Veritas Mortgage, sandwiched between the Helm Gallery and Tully’s on Broadway in downtown Tacoma, is weathering the troubling housing market with grace and poise. Their friendly nature stretches beyond the need to serve a house to you on a silver platter; this community-based brokerage is fighting for a slightly more conscious customer, and hoping to build a more livable lifestyle starting right in people’s checkbooks. 



We enter the system as drones. We work to live, and sometimes live to work. Your efforts can even win you a piece of the world to build your home on, and not surprisingly, there are people who are willing to buy a piece of the world for you, whether you are ready or not. They are willing to do this because you will eventually pay them for it. This is called usury, it is the interest collected from a loan. In ancient cultures usury was outlawed among tribes and families, but this is America, and the collection of debt is an industry unto itself.



There are even people who are willing to pay off your loan for you, and offer you a better usury than you had before. This can lower your monthly payment and, in really awesome cases, earn you some spending money out of your equity. This is like borrowing money from the loan itself and can be very complicated.



Who knows how to do all of this stuff?



Well, that’s the job of a mortgage broker, and their team of loan officers and agents and Realtors and all sorts of jobs that I did not go to school for. Who to trust in the big world of people making money off of my money? I don’t think I’m going to base my decision on an advertisement or a handshake promise. In a game this complex and so prone to greedy cons, I’m going to base my decision on the philosophy of the firm in question. The philosophy will be determined by their actions and the manifestation of their relationship in my community.

Outside of the straight and numerical aspect of home loans and financing, the team at Veritas has been thinking of ways they can support the kind of money mentality they hope to incarnate into their own lives. Hosting a number of events in partnership with community leaders such as exit133.com and Local Life Tacoma, Veritas has shown the value of the tangible they are offering: space for relationships to happen. This is about giving their customers power, with quarterly finance education and tools such as history and information about the local and national economy. 



Even if you aren’t ready for a home, this company understands that cultivating relationships with people surrounding their finances will eventually provide the financial stability that leads to the decision of home ownership. Liz, for instance, helped me open a bank account, and taught me some seemingly elementary things about credit cards that opened my eyes to the options I have.



[Veritas Mortgage, 762 Broadway, Tacoma, 253.761.0247]