How do you boost Black Homeownership?

You’ve been an account executive since 2004 but worked at Luxury Mortgage for just under two years. How different is the culture at this company?

The culture is completely different! In past companies in the early to mid-2000s, it was more of a ‘college’ environment. At that time, the industry had an influx of a lot of young professionals (including myself). Luxury Mortgage is more of a ‘family’ oriented culture, which is amazing because you want that close-knit work environment while still enjoying the vast resources and tools that a much larger company offers. Thankfully at Luxury we have both! It appears everyone here knows each other somehow in some way. A significant number of colleagues here found their way to Luxury via a referral. Through referrals and obviously possessing the high standards of professional experience, as well as the qualification and values that Luxury requires, everyone tends to fit right into the family dynamic. I believe that to be a major part of the success here at Luxury. We are all seasoned and fully aware of the goal at the end.

We’ve previously covered the issue of diversity and minorities in the mortgage industry. Data shows that the rate of Black homeownership has contracted severely in the last 50 years; that almost 16% of Black Americans who applied for mortgages last year were rejected, compared with just 7% of White Americans, and that homeownership rates for Black households stand at 45.1%, compared to 73.8% among non-Hispanic White households. Do these figures reflect your own experience in the mortgage industry? If so, how?

Thanks for this question. Based on my personal experience, I am not surprised about the data you are citing above. Here at Luxury, we are committed to serving lower to moderate income communities which is disproportionately a minority demographic. This is also another reason why I am focused on further educating the broker community and our correspondent partners on the benefits that non-QM liquidity provides to this segment in particular. You have to understand, it was not until about a couple of years ago that brokers truly embraced the non-QM loan space. I can remember prospecting brokers just as recently as 2018 and many of them rejecting my phone call, refusing to accept non-QM as a mortgage product which did a great disservice to minority borrowers who were being denied from the traditional income standpoint. As a result, they were not fully made aware of the options they had available to them. Take for example minority small business owners who may be able to take advantage of our Business Bank Statement qualification programs, or a minority borrower looking for flex options to purchase an investment property.