As the Fire Chief in Martinsville, Virginia, Ted Anderson spends much of his time helping out those in need. However, recently it was Anderson and his wife Renee that needed a little assistance, and ValleyStar Credit Union was able to come to their aid.

The Andersons were trying to keep their retirement goals intact and a big part of that depended on finding a mortgage that would allow them to reunite their family farm.

“My dream had always been to get back home and retire on the same land where I grew up,” says Ted Anderson.

The property, first purchased by his grandfather in the 1950s, consisted of more than 230 acres of tobacco farmland, several barns, and a few houses – some of which were built over a century ago and were now barely standing. More importantly to Anderson was that it contained a lot of sentimental experiences from his childhood and memories of a way of life long since passed.  

“My grandpa was a tobacco farmer, then my Dad was a tobacco farmer, and my mom still lives there,” Anderson explains. “My dad passed away last year and mom owns the rest of the land, but eventually it will come back to me, my brother and sister.”

The problem was that Ted’s family had sold a portion of that land years ago. While a majority of the Halifax County property still remained in his family’s name, Ted vowed that if he ever had the opportunity to make his family’s farm whole again, then he would make it happen. 

In 2018, the opportunity Ted and Renee had been waiting for arose. The family friend who had bought the land decades ago, and had since built two houses on the property, was ready for a change and wanted to sell.

“I told her years before that I’d like to have first dibs on the property if she ever wanted to sell,” says Anderson.

With two properties now sitting on the land, Ted and Renee found themselves searching for not just one, but now two new mortgage loans in addition to the one they were currently paying on their home in Martinsville.

Ted happily admits to being the type of person who is always willing to work a little harder to find the best deal. In doing his due diligence a few years earlier on the mortgage for their Martinsville house, he was thrilled to discover that his local credit union, ValleyStar, offered such low mortgage rates.

“I’d always gotten all my vehicle loans, personal loans through ValleyStar, and did all my banking with them,” says Anderson. “So, when I found out they also offered mortgages I was pretty excited to see how their rates would stack up.”

Anderson acknowledges that he has seen a lot of things change since he first started with the credit union more than 25 years ago. However, he says it is nice to know some things have remained the same.

“They still offer the best rates every single time I have checked,” adds Anderson.

While rates are always a deciding factor for anyone when selecting a lender, Anderson says ValleyStar offered so much more. 

“I don’t like being treated like a number. I like being treated like a person,” says Anderson. “Interest rates are important, but feeling like somebody cares and that I am not just a business transaction, well that kind of thing goes a long way for me.”

As anyone who has ever been through the home buying process knows, it can often be a source of a great deal of stress. However, for Ted and Renee this has never been the case when working with ValleyStar. 

“They made it very painless, each step of the process was easy,” says Anderson. “We got the farm put back together and Renee and I have a place to retire. All the stars aligned and it was just a great experience.”

The story does not end there. In fact, when interest rates dropped to near record lows, Anderson again went to ValleyStar to investigate the possibility of refinancing his two properties in Halifax and his home in Martinsville.

It turned out that ValleyStar could actually do one better. With a little work from the mortgage loan department, the credit union was able to release one of the two mortgages on the family farm as well as reduce the payments and rates for the other two homes.

“This was a really big deal for us, because it puts Renee and me one step closer to retiring together,” Anderson concludes. He then laughed as he shared, “and believe it or not, we actually enjoy each other’s company.”

For someone that has spent their entire career rescuing others, Anderson says it was nice to be the one getting the lifeline this time around.