He has found success amid turbulent times
It’s enough of an accomplishment to thrive in today’s mortgage industry given its current travails. It’s quite another thing to have launched a brokerage shop as the market began a downshift to its current doldrums and yet somehow still find success.
That’s the seemingly implausible yet real trajectory of Darius James (pictured), president and CEO of Huntsville, Ala.-based Porch Point Mortgage, who is this week celebrating the second anniversary of his company’s launch. Without the benefit of the refi wave and the historically low mortgage rates of the not-too-distant past, James has managed to thrive nonetheless.
“I started my company June 22 of 2021,” the 30-year-old broker told Mortgage Professional America during a telephone interview. “Very shortly after that – a month after, actually, as my licensing was getting approved, the landscape of the mortgage industry completely changed. So very early on, I had to adapt. The original plan that I was hoping to execute on – we had to make some tweaks.”
Even in the midst of uncertainty, he knew one thing for sure: “As rates started to rise, I knew there was nothing but upside,” he said. There was nowhere to go but up.
It’s all about gaining market share
Finding himself with poor timing no-one could have foreseen, he remembered advice from a mentor about gaining market share. “When markets contract, that’s when market share can be gained. So I was laser-focused. In a challenging market, how can I grow?” he recalled asking himself. “And if I’m able to survive this market – which hasn’t been easy – then I know when we get through this I’ll be ahead of the pack.”
By August, he and his staff will move to exponentially greater offices – a tangible illustration of success in spite of a tough market. You might call the bigger digs a brick-and-mortar rebuke to the softened market. “I didn’t have the 2020 year,” he said. “I didn’t have the 2019 year that was so phenomenal when rates were in the 2s and 3s.”
His ambition doesn’t end there, as James conveyed plans to go nationwide next: “We’re not even a national player yet, but we plan to take it national in the next six to 12 months,” he said. “We’ll go from two to 15 states. Now that we have that depth of vision, that’s the roadmap. But as a regional lender, a regional mortgage company, we’ve done $20 million in one of the hardest times in the mortgage industry. And not only have we done $20 million, our head count as far as growth, as far as employees and loan officers, we’re up 226%.”
Other measures track the growth “As far as lock volume, we’re up 113% compared to last year,” he said. “This year is said to be a tougher market, but we are seeing a lot of success in this market. Our funded loans are up 96% over last year. I’ve already funded more in 2023 than I funded all of last year.”
His success story is well known
James’s success story is known beyond his home base. He’s a fixture at events staged by the Association of Independent Mortgage Experts (AIME) for which he often is selected as a panelist waxing eloquently on mortgage matters. Beyond his expertise, he stands out sartorially – a dynamic he told an AIME gathering he cultivates as part of his image in differentiating himself from his counterparts with impeccable, tailor-made suits with resplendent ties and pocket squares.
For all his success, he stays humble. “I am truly humbled and blessed to be growing during these times,” he said. “But I truly believe now is the time to do it. Now is the time to build, now is the time to grow. It’s all about building something now for the future. It’s a blessing that we’re able to win right now, and it’s a blessing we’re able to grow.”
How has he managed to succeed in this tough market? “It starts with vision,” James said. “While I have a world of experience, it starts with vision. But I think my experience helps me leverage this market that we’re in more than anything,” he added, invoking past stints in retail and at wholesale lenders. “My mortgage company is the mortgage broker by structure, but everything about it besides pricing and optionality and being able to give the consumer a much better deal, we run very similar to a retail shop. The client experience is phenomenal, the loan experience is extreme. We built a system that works.”
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