Tim Harty, The Business Times

Jenny Smith was a middle-school girl in Fruita with an odd career goal: Work in a home-loan office.

Then she went to college, graduated and ended up a long ways away from that middle-school dream. Like in Guatemala far away and working in an orphanage.

Then, girl met boy. They fell in love and eloped. Bye bye, Guatemala! Back to the States with my Marine hubby! Hi, Mom, can I have a job?

And voila! Jenny’s doing what her middle-school self wanted all along, only now her last name is Walker. And she’s not just “working” at a home-loan office. She owns it. Thanks, Mom!

That really is the story in a nutshell for how Town & Country Finance’s Jenny Walker became the owner of the business where she worked for her mom as a middle-schooler and now has worked the past 10 years.

On Jan. 1, Walker’s mom, Shelly Smith, sold Town & Country Finance Corp, the home-loan business that she started in Fruita 30 years ago, putting it in the capable hands of a daughter who loves this stuff.

“As a middle schooler, you’d need a little extra cash, so that’s what I did,” Walker said. “I kind of helped in the office then, starting in middle school just here and there and just kind of watching my mom, listening to her talk about everything.

“And really, even back then I loved it. And I knew I loved it. So I always wanted to do it then, which sounds kind of silly as a middle-schooler that that’s what you want to do, but I did.

“But then I also had another dream to work at an orphanage. That was something I always wanted to do.”

After college, Walker went to Guatemala and worked at an orphanage for three-and-a-half years “and just loved it,” she said.

And she might have stayed there, but after a trip home to Fruita for Thanksgiving in 2014, she ran into former high school classmate Cody Walker, a Marine home on leave. That led to long-distance dating, an April marriage proposal by Cody, a June 6 flight by Jenny back to the States, a drive by Jenny and Cody to Las Vegas and an elopement on June 7.

They were married, but Cody was still in the Marines and had to go back to California, so Jenny went back to Colorado.

“I think it was just a week later that I started working at Town & Country,” Jenny said. “I came to work for my mom again and this time, though, as a loan processor and just loved it. I loved working with all the customers and being back in Fruita, and working alongside my mom was so special.”

After working as a loan processor for a couple years, she graduated to loan originator, Shelly Smith’s longtime role.

“Everything just moved perfectly, really,” Jenny said. “I mean, we have just been very blessed at Town & Country, and I’ve been so fortunate to learn from my mom, who is extremely savvy in the mortgage world. But also more than anything just – I mean, I don’t know if you know my mom, but everyone, everyone she meets loves her. She’s an amazing lady and no better person to learn from, really.

“And now here I am, and she retired … I’m very, very blessed and grateful and excited for this new journey.”

Being the owner will bring additional responsibilities, but in a small office with three full-time staffers and one part-timer, everyone knows what’s happening.

“I have been kind of doing some of the responsibilities of an owner in the past couple of years, so it’s not too different, I guess, which is kind of nice,” Jenny said. “I think (Smith) definitely taught me well. … Shelly and I have kind of the past 10 years been more of a partnership – not partnership, a team, I guess you could say.”

Smith knows exactly what Jenny means. Being able to team up with her daughter “made it a lot more fun and really was a boon, a boost to me, because she brought with it her younger knowledge of the new technology and just a different aspect of just the youth and energy,” she said.

Being able to sell her business to Jenny means a lot to Smith. She started Town & Country Finance shortly after giving birth to twin boys – Nos. 5 and 6 of what eventually would be seven children – and her business was like another child that she nurtured.

“What I love is that it’s going to go on now to the next generation,” Smith said. “My clients have been one generation – even two really, because some of their children have come in – and now Jenny gets to carry it on to yet another generation, which is really neat.”

WHERE TO FIND THEM AND WHY

Town & Country Finance Corp., 122 E. Aspen Ave. in Fruita, does residential home loans, home refinances and reverse mortgages.

Worth noting: Jenny Walker speaks fluent Spanish.

Find Town & Country Finance online at tcfinance.net, or call the office at 970-858-4752.

CAREER CHANGE AT 70

Suggesting former Town & Country Finance owner Shelly Smith has retired earns a laugh from the woman who will turn 70 this year, as she said, “Except I’m not really retired. I’m working at my son’s restaurant.”

The son is Aaron Smith, who owns Strayhorn Grill, 456 Kokopelli Dr. in Fruita. And Shelly is now the manager, which is a full-time gig.

“Just a new dream, a new adventure, that’s all. I guess it tells you that even at 70, you’re just never too old to try new things,” Shelly said.

She added, “It’s a different kind of work, a different stress. It’s just different. I get to instead of sitting down and be behind the desk all day, I’m up visiting with customers. … It’s visiting the people that I already know from being in Fruita for so many years. That’s the enjoyable part of it. I still get to see all my customers.”

A PLACE WITH A FACE

The continuation of Town & Country Finance Corp. under Walker’s ownership proves a small home-loan business can survive and thrive in an age when mortgages can be done online without the customer ever sitting across a desk from the loan officer.

“I would have thought the small broker might be gone by now, but it’s not, it’s still here,” Shelly Smith said. “And the thing that I think separates Town & Country from obviously the online Rocket Mortgages and those is that you still have a face to your loan. You still walk in our door, sit down, and you sit across the table from us to help you with your loan. If you have questions, you walk in the door, you sit down, and we’re right here.”

That led Smith to share Town & Country Finance’s two mission statements:

One is: Town & Country, where our customers become our friends. The other is: Town & Country Finance will go out of our way for you.

“And that just to me is a very Fruita motto,” Smith said. “If we have a senior citizen that needs their loan papers delivered to them, boom, we’re on it, Jenny will run them right to that door. If the senior citizen needs us to come to their house for the closing, we’ll arrange a mobile notary and go to their house for the closing.”

NOTHING GETS DONE WITHOUT HER

Not to be forgotten in the ownership shuffle is the stellar work Amanda Ottman does for Town & Country Finance as its loan processor.

“She’s been with Town & Country for seven years now, and she has stayed a constant for us,” Walker said. “And we could not do it without her. She’s just wonderful.”