A Mortgage Boutique comes to Farragut
Aimee MacIlveen, Farragut High School Class of 1989 graduate, is bringing the first A Mortgage Boutique branch to Farragut.
Growing up in Farragut and now living in Hardin Valley, MacIlveen has been in the mortgage business for 23 years.
“I made sure the previous two companies I represented had a physical presence in Farragut,” she said. “The bulk of my business and business referrals have always been families in Farragut. I am a Farragut girl from way back.
“I was in the old middle school that became the Bi-Lo,” MacIlveen, branch manager, added. “My eighth-grade class was the first class in the ‘new’ middle school.”
According to its website, A Mortgage Boutique, which is based out of Murfreesboro, provides conventional, Federal Housing Administration government-backed mortgages, Veterans Administration and U.S. Department of Agriculture loans and refinancing opportunities.
As for a physical Town presence, however, “We are looking for office space in Farragut, currently,” she said.
“Right now, I’m working from my home, and so much of what I do is through the Internet and through e-mail and I have a secure website,” MacIlveen added. “I like to think the greatest compliment a customer can give is to refer their adult children to me, invite me to a wedding … become part of their story.”
Though small, it offers the same mortgage products as bigger companies — while providing more personal service.
Retta Gardner, A Mortgage Boutique CEO, was her boss at another financial business, where MacIlveen was employed for about 10 years. That Knoxville business was owned by Volunteer State Bank, which was sold to new owners.
“(It was a) wonderful company, but it kind of became a big, corporate thing,” MacIlveen recalled. “So, my boss wanted to return to the grassroots model of customer service, sort of anti-big box, just making sure the customer is at the heart of the experience.
“That’s always been my business model, not that the corporate and online companies don’t do what they do wonderfully well, but I’m just a customer service girl,” she added. “It’s not a one-size-fits-all business.”
Gardner left in April 2019 for Murfreesboro, and in August 2019 she started A Mortgage Boutique.
“She called me then and said, ‘One of these days I’m going to call you and we are going to open a Knoxville branch again,’” MacIlveen said.
That call came the day before COVID shut down the nation.
“She told me, ‘It’s time,’” MacIlveen recalled. “Like everybody, we thought this (pandemic) would last for, like, a few weeks. We finally decided in June it’s now or never.”
“Interest rates are insanely low and the market is so brisk here that we were missing an opportunity if we didn’t jump on it,” she added.
Meanwhile, MacIlveen continues to look for a branch location, though with COVID-19 prevention restrictions, her search has been a challenge.
“So much of my clientele is out here,” she said.
MacIlveen said she has no set hours.
For more information, call 615-622-7600 anytime, send an e-mail to aimee.macilveen@amortgageboutique.com or visit online at www.aimeemacilveen.com.
