
Mortgage Manager's Life is Busy but Happy
Published Monday March
20, 2006
By SANDRA WALSH
The Beaufort Gazette
Rebecca Bass knows networking.
From an early morning downtown merchants association meeting,
and lunchtime Sea Island Rotary Club to dinner at the Golden Corral
for a Beaufort Kennel Club meeting, Bass makes her presence in
Beaufort known.
Behind the subtle guise of looking for a new assistant, she
presents herself in front of hundreds of people at the different
clubs throughout the day.
"Hi, I'm Rebecca Bass, branch manager of Sunshine Mortgage
Corporation here in Beaufort," Bass repeats to the clubs' members.
"I'm looking for a mortgage assistant: Someone with excellent phone
skills, computer skills and a good sense of humor under stress."
After more than 20 years of transatlantic business trips as an
attorney and business executive, Bass, settled in Beaufort with her
husband of 28 years, Frank Vandegrift, to live a simpler life.
"It's a choice to be happy," Bass says.
And although her life might be slightly less chaotic than it
used to be, by most standards, it's full.
Bass is responsible for starting up the Beaufort branch of
Sunshine Mortgage, a full-service mortgage bank headquartered in
Atlanta.
With more than 350 ways to finance the purchase of a new primary
residence, second home or investment property, Bass says, her job
is to match a client's needs with the best financing solution.
In a booming real estate market, that translates to having
barely enough time to eat lunch between spending the day talking to
clients on the phone to break good, or bad, news, crunching numbers
on scraps of paper, meeting with a technology guy about connecting
to the main network, faxing paperwork, entering data into a pocket
PC and driving in to meet a client who is closing a deal on a house
just before meeting with a new client to go over initial paperwork.
"It's been nice having the office to myself, but I'm ready to
have someone help me," she says of her mortgage assistant quest.
Waterfront Sunrise
As the dawn creeps through the window, Bass rolls over to shut
off her Doberman alarm clock.
She wakes to remember her husband is away on a business trip.
It's 6 a.m.: Time to get up out of bed and take CoCo Chienel,
her rescued purebred Doberman, and Marigot, her rescued papillon
mix, for a long walk on the beach behind her Harbor Island home.
"The sun rises in the east from the ocean; it's beautiful," she
gloats leaning over a cup of freshly brewed Firehouse coffee before
a merchants association meeting at the coffeehouse. "It's how we
start every morning."
Fourteen hours after her morning walk with the dogs, Bass hasn't
been back home.
She is sitting in Golden Corral's meeting room, watching a video
projection on closed, white shutters about a dog show
superintendent company during a weekly Beaufort Kennel Club
meeting.
She is seemingly fascinated by the video, having competed with
her Doberman for several advanced obedience and agility titles.
Bass makes her announcement about looking for an assistant and
updates members on the club's new Web site, created by her during
late nights after work.
Her designer silk scarf is still in place, tucked into her black
pant suit, and her pinkish red lipstick and hair have been touched
up in her car before the meeting.
At 9:30 p.m., she cuts out early.
"I think it's time to go home," she whispers.
Copyright 2006 The Beaufort Gazette • May not be
republished in any form without the express written permission of
the publisher.