Author: Megan Chastain

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

MURFREESBORO, TN, (April 2018) — First Community Mortgage (FCM) has announced the promotion of Miguel Vega, to the Executive Team as Chief Diversity Officer/ SVP Business Development and Community Outreach.

Vega has been with FCM for almost 2 years, leading the Multi Cultural Lending Initiative (MCLI) team to great success since its development. The new position, reinforces the commitment of FCM with diversity and inclusion as well as focusing on serving multicultural markets and underserved communities. He has been the driving force behind FCM winning the honorable Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) Diversity Award for market outreach in 2017.

“Miguel brought considerable leadership and inspiration to FCM’s community outreach efforts. Selfless passion and energy – this describes Miguel best,” said FCM EVP and Director of Lending, Andy Voyles. “He has shown what it takes to lead such a powerful initiative in such a diverse and exciting market here in Middle Tennessee. He embodies the meaning of hard work and dedication in helping families, who may not have thought they had the opportunity to own a home, reach their dreams of owning one.”

Miguel will be leading initiatives that impact diversity and inclusion, business strategy, and business development at FCM. He will be responsible for creating opportunities that define, assess, and promote diversity with educational and equal housing opportunities. He will also help the organization with cultural profieciency by generating a vision for corpoate growth and how to foster an environment of inclusiveness in relation to race, ethnicity, culture, gender, sexuality, nationality, ability, etc.

“FCM is excited to continue to see how Miguel will help the company grow in the right direction. We are a company that thrives on helping underserved families make their homeowning dreams a reality. We are thankful Miguel is such a big part of that,” said Voyles.

About First Community Mortgage

Founded in 2002, First Community Mortgage is a wholly owned subsidiary of First Community Bank of Tennessee. With its operations centers based in Nashville, Louisville, Columbus, and Kansas City, it is supported by retail branches and wholesale and correspondent relationships throughout the eastern half of the US. First Community Mortgage is a FNMA, FHLMC, and GNMA seller/servicer and offers mortgage solutions to consumers and financial institutions. With mortgage volume of $2.1 billion in 2016, First Community Mortgage was ranked the #1 lender for new construction homes for the past six years as published by Metrostudy and #8 for 2016 in the Nashville Business Journal’s Book of Lists.

For more information about First Community Mortgage and its services go to www.humanmortgage.com.

Lizzy Alignamath was sitting at her desk at work in Murfreesboro, TN when she got the call she’d been waiting months for. A baby in the NICU was ready to be adopted in Arizona and they would need to be there in the next few days.

Lizzy and her husband Randle started their adoption journey with dreams of this moment happening, in hopes they could start a family. With this news, they realized there was little time to figure out where to stay once they got to Tucson, AZ, so they could meet their new baby girl, Jubilee.

The Ronald McDonald House stepped up to help. They arrived in Tucson at midnight, overwhelmed with emotions, where they were greeted by a welcoming Ronald McDonald house employee. While Jubilee was getting the medical care she needed at the hospital and the interstate adoption process played out, Lizzy and Randle stayed at the Ronald McDonald house in Tucson. Not only did the Ronald McDonald House provide a shuttle back and forth to the hospital, so they could be with Jubilee, but they were provided meals by volunteers twice a day. After almost 3 weeks of calling The Ronald McDonald House home, they were finally able to bring Jubilee home! All of this was possible thanks to the donations given by people like you.

The Ronald McDonald House 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!

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.