Our guest today on the Business Spotlight is Mary-Grace Carlson of Compeer Financial in Aledo and Monmouth. Mary-Grace is a loan officer and will speak about the division of Compeer Financial known as Compeer Home, the effects of interest rates and inflation on real estate, an opportunity for first time home buyers, and how she can help you with homes, hunting lands, new home construction, and more.
Hello and welcome to the Business Spotlight. I’m Terry James, and we are here with Mary-Grace Carlson, loan officer with Compeer Financial. Hello, Mary-Grace.
Hi. Good to see you. Now you are with the division of Compeer Financial known as Compeer Home.
You have been with Compeer now for four years. The company has been around for seven years. How is everything going? It’s a wild world when it comes to ag lending.
It is a crazy time for ag lending. I’m with Compeer Home specifically, so we focus more on the consumer purpose side of things, looking at rural land and home loans. But as many of you know, it’s kind of a busy time for those as well.
The market isn’t quite as flooded as it once was. So if you find that awesome house in the country, it goes pretty fast. So what is the demand now, Mary-Grace, for rural properties now that interest rates are a bit higher and inflation is still having an effect on farm families, especially here in western Illinois?
The demand on rural properties is what it always was. The problem is the pockets for many of our buyers don’t go as deep as they did. So there’s actually fewer people competing for the same properties.
Again, talking with Mary-Grace Carlson, loan officer with Compeer Home, a division of Compeer Financial. Can you explain the different types of loans that Compeer Home specializes in? Sure. We do everything from hunting land, home sites, small farmsteads with houses, houses on acreages, houses on one acre, shed homes, berm homes, barn-dominiums, new home construction, and regular rural home loans.
We also specialize in houses in small communities, towns that are twenty five hundred people or less.
All right. And you were telling me a little bit earlier about a first time homebuyer program.
I like to hear about these because this helps people complete the American dream. Absolutely. I live for helping people buy into the American dream.
So the first time homebuyer program allows for us to do our own in-house underwriting. And we basically put together two loans to complete 100 percent of the financing on the property. So minimal inspections. But you do need to have your own closing costs.
All right. And Compeer Financial, again, Compeer Home is a division of that.
You’re a member owned farm credit cooperative. What does that mean? How does that benefit everybody who does business with Compeer?
Sure. Our clients are actually member owners. So we give them a voice in the cooperative. And we also pay out patronage dividends for the success of our organization.
Fantastic.
And, you know, if folks are looking into loans is right now, this time of year, right after harvest or as harvest is wrapping up, is that a busy time when people are maybe looking to move?
Typically, people don’t want to move for Christmas. But right now is the ideal time. If you’re thinking about building a new home in the spring.
I always tell people, come talk to me after Thanksgiving and we’ll get ready for the spring construction season.
Fantastic. I didn’t even think about that.
But if you’re going to do something like that, you’ve got to start thinking about it right now.
Mary-Grace Carlson with Compeer Financial, Compeer Home is who she is specifically with. If people want to come see you, talk to you about a loan, how do they do that?
You can reach out to me at 309-371-0734 or you can look me up on compeer.com. I would love to meet with you in our Aledo office, our Monmouth office. I do travel as far as Macomb and Quincy, though.
And she’s a lot of fun, folks. She’s a really great person to talk to. So we’ve had a good time here on the Business spotlight. Again, Mary-Grace Carlson.
Why don’t you give your phone number one more time there with Compeer Home?
309-371-0734.
All right. Give her a call today.
And this has been the Business Spotlight.