Back when Brian Shields was a mere 7 years old, the Vancouver native would spend Friday afternoons selling low-priced bouquets of aging flowers on the corner of Highway 99 and 99th Street, or Saint Johns and Minnehaha, from his mother’s 30-year-old Vancouver Business – Shields Floral Boutique.
Shields continued to sell flowers from his mother’s floral shop until the age of 12. Then, at 14, he started and owned a legally licensed business called Just for Fun Sports Cards. Today, however, you can find Shields at the helm of Shields Family Home Loans, a DBA of Northwest Funding Group, Inc. that specializes in mortgage lending for veterans, first-time home buyers, rural home loans, Federal Housing Administration loans and new construction, as well as refinances for all existing homeowners.
Shields said Shields Family Homes Loans currently has a team of six employees, with plans in place to double that number by the fourth quarter in 2020.
“Mortgage lending is hard to make ‘fun’ for anyone,” Shields said. “I have tried to turn a transaction-style business into a business of relationships, exceptional communication and doing what we say we are going to do in the time frame we say we are going to do it in. Clear and constant communication is a must and when you build real trust with your clients the sky is the limit.”
Something that Shields said sets Shields Family Home Loans apart from other mortgage lending companies is that they celebrate the relationships they build, and he truly cares about all of his clients, referral partners, real estate agents and his team.
“I love people and live my life to be of service to others,” he said. “I have no agenda, no ulterior motive other than to provide a great loan solution for my clients at a competitive and bring the best level of service they could ever expect to receive.”
Shields has been a huge advocate of supporting local businesses during the holidays and especially recently during COVID-19. He has paid for and done professional videos to show the importance of supporting local, and through the pandemic has done several “lunch-on-me” tabs at places like Be Well Juice Bar, Brickhouse and 360 Burgers and Brews in Ridgefield. Several weeks ago, he started a Facebook group called SW Washington Support Local that he said “has been a huge success.”
Shields Family Home Loans is currently licensed in Washington and Oregon, and as of July just got licensed in Arizona. Shields said they are working on becoming licensed in Nevada and California in 2021.
“I envision like-minded brokers like myself running these regions to serve their community at the highest level,” Shields said. “I will always call Washington and Clark County home but would love to see other regions of the West get to experience our version of the mortgage process.”
Shields Family Home Loans is located at 12411 SE Second Circle, in Vancouver.
