I’ve been helping home buyers since the Spring of 1994, when I was first hired as a Loan Officer for Elite Funding in Rockville. Elite Funding was owned by Scott Jacobs & Mike Postal who quickly grew it into the titan Tenacity Group now in Greenbelt. Eric Strasser, with SunTrust Mortgage currently, first hired me at Elite Funding. We both worked there for 3 more years as Loan Officers until we opened up our own company, Choice Finance, in the Fall of 1998. We started in Eric's townhome garage in Germantown, Maryland then leased space in Bethesda above the Mongolian Grill & Philadelphia Mike's. At the time we had 2 other employees and merged with our 3rd partner, Joe Comeau.
We moved our office to Montrose Road in Rockville where we stayed for the next 7+ years. During our stay we expanded to 30+ employees at times. We took it to the next level and became a Correspondent Lender where we had a wharehouse line, drew up our own loan documents & actually funded the loans. Eventually Joe Comeau moved on, & David Wexler came on as a partner. The 3 of us loved what the mortgage business once was. Don't get me wrong, we ran an extremely tight and ethical shop. In fact, our profit margins were small compared to most shops. Our clientele was A paper higher loan amounts & first time home buyers, shoppers who wanted the best deal and they got it. We built a strong referral base because of the way we believed in doing business.
Our 8th year running the mortgage company, we opened a real estate company. Choice Real Estate, Inc. was born and with it the website was created. I was primarily in charge of running Choice Real Estate as it's President, while my partners ran our sister company, Choice Finance. We invested in the Choice Real Estate website and made it into something our buyers loved to use (and still do) when searching for a home.
Our final year new regulation from the mortgage industry became very frustrating for all. With it new systems for ordering appraisals which led to Appraisers from out of area markets doing horrible work and killing loans with values that weren't even close. A new Good Faith Estimate went into effect, and compensation was getting slimmer, and still is. After careful consideration and many other factors, we finally decided in the Spring of 2010 that it would be best to shut down Choice Finance. With it, Choice Real Estate was closed, both companies legally shared the same office space. The websites for our former companies; Choice Real Estate and Choice Finance are still up and running. In fact, they are great resources for home buyers and became such great tools, they are maintained to this day.
I am now with Remax Town Center. Check out choicerealestate.net to help you search for your home, and I hope to be the Realtor® chosen to help you buy it.
I am a lifelong resident of Montgomery County, Maryland. I currently live near Olney with my wife and two boys. Real Estate is my full-time job and I've been literally reviewing purchase contracts since 1994. I know the home buying process inside and out & would love to share what I know, with you.