Coming from a war-torn country, Glenn Parada was surrounded by poverty and traumatic experiences as a child witnessing violence. He was born in El Salvador at the peak of the ‘Black Years of The War.’ His father, an evangelical minister of the Assemblies of God Churches, miraculously obtained a legal entry into the US for his family. They had nothing to make them remain in the hardships and extreme violence of the war. Glenn Parada and his family flew to New York City and later to New Jersey in search of the American Dream. This was the beginning of a new journey for a future US veteran to build a mortgage empire.
Parada’s Background
Since his early life, Parada was always active in community outreach events and awareness programs focused on self-actualization. Coming from a patriotic family and as an act of gratitude towards the opportunities America had given him, he enlisted into the U.S. Army right out of High School.
After serving in the U.S. military in-country and abroad as an Armored Tank crew member, he found himself starting new in Maryland. Glenn shares that it was difficult to re-adjust to the civilian lifestyle after leaving his military service. After many failed attempts of restarting his life, he was unemployed, broke, and homeless, he did everything he could to remain headstrong. Then out of chance his brother introduced him to the mortgage industry and put him to work as a loan officer. With zero experience and out of desperation and eagerness to succeed, he began his new career.
The Learning Process
It was apparent that he had to quickly learn the ins and outs of the industry because he didn’t even understand the lingo , terms and processing cycle of originating a mortgage. This was during the subprime era of mortgages, yet he was surrounded by the flashy lifestyle of his colleagues that were closing 30 to 60 loans per month.
One day he asked his brother about the industry, and he told him to be resourceful and ask the account executives. Out of frustration and determination, he literally called every account executive on the company’s list, and studied all guidelines, mortgage software and regulations. This kind of work sparked an opportunity that led to his promotion. A loan officer asked him a mortgage question that he answered, only for the owner of the company to tell Glenn he was wrong During the meeting with the investor, the owner found out that Glenn was in fact the one on top of his game. This was the first step towards his mortgage career empire, his brother’s advice to be resourceful had paid off.
The Paradigm Shift
Glenn Parada was promoted to manage over 30 loan officers in submitting their mortgage loans. That was a milestone in Glenn’s journey to achieving his dreams. From then on, he got a series of promotions that came with added responsibilities. ‘I was responsible for 100% accuracy for over $20 million in residential mortgages monthly, ’ he recalls. He later became a Vice President of Corporate Training and Director of Administration for two major direct lenders. His role was to create and lead a sales teams.
After working and building experience within some Fortune 500 companies, Glenn Parada took a bold step and started his own mortgage company. Parada Mortgage has since then grown exponentially with outstanding success. He has been in the lead to offer quality mortgage and brokerage services to residential borrowers and investors. He has given back to the community by volunteering on boards like community Chambers geared towards helping the hispanic community in achieving homeownership and military organizations like the Association of the United States Army focused on giving back to veterans.
An Empire serving the Latino Community
Glenn is on a mission to empower hispanics. From his Christian upbringing and added foundation of military values he is galvanized to achieve all his milestones he sets in his mind. He advocates for homeownership within the hispanic community to educate them in creating generational wealth. He extends his philanthropic acts to the point of offering mortgage programs for those in the hispanic community with no credit, unsourceable funds regardless of legal status within the U.S.
Bigger milestones are within the near future of Glenn Parada from his birth country of El Salvador to the United States. He is currently the Political Director of the State of Florida for the Republican National Hispanic Assembly (RNHA) and aspires to grow his political position. Nonetheless, Glenn has become a high-level entrepreneur within the mortgage industry and is concentrating in building his empire from “Billionaires row” in Palm Beach, Florida. He is a true voice on behalf of the latino and veteran communities.