6th Grader Designs Mortgage Web Site

Daniel Philibin designed the Internet site for his father, Jeff, a Johnstown, Penn., mortgage broker. The 12-year-old took on the project so he could enter the state Department of Education’s middle-school computer competition along with 700 Pennsylvania students.

Out of the 150 projects that made it to the finals, the work of the junior Philibin took first place in the category of website design.

“We were kind of on the edge of our seats,” Daniel said of the awards ceremony, in which his category was saved until the last moment. “I was the last name they called that night.”

Daniel said he received a plaque and a $50 Best Buy gift card for his award-winning design. He said he picked the website design category because he could “use his creativity there more.”

The student said he has been interested in computers since he was a small child and recalled his first experience on a word processor. “I think I was four when I typed a letter to Santa.”

The senior Philibin said after working for Wells Fargo for 16 years, he branched out on his own with Allied Home Mortgage Corp. two years ago and was ready to expand his services to the Internet, which made for good timing with the competition. He said he works primarily with first-time homebuyers and offers a full range of loan programs, but doesn’t get many borrowers who fall into the subprime category.

“I have a small-town business,” he said. “I’ve only had the site up since January, and we get a couple of hundred hits a month.

“I think that anyone who doesn’t have it (a website) is missing out,” he explained. “It’s the reason I get a lot of customers; I give helpful information, I’ve got a good market share, and clients go to the site to see what I offer instead of calling first.”

Philibin said the site has driven a lot of business his way, and, in return, he plans to purchase a notebook computer for Daniel.

And that is good news for the son, who is still working on the completion of his own website for a company he has started with the help of his father. He said he has also designed the township’s website and another for the local baseball league.

For now, though, Daniel said, “I’m going to concentrate on my site; the full version isn’t done yet, and I have some small jobs to be done on my other sites.”

His dad agrees that Daniel is too young to give up all his free time to designing websites. “He’s not really for hire; he is just having fun exploring what he can do.

“I think it’s really neat that he designed my site; even with the Apple laptop, it would still be a bargain for me — I am extremely proud of him.”