We LOVE our readership. Our readers are intelligent, they are witty and they create some amazing discussions in our comment area. Sensei and I wanted to get to know our readership more. We began by simply talking with them through email or twitter. We quickly realized that our readers are so awesome that many other readers would love to read how amazing other readers are. We decided to create a new series titled ‘Conversation with a Reader‘. It is a series where we interview you, ask you personal/potentially embarrassing questions and publish the article.

If you’d like to be considered for our next article. Send us an email and provide us with a snippet of why we should interview you.

Below is our conversation with Mark Brennan, our first victim interviewee of Conversation with a Reader.

Q: Mark, tell us about yourself. (Tip: What do you do? Sports fan? What do you like to do?)

A: I am the Sales Manager for the Mortgage Development Centre at Servus Credit Union, and liaison with the mortgage broker communities in Southern Alberta to use Servus as their lender of choice. I am a big fan of lacrosse, have 2 boys who are active in the sport, and we cheer for our hometown team the Calgary Roughnecks. I like to travel, and while my job takes me around a lot of the province, I enjoy the travelling with my family the most.

What do you love most about Calgary?

Being born and raised in Calgary I look forward to the Calgary Stampede every year, and have always loved the close proximity to the mountains and enjoy going there as much as possible.

[Editors Note: Calgary Stampede is amazing, a must see for any Canadian!]

If we were to hand you $1 Million what would you do with it? (Provide 3 examples… we actually don’t have a million dollars to give haha)

I would definitely do the following in this order, and yes I would still keep working boss

1. Top up savings/investments/school funds
2. Donate to local charities (I have a short list of favorites I support)
3. Nice, long family holiday

What do you like about BankNerd.ca?

What I like is the Canadian focus first of all, which has been lacking online for people researching and finding relevant mortgage and banking information. The articles and topics are brief, yet full of enough content that the message is not watered down.

Who is your Top 10 Favourite people you follow?

A top 10 is hard since I will omit or offend someone here, since I feel each of my followers, and those I follow, all contribute something to my day in their own unique way (yes, even you bots I follow..). Here is a Top 10 in no particular order:

BankGuru

donnamct

CreditCardsCA

marvbeer

Bloomalicious

calgaryrants

johnmayberry

sunny_daze01

calgarystampede

VickiLLove

Since you are in Mortgages, Bank of Canada recently didn’t change its rates. Smart decision?

For the benefit of the spring/summer real estate markets it was a good decision, but feel it is only a delay of the inevitable rise that is coming. What has been important with this event coming is that the broker community and lending institutions have been more diligent in explaining the advantages and disadvantages of fixed and variable rate mortgages, so the right clients are making prudent decisions for now, and in the future.