Clay Collins:
CLASS OF 1976
Glenbrook South High SchoolClass of 1976
Glenview, IL
University of Florida - BusinessClass of 1980
Gainesville, FL
Vero Beach High SchoolClass of 1976
Vero beach, FL
Springman Junior High SchoolClass of 1972
Glenview, IL
Lyon Elementary SchoolClass of 1970
Glenview, IL
Clay's Story
Life:
I moved from Glenview, Illinois after my freshman year at Glenbrook South, in July of 1973, to Vero Beach, Florida. I graduated from Vero Beach High School in 1976, the University of Florida in 1980 with a degree in Marketing and Rollins College in 1982 with an MBA. I have been employed in the banking industry for over 33 years, with over 30 years in residential mortgage lending. I founded and managed Advantage Home Mortgage Corporation from June of 1994 until the end of 2010. After working for two commercial banks I decided to open Collins Home Mortgage, located in Vero Beach. I took four months off from work to form the company and opened on 1/4/16. The company specializes in the origination and closing of Conventional, Jumbo, FHA, VA, USDA Rural Housing, non-prime mortgage and reverse mortgage loans throughout the State of Florida with a concentration in Indian River County (Vero Beach and Sebastian). The company does business with lenders across the nation which allows us to search for the best interest rates, loan terms and in many cases niche products to meet our clients specific needs. We hope to open at least one loan production office per year with anticipated offices in Sebastian, Viera, Port St. Lucie, Stuart/Palm City, Jupiter, Palm Beach Gardens, Wellington, Boca Ration and Delray Beach, Florida. When we find the a loan officer that views the industry as we do, always doing what is best for the client, we will open an office for that person. So the markets we enter may change based on finding the right loan officer.
On June 12, 2016 my wife, Jenae, and I celebrated our 34th wedding anniversary. It is hard to believe that she has put up with me for so many years. We have two children. Our son, Clayton, is 31 years old and graduated from Elon University in North Carolina with a ...Expand for more
degree in Finance, worked for Citibank in Manhattan for three years and then went back to school and graduated from the Fuqua School of Business MBA program at Duke. After working as an associate in the Mergers and Acquisitions Division of RBC Capital Markets Division in Manhattan, he started a "search fund" called Riomar Capital. His firm recently acquired Housing Wire, based in Dallas, which is the nations most influential source of information in regards housing finance. Clayton and his wife, Lesley, were married in October of 2013 and have a two month old daughter, Clare. Our daughter, Carrie, is 29 years old and graduated from the University of Central Florida with a degree in Pyschology, completed a second degree in nursing and is now an RN at Lawn Regional Hospital. Carrie and her husband, Chet, married in December of 2010. They have a daughter, Emily, who will be two this December.
Though I did not graduate from Glenbrook South I have always been an alumni in spirit. My years in Glenview at Lyon Elementary, Springman Junior High and my freshman year at Glenbrook South were the best years a young person could have and I have never forgotten the friends that I made in Glenview. My three years at Vero Beach High School were mainly spent in the gym working to become a decent basketball player and improve my vertical leap (a battle that I lost), so I did not get to know many of my classmates from the the VBHS Class of 1976. However, over the last 40 years I have been lucky enough to get to know and become friends with many of my classmates from the VBHS Class of 1976. My parents could not have picked two better places to raise their children then Glenview, Illinois and Vero Beach, Florida. They did a great of job choosing where to raise the four of us.
(Updated 10/15/16)
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