Hours on QEW replaced by three-minute commute
After years of commuting to the Hamilton/Toronto area to work in the financial industry, mortgage broker Miles Kulik decided to bid the highway farewell, and open an office in the same small town where he resides. The smile on his face confirms Fonthill was the right decision.
A resident of Pelham for ten years, Kulik loves the lifestyle in Niagara. That view is shared by his wife, Jeannette, who has roots in Welland, and is a dental faculty member in the School of Applied Health Sciences at Niagara College. Daughter Emma completes the family picture.
Kulik’s new office—TMG, The Mortgage Group—is located next to Pelham Printing Promotions, and across the street from Desjardins Insurance, on Hwy 20 West. It’s a compact space, but it’s all that Kulik requires. Previously he shared office space around the corner on Pelham Street.
With 20 years in the business, he has written some 2000 residential and commercial mortgages. The average mortgage was $80,000 when he started his career, he said with a laugh.
Growing up in the Windsor area, Kulik earned an undergrad degree at Western, followed by a mortgage broker diploma program at Seneca College. An MBA from Queen’s tops off his educational qualifications.
Community service has always been important to Kulik. He has commenced a three-year term on the board of directors of Habitat for Humanity, and was a girls basketball coach for six years with the Niagara Basketball Academy and Welland Warriors. He is eager to roll up his sleeves with local, Pelham-based charitable efforts like Summerfest.
Discussing the current global pandemic, Kulik said, “How does the business world react going forward? We know the next few months, at minimum, we’ll be dealing with some difficult situations. But six months from now, what will businesses contemplate? The recovery phase may very well prove to be more painful than the initial shock phase.”
Kulik noted that statistically the real estate industry in Canada was the biggest part of our GDP for last number of years.
“I see here an opportunity to help people here who have been previously getting mortgage expertise from further afield,” he said. “I’ve spent a lot of time building a client base, establishing relationships.”
Having travelled extensively across the country, Kulik is not shy about proclaiming that, to his mind, Niagara is the best place to live in Canada. “I really wouldn’t want to be anywhere else,” he said.
