Welcome to yet another Loan Officer Spotlight! This time around we are so excited to be introducing Traci Dellinger! Traci has been with GoPrime for eight years now, and what a wonderful eight years it has been! She is the Branch Manager at our Lincolnton, North Carolina branch!
Traci’s education was in fashion marketing and merchandising. Shortly after graduating college, she secured herself a part time job in the staffing industry that turned into a full-time job soon after. Even though the job was very demanding and generated little reward for her, she continued in her position for a total of seven years. During those seven years, Traci got married, built a house, and had a baby. Now, it just so happened that Traci’s best friend was a loan officer, and Traci had the opportunity to work with her to secure her construction loan. Then they worked together again to turn her construction loan into a permanent loan. Over the course of all of this, Traci learned a lot about mortgages and found herself very intrigued by the mortgage industry. So much so that in 1999, she found a local mortgage broker that was seeking a Loan Officer and took a leap of faith. She has been working in the business ever since.
From 2005 to 2013, Traci owned and operated her own brokerage. However, heavy regulations did not make this an easy task for her. She found herself writing the Red Flags manuals and all compliance. She was also handling all of the advertising, marketing, and accounting all while still trying to be a Loan Officer. She eventually decided that she could no longer wear all of those hats at the same time. Wanting to focus more on loan originating, she began looking for a local, family-owned company that had the same core values as her. In her search, she found GoPrime, and the rest was history!
When asked about her biggest strengths when it comes to her career, Traci pointed out that as someone who was once a first-time homebuyer, she knows exactly what it is like to not know. Therefore, she does what she can to help educate her clients. She also credits her background in marketing and her ability to multitask as some of her other strengths. It also helps that she doesn’t mind all the paperwork. Later, when asked what her favorite part about her job was, Traci answered with, “Seeing families’ excitement when they get the keys to their very first home and helping first generation buyers. It surely is the American Dream.”
In her younger years, Traci was constantly volunteering in her local community. In her own words, she, “couldn’t say no.” While there was a time that she could not wait to begin college and get out of her small town of Lincolnton, being away from it is what really made her appreciate it. Her local community quickly became extremely important to her. She was very active in the Boger City Optimist club while her son was playing sports. If she wasn’t at work, she was at the ball field volunteering. She also served on the Board of Directions for the Lincoln County Board of Realtors for six years. During this time, she organized many fundraisers and worked closely with the board to give back to the community. Today, Traci still organizes fundraisers for those in need when she can!
When asked about what has been helping get her through the pandemic, Traci cited her work with GoPrime as what has helped her most. With the purchase and refinance market booming during COVID, she found herself with no shortage of work to do. She also mentioned that COVID provided her with more opportunities to help her community. She worked with another woman in her town to distribute over 500 masks to Christian Ministries of Lincolnton, the Senior Center of Lincoln County, and several other seniors in the community that needed masks.
In her free time, Traci loves going on trips with her family and friends to either the beach or mountains. She also loves taking little day trips with her mother to visit new places. She said, “It’s nothing for us to get in the car to go shopping and end up in Boone for the day.” Traci loves water, and you can often find her boating and/or fishing on Lake Norman. She also loves sports, so it is not uncommon to find her attending several ballgames. Traci commented, “I am definitely an outdoors person and enjoy biking, hiking, pickleball, walking, planting flowers, swimming, sunbathing – basically anything outdoors.”
When asked about the one thing that she wants people to know about her, Traci said that she is very competitive in all aspects of life. She is a major do-it-yourselfer, so she always has projects going on at her house. She said, “I feel like if you put your mind to it, you can do anything. I’m always on the go!”
Our team is so lucky to have you, Traci! Thank you for all your hard work and dedication not only over this past year, but over the past eight years as well! Keep up the great work!