SWEDESBORO — National Fidelity Mortgage Lending (NFM Lending), which recently relocated to Swedesboro from Penns Grove, held an open house on Friday, Feb. 27.
The Mortgage lender opened its doors at 1524 Kings Highway to a number of invited neighbors and business associates to introduce themselves to the community. The southern New Jersey branch has operated out of Penns Grove for the past 10 years.
Branch Managers Jerry Cook and Bill Lex decided upon the move since the local economy in the Swedesboro area seemed to be heading in the right direction at the right pace. “While the Penns Grove economy has a great deal of potential, it is noticeably not progressing as rapidly toward positive economic growth,” said Lex.
Cook, 42, resides in Woolwich Township with his wife, Darleen, and two children, Justin, a junior at Rowan University, and Jonathon, an honor student at Kingsway. Cook has been in the financial services industry for over 18 years, and swiftly advancing through the banking ranks before starting his own brokerage in 2004.
In 2009, he turned the company into a retail branch of Summit Mortgage and in April of 2011 joined the NFM family. NFM Lending is a multi-state residential mortgage lender, currently licensed in 30 states.
Co-Branch manager, Lex, 46, has himself been in the mortgage industry for the past 20 years. Upon recalling the purchase of his first home with his college sweetheart wife Maureen, a special education teacher in West Deptford School District, Lex remembers the terrible feeling of having questions over the weekend and at nights.
The inability to reach his lender while the thoughts were fresh has always stuck with him. Since this experience, Lex decided that a transaction as important as buying a home should not just have a lender who is available during business hours, but rather a lender who acts as an advocate to the purchaser during the process.
Having earned his MBA in finance from Rowan University and spending time as a financial planner, Lex is uniquely qualified to provide mortgage advice to meet the client’s short term goals, and to help them plan their long term goals. Lex is the father of sons Billy and Daniel who are both active in wrestling, football and basketball.
In business relationships just as familial relationships, it is important to establish and maintain communication and rapport to keep the relationship healthy and growing. In addition to being co-owners of the Swedesboro NFM Lending branch, Cook and Lex are close friends and often travel with their families together to Disney World, skiing in the Poconos, or Ocean City, NJ in the summer.
The Grand Opening “gala” held on Friday was the first step in forging what NFM Lending hopes is a wonderful, long term relationship with the town of Swedesboro.
