Evidence and accountability
How USDA Mortgage education is sourced and reviewed
High-stakes mortgage education should show where a claim came from, when it was checked, what it cannot establish, and who must review it before publication.
Direct answer
Program claims begin with primary sources: current regulation, USDA Rural Development directives and handbooks, official program pages, and official property and income tools. Each page records a review date and limitation. If sources conflict, the more authoritative and currently effective source controls; unsupported claims are removed or held rather than guessed.
Source hierarchy
| Level | Examples | Primary use |
|---|---|---|
| Controlling law and regulation | 7 CFR Part 3555 and effective Federal Register actions | Legal program requirements and effective changes |
| Current USDA directives | HB-1-3555 consolidated handbook, procedure notices, official attachments and forms | Operational policy, definitions, underwriting, documentation, property, income, fee, and process detail |
| Official USDA program and tool pages | Guaranteed Loan Program page; USDA Income and Property Eligibility Site; LINC resources | Public overview, current tool access, official resource navigation, and dated operational materials |
| Other government consumer sources | CFPB disclosure and closing-cost explainers | General federal consumer context when it does not replace USDA-specific authority |
| Secondary explanation | Private articles, news, videos, or summaries | Discovery only; never the sole support for a program rule, fee, limit, or eligibility conclusion |
Current primary source set
- 7 CFR Part 3555 — current electronic regulation.
- USDA Rural Development handbooks — access point for the consolidated HB-1-3555 technical handbook.
- Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program — public program overview, eligibility summary, property uses, and official contacts.
- USDA Income and Property Eligibility Site — official starting point for program-specific address and income screening.
- USDA LINC Loan Origination resources — handbook, regulation, forms, worksheets, fee guidance, and lender resources.
These links were re-opened on July 14, 2026. A retrieval date is not a guarantee that a linked document remains unchanged; The page is rechecked before a material update.
Claim and review workflow
Define one reader question
Each page owns a narrow intent so property, income, credit, cost, and process claims are not mixed into an unsupported eligibility conclusion.
Locate the primary authority
The writer records the exact official URL, program label, retrieval date, effective date when relevant, and the specific claim it supports.
Write an original explanation
The page paraphrases the source, uses only short attributed quotations when necessary, and adds plain-language limitations. It does not copy an agency page.
Check scope and conflicts
The reviewer confirms Guaranteed-versus-Direct scope, geography, effective period, later notices, and whether a broad webpage summary conflicts with a narrower controlling authority.
Apply a conservative review
Material eligibility, fee, or financial claims are checked against current official sources. Claims that cannot be supported are removed or held for further review.
Publish only through an isolated path
The content may be published only after a separate authorization and proof that the delivery path does not change the existing homepage, maps, funnel, pricing, application, sessions, APIs, shared runtime, or CTAs.
Recheck and correct
Pages are reviewed on their stated cadence and immediately when USDA issues a relevant change. Material conflicts are held or corrected rather than silently rationalized.
How conflicts and stale information are handled
- Different effective dates: identify which rule applies to the relevant obligation, approval, application, or closing date; do not blend examples.
- Summary versus detailed directive: escalate to the current controlling regulation/directive and a qualified reviewer.
- Tool versus copied data: direct the reader to the current official tool and label any local dataset with its source and retrieval date. Do not claim a copied map is final.
- Missing source: remove or hold the claim. “Common knowledge” is not enough for a program limit, fee, score, eligibility, or approval statement.
- Known stale page: retain the correction record and update or unpublish the affected material; do not merely change the visible date.
Calculations and examples
These foundation pages contain no interactive calculator and collect no financial input. Qualitative examples illustrate why separate checks matter; they do not produce an individual result. Any later calculator requires separately documented formulas, editable sample-only assumptions, versioned source dates, accessible local calculation, boundary tests, zero network calls, no persistence, and proof that no input reaches analytics, a quote, an application, a URL, a session, a server, or protected code.
Corrections
If you identify a possible error, call Hicks Mortgage Solutions at (502) 390-7844 and identify the page and claim. The source and current official guidance will be reviewed, and material errors will be corrected with an updated review date.
Reader limitation
Even a correctly sourced page summarizes general information. It does not contain a reader’s complete household, income, credit, property, contract, lender, or documentation record and therefore cannot make an eligibility or underwriting decision.