Category: Uncategorized

“THE GRATEFUL SERVANT”

At First Community Mortgage (FCM) we are so grateful to serve those who serve others. Veterans are one of a kind people who choose to put everything on the line to serve their country and protect our freedoms. They are the kind of people who run to help in times of need, sacrifice a normal life away from their loved ones and everything that is normal to protect us here at home.

A home is something FCM employees work hard to give our customers. We don’t want to just help our customers find a house, we want to find them a home — after all, home is where the heart is. If we can help a family say they own the home of their dreams, we know we have succeeded.

The Hunnicutts are one of those families we are so grateful to serve. Mike and Cortney Hunnicutt recently purchased their dream home in Franklin, TN, only seven houses away from Cortney’s sister, Shannon Pellatiro, who happens to be an FCM employee. This home will be a place their five children will make memories in that will last a lifetime.

Mike is a Metro Domestic Violence Police Detective and has served on the force for 11 years. He is also an Army Reservist, with 16 years of service to his country and has been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. He was recently promoted to Sergeant.

Cortney works at a daycare in Franklin, TN and plans on starting her substitute teaching with Franklin Special School District (FSSD) and Williamson county. She has a dream of teaching elementary school full time once all her children are of school age.

The Hunnicutt family is the definition of what it means to give to your community and your country. FCM was so happy to help them with the purchase of their dream home, and in their dream neighborhood with family just minutes away.

This house was not easy to come by as it had multiple offers, but their loan originator, Molly Catino, was able to make their dreams come true. She was with them every step of the way to make sure they were taken care of and the process was seamless.

“I’m grateful I can help veterans and their families find their dream homes,” said Catino. “I remember being at the closing only a few days after Cortney had given birth to her fifth child, and on top of that, her husband was leaving to go on reservist duty in just a few days.”

Molly took the extra steps to help the Hunnicutts in any way she could, knowing that would alleviate any unnecesary stress with the loan process — the human mortgage way!

Even with the chaos and stress of having a baby, purchasing a home, and having a husband and father heading out for duty, came a happy and beautiful moment when the Hunnicutts closed on their dream home.

Their children, Alora, Baylor, Temperance, Addilyn, and Liam can grow up with family down the street, in a great school district, and in a home filled with love, laughter, and memories.

These are a few reasons why FCM is so grateful to help Veterans and their families find their dream homes. We want to thank them for being brave enough to leave their families behind and fight for our freedom. We are thankful they choose us to help guide them home, and we are thankful to serve YOU.

“THE MISSION”

In 2010, Ashleigh was on her first mission trip with her church, Fellowship Bible Church, in Brentwood, TN. They were making their way to Iquitos, a village in Peru, which happens to be the largest city on the Amazon River.
Ashleigh is from Manchester, TN, a small town 60 miles south of Nashville. She went to Peru on an Evangelical Outreach Mission, and never expected God had another mission set out for her.

Genaro was the worship leader of the church Ashleigh would be working with, while also working in the Amazon as a Tropical Forest Ecologist doing habitat conservation. He lived in a 1,600-square foot house in Iquitos with his family, which consisted of his parents, five siblings, and four nieces and nephews. This is very common in Iquitos with the Latino culture being very loving and family oriented. The home had no running water or air conditioning, and his family used buckets of water to shower.

Ashleigh and Genaro were drawn to each other through their passion for the Lord. Ashleigh quickly learned Spanish to communicate with Genaro. A relationship sprouted and continued through four more mission trips and letters written back and forth during their time spent apart.

As their relationship continued to grow, Ashleigh took a leap of faith and moved to Peru to live with a family there. Genaro’s sense of humor and family values drew her to him even more. She was there for 6 months and in 2014, they got married in Peru with their families by their side, both of which have been incredibly supportive of their relationship.

After living in Peru for a year together, they made the decision to move back to the United States. Genaro was overwhelmed at the thought of starting from zero, but being with his wife was the most important thing. His mother was sad to see him go, but excited about the new opportunities for him in the U.S.

In November 2017, Ashleigh and Genaro welcomed their son Noah, 2 months earlier than expected! Genaro’s family was unable to make it to the states for his birth due to denied visas, but in October this year they will be bringing Noah to meet his grandparents for the first time back in Peru. They are so excited to share Genaro’s culture, family, and home with Noah, who is a dual citizen.

