The Liberty Bell: Department Education

Connie Goebel, Director of Mortgage Operations

Summer 2026 Edition

Community banks play a big role in helping families achieve the dream of homeownership.

Our lenders across the state focus on building long-term relationships with customers by understanding their wants and needs and discussing the right options for each person.

Independence Bank incorporated three new mortgage loan offerings in May 2025 to better serve our customers:

• United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) – Offers zero down payment options to qualified applicants so individuals and families can purchase homes in eligible rural areas.
• Veterans Affairs (VA) – Loans designed specifically for veterans, active-duty military members and eligible surviving spouses. The VA loan program does not require monthly mortgage insurance.
• Federal Housing Administration (FHA) – A great option for those with less than stellar credit and/or those who need a lower down payment.

Since rolling out these government loan products in May 2025, we have been able to help families purchase homes totaling almost $2,500,000. We have already helped families purchase an additional $2,000,000 so far in 2026.

Spring and summer are a very popular mortgage season for many, which typically keeps our team very busy. Not only does our team assist our lenders with loan structuring, we handle investor rate locks, adhering to regulatory timing requirements, disclosure production, processing, underwriting, closing and post-closing activities. In addition, we work with numerous third-party vendors, like title companies, credit report and flood vendors and investors.

Springtime is also when Federal Home Loan Bank offers a down payment assistance program to qualified borrowers through participating banks. IB has been offering this down payment assistance program for several years. Qualified applicants can get up to $20,000 in grant money to help cover down payments and closing costs. This year, we were able to secure $180,000 for our borrowers before the funds ran out. As a result, we were able to help customers achieve homeownership when they would not have been able to otherwise.

It takes a great team to ensure a mortgage process occurs seamlessly, and IB has the best team. Our average time to process and close a mortgage loan averages less than 35 days. Many loans close in 3 weeks or less.

We are also excited to announce that we are working on a new online application portal and loan originating system. While system implementations take a lot of work and testing, we are looking forward to the new systems and how they will streamline many functions for the borrowers and IB mortgage teams.

We are here to help our customers realize their dream of owning a home.