A success story: Louise Bourcier of First National Bank Alaska: this ladder-climber is helping multi-family homebuyers meet their dreams.

At an age when most girls read fashion magazines and think about which college to go to, Louise Bourcier started her career in banking. Going from high school to the coveted corner office started with something as simple as a summer job. At the age of 17, Bourcier began work as an administrative assistant to the president at a local bank in Camas, Wash. She started by running errands for her boss. "Pretty soon," she says, "I was getting really involved."

LOANS AND MORE LOANS

A quarter of a century later, Bourcier is still involved. She is now a vice president in the corporate lending division at First National Bank Alaska in Anchorage. She specializes in preparing loans for owners of multi-family units (buildings with five apartments or more). Bourcier is in her second stint at the bank. Back in the 1980s, she worked as a mortgage loan officer in the residential division. There, she loaned millions of dollars to Alaskans looking to own homes.

After that first stint at First National, she followed her husband to Birmingham, Ala., where they lived for several years before returning to Alaska.

What is it like to be back in Alaska, working for one of the nation's highest rated banks-all over again? Bourcier says that her many years in finance have taught her some basics: interacting with clients, answering questions, and finding unique products for each client who wants to invest in real estate.

FIELD WORK, TOO

An average day for Bourcier starts with appointments with potential borrowers. When she's not consulting with clients at the bank, she's out in the field, attending inspections of properties. The bank initiates inspections and engineers prepare the reports. The engineers also note required repairs that need immediate attention and record the quality of other systems in the building, such as heating and electrical.

After the inspection, the calculations begin. Bourcier analyzes the income and expenses of potential borrowers and the property. How much income did the client earn last year? How much did the property cost to operate, i.e. heating and other operating costs?

Since her return in 2005, Bourcier has directed the bank's Business Manager program, as well as helped to launch the state's first Fannie Mae MFlex[R] program. The MFlex program gives First National the expanded ability to originate more loans secured by multi-family properties. Owners can use the loans to acquire or refinance properties. If they refinance, they can draw equity from their projects. In 2005, Fannie Mae invested more than $25 billion in multi-family housing.

In May, First National introduced Fannie Mae MFlex to the state. "Alaska has a large number of multi-family properties," Bourcier says. "This program offers people in the state a national program with competitive interest rates."

Many people throughout the state realize that apartments can provide an excellent cash flow. Bourcier says that owning and running multi-family units is not for everyone. For owners up to the task of maintaining the property and attracting renters, though, the investment can be successful.

Bourcier has made her own investment in First National. She enjoys the fact that the company's locally owned and family owned.

"It has local knowledge, local service and local decisions," she says. Local is invariably important in Alaska, where sheer remoteness makes it unlike any other state in the union.

What advice does Bourcier give to young people who want her job?

"You need good communication skills," she says. "Expressing yourself clearly and concisely is the difference between acceptance and rejection. In addition, you also need analytical skills for determining creditworthiness. You need to enter data in spreadsheets. Finally, you need to be able to get along with a variety of people."