November 27, 2006
Local lenders | A chat with Melissa Cooledge, co-owner of First Choice Home Loans in Scarborough.
By Erview By Kerry Elson
Founded: July 2005
Employees: 11, including eight part-time employees
Startup costs: $30,000
Revenue, year one: $150,000
Projected revenue, year two: $300,000
Contact: 883-4400
432 U.S. Rte. One, Scarborough 04074
www.firstchoicehomeloans.org
What kind of services do you offer?
We're the middleman between the lender and the borrower. We shop home loan rates for our customers, and whoever has the better rates and the better guidelines, we take our customers through them. If the customer has decent credit and a decent down payment, then we typically choose from five different [lenders,] though we can work with over 30.
What region do you typically cover?
I'm mostly York County. My business partner, [Sarah Collins], is basically Cumberland [County]. My employees work statewide. Since I've been here, Lincoln is the furthest up I've gone, and Kittery is the furthest south.
How did you get involved in this field?
I used to work at TD Banknorth doing some home equity loans. I decided that I really liked that business, so I went to a local mortgage company to work as a processor, and I did that for about five years. Then I became an assistant, and then a loan officer.
And what made you decide to go on your own?
It was time. It was time for me to be a business owner. You just know when you're there and ready, and I had my husband's support and my best business partner.
How did you and your business partner meet?
We worked together at [the mortgage company]. When I started as a full-time loan officer there, we were short on offices, so we had to share an office. And we got talking and decided that we could probably do it a little better ourselves.
What was it like to get the business going?
We thought we'd be at least three to six months away at that point. But once we started to do some research, it just became very easy ˆ very costly, but very easy.
What was so costly?
Getting a State of Maine bond ˆ you can't open a mortgage company in the state of Maine without a bond. It's like an insurance policy for the agency. [Other costs were] insurance, opening an office ˆ our signage alone, on Route One, cost $1,800 for the logo design and everything.
Where did you find the money to get started?
We self-funded. We couldn't find a small business loan for startup money ˆ neither one of us had ever owned a business before. So then we just decided to grow as we went along and start small. We have grown from two of us to 10 of us. There are eight loan officers that are part-time that work for us, and we have one assistant.
It seems like you've grown quickly.
Well, we're still in the same space, with no plans to move. I don't believe in growing too quickly because I've seen that be the downfall for some businesses. That would scare me, to move spaces. We're still on Route One, and we have a great location.
How do you differentiate yourself from other brokerage firms?
We have good marketing skills. And we both have a wide variety of real estate brokers that we deal with on a regular basis who send us referrals. We both have a good client base that refers people to us and the people that we hire are relatively not-so-new in the business, so they're pretty sharp.
What is it like working with a partner?
There's no set way of doing this business, and she and I use our different skills very well. If I get five or six customers at once, I'll give her a couple, and vice versa. We tend to share that. We have homebuyer seminars, and she usually does those, just because she likes to talk, and I usually take care of the marketing.
The once-hot housing market seems to be cooling off. Is that impacting your business?
It is not at this time. If you have your normal client base and you're constantly getting referrals and you have eight people that are working for you, you're business is going to be strong. So there's strength in numbers.
New Entrepreneurs profiles young businesses, 6-18 months old. Send your suggestions and contact information to kelson@mainebiz.biz.
Employees: 11, including eight part-time employees
Startup costs: $30,000
Revenue, year one: $150,000
Projected revenue, year two: $300,000
Contact: 883-4400
432 U.S. Rte. One, Scarborough 04074
www.firstchoicehomeloans.org
What kind of services do you offer?
We're the middleman between the lender and the borrower. We shop home loan rates for our customers, and whoever has the better rates and the better guidelines, we take our customers through them. If the customer has decent credit and a decent down payment, then we typically choose from five different [lenders,] though we can work with over 30.
What region do you typically cover?
I'm mostly York County. My business partner, [Sarah Collins], is basically Cumberland [County]. My employees work statewide. Since I've been here, Lincoln is the furthest up I've gone, and Kittery is the furthest south.
How did you get involved in this field?
I used to work at TD Banknorth doing some home equity loans. I decided that I really liked that business, so I went to a local mortgage company to work as a processor, and I did that for about five years. Then I became an assistant, and then a loan officer.
And what made you decide to go on your own?
It was time. It was time for me to be a business owner. You just know when you're there and ready, and I had my husband's support and my best business partner.
How did you and your business partner meet?
We worked together at [the mortgage company]. When I started as a full-time loan officer there, we were short on offices, so we had to share an office. And we got talking and decided that we could probably do it a little better ourselves.
What was it like to get the business going?
We thought we'd be at least three to six months away at that point. But once we started to do some research, it just became very easy ˆ very costly, but very easy.
What was so costly?
Getting a State of Maine bond ˆ you can't open a mortgage company in the state of Maine without a bond. It's like an insurance policy for the agency. [Other costs were] insurance, opening an office ˆ our signage alone, on Route One, cost $1,800 for the logo design and everything.
Where did you find the money to get started?
We self-funded. We couldn't find a small business loan for startup money ˆ neither one of us had ever owned a business before. So then we just decided to grow as we went along and start small. We have grown from two of us to 10 of us. There are eight loan officers that are part-time that work for us, and we have one assistant.
It seems like you've grown quickly.
Well, we're still in the same space, with no plans to move. I don't believe in growing too quickly because I've seen that be the downfall for some businesses. That would scare me, to move spaces. We're still on Route One, and we have a great location.
How do you differentiate yourself from other brokerage firms?
We have good marketing skills. And we both have a wide variety of real estate brokers that we deal with on a regular basis who send us referrals. We both have a good client base that refers people to us and the people that we hire are relatively not-so-new in the business, so they're pretty sharp.
What is it like working with a partner?
There's no set way of doing this business, and she and I use our different skills very well. If I get five or six customers at once, I'll give her a couple, and vice versa. We tend to share that. We have homebuyer seminars, and she usually does those, just because she likes to talk, and I usually take care of the marketing.
The once-hot housing market seems to be cooling off. Is that impacting your business?
It is not at this time. If you have your normal client base and you're constantly getting referrals and you have eight people that are working for you, you're business is going to be strong. So there's strength in numbers.
New Entrepreneurs profiles young businesses, 6-18 months old. Send your suggestions and contact information to kelson@mainebiz.biz.
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