Over twenty years ago, Barbie was buying her first home. The brokers at the mortgage company she was working with liked her laugh and her personality and thought she would be a good fit in a new opening they had at a satellite office. She stayed as a loan assistant for three years before moving up to loan originator in 2004 for another mortgage broker. Fast forward a few decades and Barbie is a Senior Mortgage Loan Officer with Evergreen Home Loans. Barbie works with all facets of origination from conventional, FHA, VA, Rehab loans to new construction loans. Evergreen just opened up a new branch office in McKinleyville, CA, where it’s currently Barbie and her assistant laying down the groundwork for more loan officers to come in and expand in the near future. Evergreen started in Washington and after 35 years is now established throughout a good chunk of the western states.

Working in small communities, word of mouth is everything. Barbie started her career in an area where she didn’t grow up and worked hard to get into the tight knit community groups, utilizing lots of marketing techniques to make herself known. After establishing herself as a trusted face in the community, most of her business now comes from referrals and repeat clients. The clients come back due to the customer service experience Barbie provides. When she first got into the business, her husband said if there was someone providing a really good customer service experience that seemed to be lacking, they would thrive. She took that advice to heart and made that the basis of her business.

She was trained that loan officers deal with the buyer’s agent and not the seller’s agent. But it’s been her policy to keep both sides up to date and informed about every step during the process. This extra step leads to an increase in Realtor® referrals. She also keeps in touch with that growing database through CRM follow ups for birthdays and special events. Business partners and clients each get quarterly updates and she’ll do office visits to realtors® for special educational presentations, not just to keep them up on the latest developments in the business, but to keep herself at the top of their mind.

She wrapped over 60 million in transactions in the past year, but her favorite ones are the first time buyers. A lot of those buyers come to her completely green, and she likes educating them about the entire process, telling them exactly what’s happening at any given time and what it means. She imparts a sense of ownership of the process to the client, not just the mechanical steps from A to B to C.

Barbie recently joined the McKinleyville Chamber of Commerce, adding to her positions on committees for the Humboldt Associate of Realtors, getting herself even deeper into the neighborhood around the new office. When not hitting up the latest country music concerts, she’ll be focusing on the people and businesses in McKinleyville and getting the office ready for another officer to come in a help serve the community.

For more info, call 707-633-9811 and email bturnbaugh@evergreenhomeloans.com

California Lender Barbie Turnbaugh