A decade in the underwriting room, now on your side of the desk.
For more than a decade, Alecia sat on the other side of the desk. As a mortgage underwriter, she reviewed thousands of files and made the quiet decisions that shape a family's life — who gets the keys, whose dream gets deferred, and why. She processed SBA loans for small business owners, prepared taxes, and handled insurance claims — every angle of the same question: does this file tell a lender what it needs to hear?
Most applicants never learn the answer. They submit, they wait, and a stranger with a spreadsheet decides in fifteen minutes. Alecia built Rich & Rooted to close that gap — to bring what she knows out of the back office and into the hands of the people actually trying to buy homes, grow businesses, and build something that lasts.
The philosophy is simple: prepare the file, then present it. No commissions on loans she didn't write, no referral chains, no upsells. You pay for her time and her eye. What you leave with is a packet a lender can't easily say no to — and the understanding to defend every line in it.
Alecia holds a Bachelor's in Business Administration with a finance concentration, and a Master's in Communication. The first anchors the technical side of the practice — loan criteria, underwriting mechanics, and business-loan packaging for SBA and small-business engagements. The second does quieter work: turning lender requirements into plain language, helping applicants tell their own file back to the people grading it.
“The file is decided before the decision. My job is to make sure yours arrives already telling the right story.”
Five files she brings to yours.
BBA (Finance) & MA Communication
Bachelor of Business Administration with a finance concentration — the technical foundation for reading lender criteria, underwriting, and business-loan packaging. A Master's in Communication — the discipline of translating those requirements into clear, applicant-side documentation.
10+ Years Mortgage Underwriting
Direct review of thousands of residential files — conventional, FHA, VA — across market cycles and lender overlays.
SBA Loan Processing
Hands-on preparation of Small Business Administration loan packages — 7(a), 504, and the artifacts examiners look for.
Tax Preparation & Documentation
Income documentation, returns, schedules — the paperwork that lenders actually rely on to size and qualify a borrower.
Insurance Claims Experience
Complex claim review and documentation — a parallel discipline in reading evidence, building narratives, and defending files.
Applicant-Side Advocacy
Everything above pointed one direction. Rich & Rooted is what happens when the gatekeeper chooses sides.