Cebu entrepreneur shines in US home mortgage

In the highly-competitive American home mortgage market, a Filipina from Cebu City stands a head taller than the competition.

Barely two years after organizing their own company, Angelique Salve and American husband Stephen Gradney have gained major inroads in the Fil-American market.

"We do not only help the new Filipino immigrants in California to get the lowest interest rates for their home mortgage, but more importantly, we provide them all the help they will need in making their home acquisition or re-financing application a pleasant experience," Salve said.

Using their accumulated resources from previous projects in home financing, the couple opened their own mortgage company in January 2002, the First Nations Funding, Inc. with Stephen as CEO and Angie as president.

Salve first worked as a loan officer at Transamerica Financial Services making from it her break in the mortgage industry.

"I was later head hunted by Long Beach Mortgage Co., which eventually became Ameriquest," she said.

She was promoted to branch manager in just six months, and to area manager in 12, supervising branches in Texas, Denver, Arizona, Las Vegas and the Los Angeles County.

Later, Ameriquest’s top management gave Salve the mandate to develop a new venture, the Town and Country Credit Corp., which grew to as many as 35 branches over a two and a half year period. In time, Salve moved to the wholesale mortgage industry as vice-president of Nations Bancorp.

Gradney, on the other hand, was already managing Mark One Mortgage, one of the top ten mortgage companies in Southern California, at the time he met Salve.

First Nations has a wide array of products that cater to the needs of those with established credit ratings down to those who are just starting to build their credit, especially the new Filipino immigrants who want to own homes.

The company’s growing number of Filipino clients in the Southern California area is a testimonial to the goodwill it has developed in the second largest Asian ethnic community in this part of America.

Indeed, the pretty lass from Cebu City has not lost her touch. From its first office in Long Beach, First Nations has already opened four other branches in Southern California.

A graduate of Business Management from the University of San Carlos in Cebu City, Salve, who initially had set her eyes on becoming a nurse, ended up a success in home mortgage instead.