Mortgage Market Offers a Lending Hand

SALEM- Tasha Brandon is a local Salemite who is now the co-owner of Mortgage Marketplace in south Salem.

Brandon recently opened the doors with business partner Mike Gillett after working in the industry for a few years.

The two worked at two different companies together before realizing there was a gap in lending in the community.

“We could see that there was a need to get the best products and rates for our clients,” Brandon said. “There was a gap and that was creating the best possible rates, saving people money and we wanted to create the best solutions.”

Brandon moved away from Salem, living in Florida, New York, Colorado, and Hawaii for several years before making the move back to the Pacific Northwest to be closer to family.

Shortly after moving back to Salem in 2015, she began working in the industry, working on loans, and building her pipeline.

“Everybody’s need for a loan can be different as we have the primary residents, people looking to buy their first home or homes that they’re moving into,” Brandon said. “Next is the investors, people that are investing in rentals in second homes and then finally we have the refinance folks.”

Mortgage Marketplace has taken off as they’ve hit the ground running and developed a list of clients to help with lending. 

“The greatest benefit that we’ve seen so far is that we have complete control over who we want to work with and who we can trust to give our clients the best possible solutions, deals and rates,” Brandon said.

With a potential recession coming, more folks will be looking to refinance and/or sell their homes so the opportunity to help them was what helped steer the move to creating their own business.

“I think it’s a great time for us as we most likely see a recession and whenever there is a recession, there’s going to be a need for folks that need to refinance or work to sell their home and get into another house,” Brandon said. “There’s a need for lenders during this time.”

There aren’t a lot of brokers in the Salem area so the need to grow is something Brandon and Gillett want to take advantage of.

“We get to be grassroots in our community,” Brandon said. “We’ve established amazing relationships with all kinds of banks. We want to save the customer and the buyers for their closing costs and still stay competitive with the rates.”

As business continues to grow, Brandon is happy to be back in her hometown, seeing past classmates and people she grew up with. She’s excited about the future of the city and the growth that happened while she was away.

“Just to see the growth in Salem is incredible,” Brandon said. “It’s no longer just a government town, it’s got several different industries that it can offer.”

You can find Mortgage Marketplace at 3723 Fairview Industrial Drive, Suite 190, Salem.