November is Nationwide Veterans and Navy Households Month and in addition celebrates Veteran’s Day. One in every of methods we wish to honor and have fun our veterans is by sharing the tales of what house and homeownership means to them.
Kim DeMarco, Mortgage Advisor & Veteran, NMLS #410006
Department: U.S. Marine Corps (Reserves) 
Years of Service: 8 years (4 lively reserve, 4 inactive reserve)
For Kim DeMarco, service runs deep. Her household’s army lineage dates again to the American Revolution, so becoming a member of the Marines felt like a pure calling. She served in motor transport with the 4th Bulk Gas Unit as a part of the Marine Corps Reserves, balancing her service with serving to take care of her ailing father. “The Marine Corps is constructed on management, integrity, and honor,” Kim stated. “These values weren’t new to me, however serving made them a part of my DNA.”
After the Marines, Kim went on to serve her neighborhood differently, first as a police officer, then as a mortgage skilled. “All of it connects,” she defined. “Within the army, I served the residents of the US. In lending, I nonetheless do. I assist folks obtain one of many biggest American goals: homeownership.”
Kim stays deeply concerned within the veteran neighborhood by way of the Marine Corps League and the American Legion and dedicates a lot of her work to educating veterans about their VA mortgage advantages. “Being a Marine was the hardest factor I’ve ever completed,” she stated. “It’s additionally the factor I’m most happy with.”
Chris Hodges, Department Supervisor & Veteran, NMLS #1146098
Department: U.S. Navy 
Years of Service: 9½ years
For Chris Hodges, service has at all times been about function. He joined the Navy in 2000, pushed by a need to see the world and serve his nation. Over the subsequent 9 and a half years, Chris accomplished a number of deployments to the Center East, serving aboard the USS Harry S. Truman and later at a land base in Bahrain. However his most life-changing experiences got here by way of humanitarian missions, together with reduction efforts after the devastating 2004 tsunami in Sri Lanka and vaccine distribution in distant Tunisian villages.
After being medically separated from service, Chris used his GI Invoice to earn his diploma and found a brand new calling in finance and actual property. “9 out of ten purchasers I met who constructed actual wealth did it by way of actual property,” he shared. His curiosity, and his spouse Heather’s longtime profession in lending, led him naturally into the mortgage business, the place his army mindset discovered an ideal match.
In the present day, as an APM Mortgage Adviser in Colorado Springs, house to 5 main army installations, Chris continues to serve. His enterprise focuses on educating and empowering service members to construct long-term monetary stability by way of homeownership. “The drive to search out options, to determine a option to make it work, that’s straight from my army coaching,” he stated.
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“There’s at all times a option to make it work. That’s what the army taught me and that’s how I assist my purchasers each day.”
Michael Quinn, Department Supervisor & Veteran, NMLS #228210
Department: U.S. Navy 
Years of Service: 4 years
Michael Quinn’s time within the Navy formed him into the chief he’s in the present day. As an operations specialist in the course of the Desert Storm period, he was stationed within the Western Pacific monitoring submarines and coordinating warfare operations from the Fight Data Heart aboard a cruiser. “We had been the eyes and ears of the ship,” he stated. “It was surreal, but it surely taught me precision, focus, and self-discipline at a younger age.”
After his service, Michael pursued faculty and a profession in actual property earlier than discovering his true slot in lending. What started as a curiosity quickly turned a ardour for serving to households obtain homeownership. “I’m extra of a advisor than a salesman,” he stated. “Serving to purchasers construct a life round their house is what fulfills me.”
The self-discipline and a spotlight to element realized within the army are on the coronary heart of his work in the present day. “Do the small issues masterfully,” Michael stated. “That’s the way you win in life, in enterprise, and in serving your purchasers.”
