Shawn Cooke is the co-founder of Mortgage One Home Loans Corp. in Catonsville, Maryland. Prior to its opening in 2001, Shawn had ownership in six other businesses’ and a portfolio of rental property with approximately 35 tenants. Most of the businesses were spread out across Massachusetts, Maryland, Texas and Florida. While building his businesses and rental property portfolio, Shawn spent a great deal of time working with banks from the borrowing side of the settlement table. Having had his share of disappointing service from most lenders he dealt with, Shawn vowed that the borrowing process couldn’t possibly be that complicated and that if given the opportunity, he’d build a lending institution that provided the type of service customers deserved. In 2000 that opportunity presented itself when he finally sold his ownership in most of his business’s and was offered a job with a Mortgage Company in Hunt Valley, Maryland.

“It was quite a culture shock” admits Cooke. “I worked for myself for the last five or six years and now I was answering to someone else.” He welcomed the opportunity to learn and did just that when he became number one in the company with over 60 Loan Officers in his first month. After about a year of experience, Shawn teamed up with another Loan Officer at the company to found Mortgage One Home Loans Corp. in January of 2001.