Longtime Spokane-area lending officer Carla Scott-Durheim says she has opened a home-loan brokerage here, called QualitySource Mortgage, that works under the umbrella of a New Mexico company.

Scott-Durheim says the new office, located in 250 square feet of leased space at 920 S. Argonne, is an affiliate of Roswell, N.M.-based PrimeSource Mortgage Inc. She says the office here couldn't use the PrimeSource name because it already is taken in Washington state, so the new operation will do business under the QualitySource Mortgage name. She is the only employee.

Scott-Durheim, who has 20 years of experience in the industry, worked most recently for the Spokane office of Quantum Mortgage Northwest, she says.

QualitySource offers home loans, including Federal Housing Administration, Veterans Administration, and rural development loans; refinancings; and reverse mortgages, which allow older homeowners to benefit from equity in their homes while they continue to live there.

Scott-Durheim says she decided to open her own mortgage-lending business because she believed it would allow her to manage her work more efficiently and give her more control over the lending process. As an affiliate of PrimeSource, the business here pays a flat fee to PrimeSource for each loan it closes in exchange for help with marketing, a Web site, and access to lenders, she says.

She says she is a survivor in the mortgage-lending industry.

"I can't do anything but go up at this time when so many are going away. I'm doing the same thing I've always done at a different location and with a different name," Scott-Durheim says.

PrimeSource has a network of more than 30 individually-owned and operated branches in 15 states.