Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Faith Watkins. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Faith, appreciate you joining us today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

We have heard it time and again but going through adversity and failure. Have propelled me to go beyond my comfort zone and to achieve more than I could possibly dream of. Growing up poor and not having much, gave me the motivation and drive to push in ways I may not have done otherwise. I am the first person in my family to obtain a bachelor’s degree. However, didn’t get accepted to my desired college on the first try. I then had to go to a community college, but it worked out for the best. As I was able to live and work at a women’s Japanese college in my hometown that was connected to the CC campus. Also worked a part time job to pay for my schooling as I went, as there were no grants available. After completing my AA degree, I applied and then was accepted to the University of Washington. These moments of perseverance and dedication along with consistency. Bring about the goals that you want and when you look back and realize the work you put in, even if tiring.  Feels rewarding and worth it.  As the saying goes, nothing worth having comes easy.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

This is from my website www.faithwatkins.com Faith Watkins
(She/Her)
Mortgage Broker
NMLS # 395992
13 Years of Experience in the Mortgage Industry
(503) 997-1964
[email protected]

Serving Oregon & Washington clients

Since purchasing her first home in 2006, Faith has been fascinated with the mortgage and real estate industry. When the economy crashed, she saw the advantage of joining this industry while in its lowest times and since February of 2011 has been working with clients in the Oregon & Washington markets.  Faith loves what she does and is dedicated to offering borrowers the best loan for their personal financial scenario.

Faith is knowledgeable about a wide range of different loan programs in order to serve her client’s unique needs and financial goals. Whether you’re making a first-time purchase, a second home purchase, investment or looking to refinance, she can help you. Faith loves working with move up; to sell and buy or rent and buy homeowners. Helping clients build wealth and grow their investments. A full spectrum holistic financial approach to buying a home.

She also specializes in helping first-time homebuyers who need to utilize government loan programs such as FHA, VA, USDA rural housing as well as traditional conventional financing.

Faith graduated from the business school at the University of Washington and has worked in a variety of industries throughout her career. When not working you can find Faith hanging out with her young son Hudson, watching live music with her friends or relaxing in nature at her cabin on Mt Hood. She also has an affinity for travel and has visited 44 countries and counting!

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A friend of mine that was in the industry moved in with me during the housing crisis from 2008. She heard me speaking with my mortgage servicer about a possible modification of my loan and thought that I would be good at and understand mortgage. So, she brought me on, and I learned under her until I moved on to a different company as an Assistant for about a year, then on my own in 2012. I work with local buyers and Realtors in the Portland/Vancouver Metro areas. It is a relationship-based business so have met and connected with people along the way to help build my name. I love helping homebuyers working on their first home, second or investment purchase. As I like to see my community build their wealth through Real Estate. As a part of the LGBTQ community, I specialize in co-buying and house hacking opportunities to work around and also help with affordability issues.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I kind of shared this with my first question. However, I have had to build my life and business on my own without help from family. I grew up poor in a trailer park and witnessed my peers and those in my neighborhood abusing drugs and having children before graduating high school. This changed my outlook at about 15 years old, realizing that I wanted something different for myself. Thankfully I had supportive grandparents that helped me buy a car. I worked overtime to pay them back the summer before college started. I always had a job while going to school, to pay for living and my education. I finally finished by the age of 25. I only had about $12k in student loans when graduating. I decided to spend my last term of University with an internship instead of working. Then when I graduated it was 9/11/2001 and had a difficult time finding work, so had to work two jobs for several years until I found my career in the mortgage industry. I worked as a bartender until the summer of 2012 when I finally built up my business enough to support my lifestyle. 

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Last year after the Federal Government decided to start raising interest rates and I chose to move to a Broker model instead of retail. I had worked in the retail mortgage space for the previous 10 years. It was a big transition but helped me be more nimble and offer better pricing with a wider variety of loan options and programs to better serve my community of homebuyers.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.faithwatkins.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/faithshomeloans/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pdxmortgageprofessional/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/faithwatkins/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/faith-watkins-vantage-mortgage-brokers-lake-oswego