After nearly five years managing Puget Sound Cooperative Credit Union (PSCCU), Patte Wagner has left to open a mortgage office on the island through Evergreen Home Loans.
“This is a wonderful opportunity to expand the availability of financial services on the island,” Wagner said last week.
The branch office of the Seattle-based company will be located in The Cunningham Building, in the former home of Studio 202, and will open Oct. 19.
While there are mortgage brokers on the island, Wagner said, it has been a long time since a full-time mortgage office has been located here.
“This is going to be exciting to have on the island,” she added.
PSCCU partners with Evergreen for home loan services, she noted, and so many customers inquired about and used the services that Evergreen asked her if she would consider starting a branch on Vashon.
The office will offer a full range of services, Wagner said, including mortgages for home purchases, reverse mortgages, refinancing and loans for custom construction, which she noted had been hard to come by after Washington Mutual failed.
The new office will also provide community education, she added. She will seek out teaching opportunities in her new role, and plans to offer a variety of seminars, such as those for first-time home buyers, seniors seeking reverse mortgages and self-employed people trying to qualify for a mortgage.
Wagner and an administrative support person will be the sole staff members initially, but she said her intention is to add at least two full-time brokers as time goes on.
Wagner worked for more than 30 years at Washington Mutual/Chase before moving to PSCCU when it opened on Vashon in March of 2011. Now, she said, it has more than 2,000 members and has more than $34 million in deposits.
“It was a wonderful challenge,” she said. “We met and exceeded our goals.”
Lori Nelson, who has worked at PSCCU since it opened, has been named the new manager there.
For her part, Wagner said she is looking forward to working with mortgages again, as they affect people very personally.
“I help people’s dreams come true is what it feels like,” she said. “There is real satisfaction in that.”