Ashleigh currently works as a Physical Therapist, and Genaro is a horticulturalist at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, TN. Eight years have gone by since they first met, and now they are on a new mission to purchase a home together with First Community Mortgage (FCM) by their side.

They currently live in a townhome and will be making the move from Nashville to Murfreesboro, TN, to be closer to Ashleigh’s family and have more space for Noah to play.

Buying a home here in the United States versus in Genaro’s home country are vastly different. In Iquitos, you only need a notary to sign off on the house you’re looking to purchase. It has been overwhelming for Genaro, but thanks to JR Eastman, their Loan Originator, the Orellana’s feel like they’ve been able to truly understand the process thanks to the human touch they’ve received. It was as simple as walking into the FCM office asking to speak to a Loan Originator after hearing a radio ad. She ultimately met JR and just knew this was right. At times it’s been as simple as a text message being sent from JR that has made them believe he really cares and wants the best for their family.

As their mission of purchasing a house comes to a close, a new one begins when they start making memories in their new home. It all started with faith in the lord, and even though Genaro jokes, “He was the mission,” it turned into a mission that has brought true love, marriage, a baby, and a place to call home.

First Choice Program is the First Partnership Under the Tennessee Down Payment Partnership.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (July 31, 2018)—Affordable Housing Resources, Inc. (AHR), in partnership with First Community Mortgage, announces the launch of the First Choice Program. First Community Bank, the parent bank of First Community Mortgage, invested $1 million to fund first-time homebuyers with down payments toward their home purchases, which is expected to help an estimated 60 families through the remainder of 2018. The First Choice Program is the first partnership developed with AHR’s Tennessee Down Payment Partnership.

The Tennessee Down Payment Partnership was developed by AHR in light of the record-breaking success from the NeighborWorks America NeighborhoodLIFT Program announced in 2017. During this previous initiative, down payment assistance was distributed faster in Nashville than any of the other 55 cities across the country with NeighborhoodLIFT Programs­––attesting to the growing need for down payment to purchase affordable housing in Nashville.

“When we originally partnered with the NeighborhoodLIFT, we were astonished at how quickly the funds were distributed. It validated the pressing need among Nashville residents for affordable housing assistance and solutions,” said Eddie Latimer, CEO of Affordable Housing Resources, Inc. “For this new down payment program, we are partnering with banks and are grateful to First Community Bank for contributing the first $1 million to help people make the biggest purchase of their life.”

The First Choice Program will provide first-time homebuyers with up to $10,000 toward their down payments. The funds will be treated as a due-on-sale loan, which will be repaid when the home resells. The repaid down payment will then be available for another low income first time homebuyer. Borrowers’ annual income in combination with household size must be at or below the income limits set by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

“This new partnership with AHR aligns perfectly with FCM’s priorities around serving our community,” said First Community Mortgage (FCM) CEO, Keith Canter. “The current housing market in the Nashville area has made purchasing a home extremely challenging for many potential homeowners. We’re optimistic this new program will be able to help deserving families overcome the affordability crisis and realize the unique benefits of homeownership.”

“Being able to invest in such an incredible opportunity alongside First Community Mortgage is something we are so grateful to be a part of,” said First Community Bank CEO, Scott Cocanougher. “We are excited to see families in our local communities achieve homeownership because of this new program.”

The need for affordable housing options in Nashville was echoed this past fall when AHR held a community-wide drawing for exclusive rights to purchase two, brand-new homes in Nashville’s urban core. After the six-week campaign, AHR received 575 entries from hopeful homebuyers desiring to buy an affordable home in Nashville.

For more information about the First Choice Program and the Tennessee Down Payment Partnership, visit ahrhousing.org or call (615) 251-0025.

Michelle Rathbun is the first Andrew C. Rambo Memorial Scholarship recipient. She received the scholarship in 2017 to help assist with her MBA, which she will graduate with in August 2018 from MTSU. She is originally from Central Illinois and moved to Murfreesboro, TN in 2015. She graduated with her Bachelors degree last fall from MTSU.

Michelle had hopes of traveling and studying abroad before she graduates with her MBA. Thanks to the Andy Rambo Scholarship she was able to do just that, in China. While abroad she studied International Management at Shanghai University. Michelle was also able to attend a lecture at the Alibaba Business School in Hangzhou, which is China’s version of Amazon. While abroad she visited Shanghai Disneyland and walked along the Great Wall of China.

