About First Choice

An independent Augusta broker — opened in 1992, still right here on Davis Road.

First Choice Mortgage has been writing home loans for the CSRA for more than three decades. Same broker model. Same focus on getting you the right loan instead of the only loan available at one bank. Same kind of people picking up the phone.

Our story

Three decades of pressing for the right loan, not the easy one.

First Choice opened in Augusta in 1992. It was always a broker — never a single-investor lender — because the founders believed the best deal for a borrower almost never came from the same place twice.

That structure is still the heart of how we work. We carry licenses in Georgia and South Carolina, we shop a deep bench of investors, and we match the borrower to the program — VA for veterans, FHA for first-time buyers, USDA for rural addresses, Conventional for move-up purchases, and refinances when the math actually pencils.

Augusta is a relationship town. After 30+ years closing loans here, we know the underwriters, the appraisers, the agents, and the builders. When a deal needs to move on a tight PCS date or a tough appraisal, we know exactly who to call — and they take our call.

What we hold to

Four things you can count on with every file.

The right loan, not the easy one

As a broker we shop multiple investors. The product comes to fit your situation, not the reverse.

A real local person

Same loan officer from application to closing. Direct number. Augusta address. No call centers.

Honest math up front

We'll tell you when refinancing doesn't pencil. We'll tell you the funding fee before you ask.

Compliance built in

NMLS# 226717. GRMA# 34630. Equal Housing Lender. Disclosures handled, never glossed.

Leadership

Dirk Merritt

President

Leads First Choice as an independent Augusta broker — the same model the firm has run since 1992. Dirk's lane is matching the borrower to the right investor, not the other way around.

Dirk runs First Choice the same way it's always been run — independently, locally, with a roster of loan officers who stay. He signs every disclosure, owns every compliance question, and answers his own phone.

NMLS# 226717 · GRMA# 34630

Meet the rest of the team →

The full bench