A real person,
licensed in Texas

I'm a native Texan who came to Austin for the University of Texas and never found a good reason to leave. Two decades later I'm still here, now in Lakeway, running Hill Country Mortgages just west of town.

I've been in mortgages since 2012 — which means I learned this business in the years right after the crash, when the rules were being rewritten and nothing was taken for granted. That turned out to be a good time to start. It taught me that the details matter, that guidelines change, and that the person across the table deserves to actually understand what they're signing.

The reason I work as a broker rather than for a single bank is simple: a bank can only offer you what that bank has. A broker shops your situation across lenders and programs, which matters enormously the moment your file is anything other than textbook. And most files aren't textbook — self-employed borrowers whose tax returns understate what they earn, investors past the point where conventional financing keeps up, buyers looking at acreage with a well and a septic system, families trying to understand why a house one street over carries a tax bill hundreds of dollars higher.

Honestly, though, the loans are the means. What I actually like about this job is the people. Buying a home is one of the more stressful things most families do, and being the steady presence through it — the person who answers, who explains, who tells you what's coming next — is the part I'd keep if I had to give up the rest.

So here's what you can expect: straight answers, including the ones you'd rather not hear. If refinancing doesn't pencil out yet, I'll tell you to wait. If the builder's lender is genuinely the better deal, I'll say so. I'd rather be the person you call again in three years than the person who squeezed one deal out of you.

Off the clock

That's me in the photo with my wife and our two kids. This year we're doing both ends of the spectrum at once — a son starting middle school and a daughter starting kindergarten. If you're a parent shopping for a house right now, we're probably in the same season of life.

Most of my family is here too. My dad and all three of my siblings live in the Austin area, which is a large part of why leaving never seriously came up.

Weekends usually involve the boat out on the lake, something on the grill by the pool, or a field somewhere coaching flag football. Come fall, the entire household reorganizes itself around Texas Longhorns football, and I make no apologies for that.

I also consider myself a golfer. My scorecard has never once corroborated this.