunity. And I can’t tell you how many loan officers or Realtors call me and say, I got three deals off your website. People just liked my name when they saw it. And they called me. It’s not state housing. We want to help you with this. We’d love to say housing, but if not, this is a great opportunity for you.
CORWYN:
Sweet, sweet. So Claude, again, thank you so much for that. Thank you for being a part of the Exit Strategies Radio Show Family. I always appreciate your candor, your wit and your commitment to help and serving people in the state of South Carolina. So from the bottom my heart, I thank you, for our listeners, guys. Thank you all for tuning in. Y’all know how I feel about you know how I say it and I always roll that thing and deliver it to you this way, which is I love you. I love you. I love you. And we’re gonna see you guys out there in those streets.