Nigel Farnsworth, Mortgage Advisor & Veteran, NMLS #270178
Department: U.S. Marine Corps 
Years of Service: 8 years (4 lively, 4 inactive)
When Nigel Farnsworth joined the Marine Corps, he wasn’t simply signing up for army service; he was signing up for a lifelong transformation. Based mostly in California at Camp Pendleton, Nigel labored within the munitions subject and later as a army policeman. “The Marine Corps taught me honor, braveness, and dedication,” he stated. “These core values formed the individual I’m in the present day.”
The teamwork and resilience that outlined his service proceed to information his method within the mortgage business. “Within the Marines, you by no means quit,” Nigel defined. “That very same mindset applies whenever you’re serving purchasers. It doesn’t matter what occurs, you keep dedicated to seeing it by way of.”
In the present day Nigel carries these values ahead each professionally and personally. He mentors veterans by way of the VA Courtroom in Salt Lake Metropolis and stays lively in the neighborhood, serving to others discover stability and development. “The army adjustments you from the within out,” he stated. “These classes change into a part of who you’re.”
Jory Ryland, Studying & Growth Affiliate
There are some things that the army and the mortgage business have in frequent that Jory appreciates. One is the camaraderie. After eight years within the Military as a fight medic—which included three stints in Iraq—Jory was trying to find which means in her subsequent profession transfer. She was additionally lacking the camaraderie she’d shaped within the army.
After becoming a member of APM in 2015, Jory looks like she’s discovered these particular relationships as soon as once more. Having labored beneath nice leaders and on wonderful groups, Jory has introduced many experiences and classes from the Military to APM, the place she serves as a studying and improvement affiliate.
The Military taught her to remain mission-ready. That observe makes good. {That a} staff member’s roadblock is her roadblock. And that muscle reminiscence will at all times let you stay calm beneath strain since you’ll robotically bear in mind what to do.
These classes had been additionally instilled in her from a younger age by her father, mortgage business veteran Dave Ryland. Jory grew up doing homework within the convention room and lunchrooms of her dad’s mortgage workplace. Dave even served as a mentor for Kurt Reisig, APM’s chairman. In a really giant approach, you may say Jory’s inherent love for good leaders and robust groups initially got here from her father, earlier than these values had been honed within the Military after which introduced full circle to APM.
Today, Jory stays dedicated to serving to the mortgage officers who assist veterans. She encourages her mortgage officers to be the purpose of contact for veteran and army teams, making certain that their neighborhood members are well-educated on VA loans and their advantages. Jory is a agency believer in speaking early and infrequently. She does this together with her mortgage officers, and she or he likes to see her LOs cross on that enthusiasm to their veteran purchasers.
Michael Farmer, Loan Advisor & Veteran, NMLS #2161015
Michael cherished serving his nation throughout his 20-year profession within the Navy. In reality, he credit a lot of his success in the present day as a mortgage officer to his many experiences throughout his time of service. Working in Provide/Logistics allowed him to assist his department and nation put together for no matter challenges had been forward. The ambiance was at all times altering, the duties had been various, and the camaraderie was unparalleled.
After Michael retired from the Navy in 2017, he appeared for a profession that would offer an analogous degree of achievement, as many veterans do. He appreciated all the talents the army had afforded him, together with the power to construct groups, community, and talk successfully. Mike discovered that zeal once more working as a mortgage officer for APM in Kennewick, Washington, the place he lives together with his spouse and 4 kids.
As a veteran of the army, Michael can also be a veteran person of the VA house mortgage profit. He understands the significance and worth this program can convey to present and previous service members. He additionally understands that there’s a hole in schooling and plenty of misconceptions relating to VA house loans among the many army neighborhood. As such, he makes it his mission to make sure that his native active-duty and veteran neighborhood are well-versed in the advantages of their VA entitlement.
Michael additionally understands the transition that service members should endure when their army profession ends—and he needs to make certain they know {that a} fellow veteran is of their nook when that transition occurs. Michael is a member of the Columbia Basin Veterans Heart and volunteers as a veteran court docket mentor to assist his service brothers and sisters who discover themselves within the court docket system and in want of help.
Michael considers it his obligation and honor to proceed serving his nation by helping those that have served us.
