From my earliest days I understood the potential of residual income from real estate rentals. After two attempts to follow a traditional route of college and a starter job, I decided to get in the business immediately. I didn't find what I wanted to know at the usual promotional real estate seminars, so I jumped in the deep end and learned to swim in real estate by getting my mortgage license and focusing on the financial side of the industry. More than a decade later, I continue to be grateful for that decision. Soon after I started my business we went through one of the worst real estate declines in U.S. history, and I saw how important it is to provide my clients with the right mortgage solutions for their specific real estate needs. This has given me a passion to know everything possible about my industry and drives me to do things others in the industry probably think is obsessive - such as repeatedly reading the 1,800 page Mortgage Guidelines for fun. In fact, I love my work so much that Monday is my favorite day. That is the day I get to go back to work. I love working with a team and, other than loving Monday, another oddity is that my favorite color is "clear." Yep, the non-color clear, like a glass of water or window, is really cool because it represents transparency - you can see right through it and nothing is hidden. That's how our team works with each other and our clients, and our entire office has glass walls to support that concept. My job is an important link in one of the most important life and financial decisions most people ever make - choosing their home. Helping people purchase a home or refinancing an existing mortgage to improve someone's financial situation is extremely gratifying to me. I can't imagine doing anything else to support my family and contribute to my community.