About

ALEX VARELA  

Branch Manager     Regional Sales Manager     NMLS: 184823
Team Varela | Neighborhood Loans

BORN - Feb 3, 1983

I was born in Cook county hospital in Chicago, Illinois to a poor family. My father was a leader in an organized street gang and was in and out of my life until I was seven years old. Looking back on this I am a lot like my father. I just took his personality traits and used them in a different venue. He was charismatic, good looking, a leader, sharp, creative, aggressive, passionate, loyal, determined, and was always helping somebody out. He was in and out of prison and he raised us with street smarts. My mom was a shy lady who managed to graduate from high school and by the time she was twenty, was pregnant with my brother and later married my father. Both of them were raised in the barrio (Mexican Hood) of Chicago. As a young boy, I was exposed to all the nastiness that life had to offer. I saw drugs, guns, aggression, violence, my father arrested and beaten by the police, gang bangers, family with Aids, poverty, you name it and I was exposed to it.


MOVED TO TEXAS - 1990

We later relocated to Euless, Texas because my aunt lived there. We were looking for a fresh start as a family again. My father worked in a factory for $4.15/ hour and my mom worked at McDonalds. They did the best they could, and it would be an insult to complain about how I was raised. I played sports, had friends, had birthday parties, food, cool clothes, and anything a teenage boy would want. I was always ahead of the curve. I skipped kindergarten and went to first grade because I thought kindergarten was boring. I always made good grades in school. I was put into special classes in elementary for gifted kids. I always took honors classes in high school.


BRAUM'S - 1998 | MIMI'S - 2000

When I got my first job at Braums when I was 15 years old I was recognized as one of their best employees, then Tom Thumb, Winn Dixie, Bennigan’s, Mimi’s Café, and then City Mortgage Group.


GRADUATED | GRAPEVINE HIGH SCHOOL – 2000

I was attending university at UNT in Denton Texas and I was a junior. I was pretty fed up with training at Mimi’s Café and was a little upset that I passed on a position to travel with the company and open up new locations. I knew if I left I would never come back to finish college. I met a patron, Andy Butler, who frequented Mimi’s Café. My friend Megan was his nanny and she always said I would get along with him and that he was super ambitious and did very well in his business. He came in one day in his Porsche 911 Turbo, and I knew that car was more expensive than my parents’ home. While serving he and his family that same day, I walked away from his table and stopped dead in my tracks. I thought to myself, this is the moment where you need to say something or do something. You have nothing to lose.

I went back to the table and I said, “Mr. Butler, I don’t know what you do for a living, but I want to do it too. I will start from the bottom, and I will do my best.”

He blushed and was kind to me and said he would keep it in mind. 6 weeks later he left me a voice message. I ended up at dinner with he and his wife. Before dinner came he offered me a job. I took it.

Then I asked him, “Mr. Butler, what do you do for a living?” He said, “mortgages.” I said, “what is a mortgage.” That was almost 15 years ago.


CITY MORTGAGE GROUP (1ST JOB) – JUNE 2003

I literally sat on his desk and watched him take loan application after loan application. He taught me everything. How to talk on the phone, how to meet a client in person, how to sell a mortgage etc. After the first year I asked to get licensed and he allowed me to. I then did loans for him and split the profit. It was a generous offer.

He gave me my start. Sometimes you get an opportunity and you have to walk through the door before it closes. I did all the basics of marketing and focused on giving the best service possible and maintaining relationships with clients and their real estate agents. It took years to build the business and has been worth every sacrifice.


Neighborhood Loans – JULY 2022

Here I am, today. I’ve been through it all. I’ve started from the bottom; now, I’m here.

I wouldn’t trade it with the world. Because of where I’ve been, I can help your family get to where it’s going.


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