Shannon Hendrikse loves telling families they’ve been approved for a mortgage. “It’s pure joy,” she said. “It’s a really rewarding feeling.” Hendrikse is a mortgage agent and owns Canmore Broker.
Shannon Hendrikse loves telling families they’ve been approved for a mortgage. “It’s pure joy,” she said. “It’s a really rewarding feeling.”
Hendrikse is a mortgage agent and owns Canmore Broker. While she launched Canmore Broker this summer, she has specialized in mortgages for years during her career in the financial services industry.
“I love the financial side of things,” said the Wilfred Laurier University alumna, who has a business degree from the institution.
She loves crunching numbers, and working in the mortgage brokerage industry offers her a chance to marry that passion with another one: helping people and building lasting relationships with clients.
Originally from Ontario, Hendrikse and her husband first came to the Bow Valley region on their honeymoon. They fell in love with the area, when a job in Banff was offered to her husband, they decided to pack up their young and growing family and move west to the Rockies.
“It was a dream come true,” Hendrikse said.
They’ve lived in Canmore for the past four and a half years, and know the mountain town is where they want to put down roots. They love the community and the outdoor lifestyle they can offer their three children.
“We’re so enamoured with it, we would never in a million years consider leaving,” she said.
Hendrikse got her start in the financial services industry with TD Bank in Ontario in 2008, later moving to start her own business and join her parents, who also work in the financial services industry. When she moved to Canmore, Hendrikse returned to TD Bank.
While working in the banking industry she had to be a “jack of all trades,” and particularly enjoyed working on mortgages.
“I was always very passionate about mortgages and lending,” she said. So starting her own business around that passion just made sense, and she has teamed up with her mother, located in Ontario and who has significant experience in mortgages as well.
She sees a gap in mortgage services available in the Bow Valley that her company can help fill.
She said people should choose a mortgage brokerage because it can give potential home buyers more options.
Rather than having just what’s on offer from one lender, such as a bank, a broker can tap into a range of possible lenders who essentially compete for the clients’ business.
It sometimes surprise Hendrikse how many people don’t know that brokerages don’t take a fee from the buyers, but are paid by the lenders, except in a few special circumstances. Her advice for home buyers looking for a mortgage is to know what’s out there, something a mortgage expert like herself can help with.
“With all the options out there, let me find the best mortgage for you, so you can focus on what you love,” she said.
Another advantage to choosing a specialist like Hendrikse is more flexibility and potential mortgage options for people who perhaps don’t fit into the traditional criteria that might be needed to get a mortgage through a bank, such as self-employed people or seasonal workers.
“There are a wide variety of options and categories of lenders available to suit different situations,” she said.
Hendrikse added that people should choose her services because she knows the Bow Valley and understands the local market. She cares about the community and the people, and, as someone with her own young family, can relate to people trying to make ends meet in an expensive place to live.
“I work really hard for my clients and I take it very seriously,” she said.
403-707-7485
[email protected]
For more information visit
www.canmorebroker.com
