Hi everyone. Just so you don't think that I only operate in cyberspace, I thought it was time to do a little self awareness posting. To begin with, I work with Alpine Mortgage Planning, a northwest owned mortgage banker with headquarters in the hinterland of Lake Oswego, Oregon. For those out of state, it is one of the cities that make up the Portland Metro area.

My office is is Darth Vader Number 1 as we have always called 1200 Executive Parkway. The building is so named because it sort of looks like Darth Vader's mask in Star Wars. It is an interesting structure, being bigger at the top (significantly) than it is at the bottom.

It is also faced with glass, glass and more glass. The only problem with this is that it is quite warm on my side of the building in the morning when the sun is shining and warm on the other side in the afternoon.

We are on the first floor and very easy to find. It is either us, the elevator or security. That is, unless you need a bathroom or the mail boxes.

Our lobby is spacious and we have coffee or water available and a real life person answering the phones. Savannah is there to direct your calls or help you with your appointments.

We have private offices so clients don't have to explain their life history with several other people listening in. There are also toys in the lobby to help keep the little ones entertained during the interview process.  We really want people to feel at ease when they come to Alpine Mortgage Planning. We aren't just there to take information and fit everyone into the same slot. Although, the number of different slots have come down a lot recently.

The next outstanding thing about working at Alpine Mortgage Planning also has to do with our loan partners. We have in house transaction coordinators (we used to call the processors). If you have ever worked in a place without having them in house, and I have, the difference in astronomical. Janey is my loan partner and I don't know how I ever worked with someone off site before. It just makes problems so much easier to solve.

I had to make her stop working long enough to take her picture. She is constantly working to make the loan process work smoothly.

To make matters even more efficient, we have our own, in-house, on premises, underwriter. Becky is there to underwrite our conventional loans and is working to become a certified DE FHA underwriter. Right now our FHA loans are underwritten by our in-house underwriters in Lake Oswego.

We have a lot more people, but these are actually on my team. That is so nice, having a team.

So, now you know where the building is, where the office is, what it looks like and the team members that are inside the office.

We also have a very easy to use, interactive website where you can actually fill out an application (securely) and get the process started if you don't want to come in to the office. You can access it here.

Now, you also may see me driving around in my pickup. Hey, I am just an old pickup guy. LOL. If you see this license plate, it is me, give me a honk and wave. More than one finger, please.

Thanks for taking this tour with me. Stop in, the coffee is aways hot and the loans are cool. Take care.