Like many young people, Jarod Mathiason grew up in Martin County, attended college and moved to the Twin Cities because of job opportunities. Many of these people, as they get older and start families, find their priorities changing, and they return home.

Mathiason’s 20-year-old brother, Tyler, was killed in a motorcycle accident in June 2017. His father-in-law was having health issues.

“It re-shifted our values, from trying to build a career to wanting to get closer to family again. We just wanted to get back to the area,” Mathiason said. “It’s funny, but I spent the first 25 years of my life trying to get out of Fairmont and Martin County, and in the last year, we’ve been trying our hardest to get back.”

Mathiason was raised on a farm outside of Granada, graduated from Granada-Huntley-East Chain High School and then earned a business management degree from Rasmussen College. His wife, Amy (Pierson), is originally from Truman. In 2010, they moved to the Twin Cities area, eventually settling in Faribault, where he worked for a home health care company for a couple of years until a friend recruited him to work for a Mankato mortgage broker.

A few months ago, the family bought a home in Spirit Lake, Iowa, and moved there but decided they wanted to move back to Martin County to be even closer to family.

“That really became more important to us,” Mathiason said. “Right now, our house is on the market, and I’ve been commuting from Spirit Lake every day. That’s my 40 minutes of quiet time every day.”

The Mathiasons have three sons, ages 12, 10 and 6.

“I always joke that I’m no longer a father. I’m a referee,” Mathiason said.

The boys coped with a tough transition from a STEM school where they spent the majority of their time outside to a more traditional educational system with indoor class times.

“It was very hard for them, and I felt bad about that, but they’re very excited to move to Martin County. They’re really, really excited,” Mathiason said.

He’s not really sure exactly when or where the family will move, and they don’t plan to look for a house until they get an offer on their Spirit Lake home.

“But it will be in Martin County, for certain,” he said.

As a senior loan officer for Supreme Lending, Mathiason will concentrate on helping people buy homes in Martin, Faribault and Jackson counties. He is licensed in Iowa and Minnesota and has sold homes from border to border in both states, but he considers this stretch of the Interstate 90 corridor as his service area.

“It’s home. My kind of people. We speak the same language,” he said.

Supreme Lending is a fairly new company, originating in 1999, but it operates in all 50 states. In 2016, it was one of the top 15 mortgage lenders in the nation.

“We help folks get financing to purchase homes and also refinance their existing mortgage. We do a lot of work with insurance agents, and we do a lot of work with realtors,” Mathiason said.

Mathiason’s office, located on the second floor of Victoria State Crossing (Welchlin building), is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays like the majority of other business offices, but he encourages evening and weekend calls.

“Most of our clients work during regular business hours so we’re not able to communicate during those times,” he said. “I like to run my business model the same as a realtor. They’ll take phone calls at 8 p.m. They’ll take phone calls all weekend. I actually promote to my clients that they call me after hours if they have a question or a concern or something they want to talk about.”

He encouraged people to get pre-approved before they go house hunting, calling it the courteous and professional thing to do for their realtor.

“They won’t want to show you several houses if you don’t qualify for a loan,” he said.

Mathiason said he has met several others who have shared similar life experiences.

“I’m meeting a lot of folks that are my age, in their mid 30s, that took that 10 or 15 years away. They grabbed a lot of experience and expertise in different areas, and now they’re bringing it back to Martin County,” he said.

“It’s really refreshing to see Martin County and Fairmont and the entire area from an adult perspective. We’re really happy to be back.”

To contact Mathiason, call Supreme Lending at (507) 200-3493 or his cell at (507) 848-1902.