My Member Story-Brian Hawkins

We got to know Brian Hawkins when he came to Mountain America Credit Union in search of help. He and his wife had decided to finish their basement to give their four kids more room to hang out. Brian hired a skilled acquaintance—someone he knew and trusted—to help him with the job.
 
After working on the job for about a month, this person just stopped showing up to Brian’s house. There was excuse after excuse and, eventually, all communication stopped. Brian knew that he couldn’t waste time feeling sorry for himself—he had to get the basement finished. But, with the money gone, he wasn’t sure how that was going to happen.
 
Brian reached out to Mountain America to see what his options were. That’s when he learned about a HELOC (Home Equity Line of Credit). The HELOC allowed him to have access to a convenient line of credit—similar to a credit card—where he could continue to borrow and repay as needed.
 
Not only was Brian able to get the basement finished for his family, but he had enough equity in his home to borrow additional money to further his business, Tiny House Movement. He’s been building tiny homes for the last six years and had wanted to try his hand at building a shipping container home.
 
So, that’s what he did!
 
Affordable housing is Brian’s passion. He could have easily stayed on the path of building and selling homes. But, after using social media to market his tiny homes, he realized that what he had were a lot of builders of tiny homes around the world who needed help with social media, and a lot of people who were in need of an affordable place to live.
 
Now, in addition to building tiny homes, Brian has built a place for the tiny house community to gather. Whether you’re a builder, a designer or someone who just wants to live a simpler life, check out @tinyhousemovement on Instagram.
 
Watch the full video above to get more of the story.