Michelle gained an abundance of knowledge by immersing herself in the Chinese culture, living and learning their ways, and bringing back amazing experiences to share with potential employers upon graduation at MTSU in the fall of 2018. She is currently an intern here at First Community Mortgage, working in the Marketing Department.

The Andrew C. Rambo Memorial Scholarship is just one of the charities that FCM Cares supports. Together, we can help transform people’s lives. Give a donation to FCM Cares today to help those in need. You never know just how important your donation can be!

Click here to view more photos from Michelle’s trip!

Donate to FCM Cares today!: https://goo.gl/BqCisk

P.S. Don’t forget to ask your employer if they provide matching gifts for your donation.

*FCM Cares is a is a 501(c)(3) organization. Your contribution is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.

Cyber Security 101
How to be secure…with the internet

Raise your hand if you have multiple online accounts? *Raises hand*

Raise your hand if you use the same password for said multiple accounts? *Slowly raises hand*

Raise your hand if you think a cyber-attack can’t happen to you? *Even slower raises hand*

If you *slowly* raised your hand to any of these three questions, you are not alone. BUT that’s where we come in. We’re going to give you some tips to help make you safe on the internet.

Recently here at First Community Mortgage, we hosted former FBI Special Agent Scott Augenbaum. He told us a lot of scary stories that made us want to immediately change all our passwords and never use the internet again! Kidding, but really its serious stuff.

We have a huge responsibility to keep our customers and employee’s personal information safe and secure here at FCM. Which is why we take cyber security very seriously. We dedicated the whole month of May to Cyber Security Awareness month and ended it with ice cream socials at several of our branches throughout the country!

Here’s a list of our top 8 ways to stay secure thanks to Scott Augenbaum.

1. Don’t click and surf

Think before you click on a link or open an attachment, become a human firewall and question every email.

2. Get some type of Virus Detection System

They won’t stop everything, but they could stop something! Virus writers can make up to 50,000 new viruses a day.  UGH.

3. Password Strength is important

You may think you’re pulling a fast one on hackers if you use your first pets name like this, SpArKlEs234, but who knew we were wrong!

*Strong passwords need to be longer than twelve characters in length with capital and lower-case letters, numbers, and a special symbol and NO dictionary words. Think passphrase instead of password.

Step 1: Think of a phrase, example “I love amazon so much.”

Step 2: Pick a double-digit number and symbol.

Step 3: Take the number and symbol, and put that first.

Step 4: Turn your phrase into an acronym, using the letter I as the number 1 to make it extra hard and mix up capitalizing some of the letters. Then you’ll take your number and flip it so instead of 25 it’ll say 52.

Step 5: This is what it’ll look like: 25*1LasM52

4. Mission Critical accounts

Examples could be, bank accounts, loans, personal email, anything with VERY important information you don’t want the bad guys to get! These are the accounts that really need passphrase passwords.

5. Update your operating systems

Don’t keep hitting the “Remind me tomorrow” button because let’s be real, you’ll probably just click that reminder again tomorrow and so the cycle continues.

6. Multifactor authentication

This is a MUST for Facebook, LinkedIn, Outlook 365, Gmail, LogMeIn, VPNs, and financial accounts when offered. (www.twofactorauth.org)

7. Back it up!

Back up your mission critical files on a daily basis. Yes, this may seem tedious, but let’s think about it, while you cook dinner after work why not plug your phone in, sync, save, back up, repeat!

8. Password Storage

Just don’t do it. Especially in your browser. Same with credit card numbers. You know when that little box pops up that says, “Would you like to save your credit card number for convenience?” Picture someone sitting in a coffee shop with an evil laugh, mwuahing his way into your computer and stealing your information!

*It’s the same as leaving your keys in the car, according to Scott Augenbaum! Instead, write it down in a book, lock it up in a filing cabinet. OR create a spreadsheet with the passwords using pseudonyms that will help you remember the password, without using the word.

Remember, it can happen to you! Cyber security issues happen, Every. Single. Day. Once the bad guys get your stuff, it’s usually too late. Don’t fall into the traps. Be smart and safe when using the internet!

Scott Augenbaum’s contact information:
saugenbaum@gmail.com