Today we’d like to introduce you to Grace Maxwell.
Hi Grace, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I certainly never dreamed of being a mortgage broker as a little girl and am so fortunate that my path led me to the best job in the world. As a huge horse-lover, I was devastated to learn that I’d need graduate study in chemistry to be a competitive applicant to veterinary school, and I decided to go work for the family car business while I figured out my next step. I immediately set the goal of working in the finance office, mainly to avoid having to get into cars with strangers, but found that I loved problem solving and working through the puzzle of finding my clients the best loan. One thing led to another, and when I was working for one of the nation’s top dealer groups in New England, I learned that one of my former coworkers had gone into mortgages with success. Let’s just say that I ran circles around him, and determined that if he could do it, so could I, and maybe a change in collateral would give me more time developing relationships with my clients in less of a transactional way.
I called up the few people I had some kind of connection with in the industry, and I remember in my interview, the owner of the first mortgage company I worked for looked me in the eye and said “Shug, you’re going to make me a lot of money!”
My background gave me a unique perspective in the mortgage space where I could look at someone’s loan file and instead of asking whether it fit the box as a yes or no, I would figure out what our strengths and weaknesses looked like, and determine how those matched up with the borrower’s priorities. I developed a reputation as the lender that other lenders would call when they couldn’t figure out how to make something work, because sometimes a loan that doesn’t fit in the box that would give them the best pricing and terms just means that it needs a little more work, rather than a “no.”
I have been listed as a scotsman’s guide top 1% originator several times over the years, and ultimately determined that my clients needs would be met best through the broker model to allow for more flexibility and quicker response to changing market conditions. I never set out to be a business owner, but when the right fit didn’t exist, I decided to build it. The response has been overwhelmingly positive and I have already been able to help more clients year to date as of the end of June than in my best entire year working on the bank side.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Honestly, when I did my business planning, it was easy to expect the expected: the compliance and the software and the accounting are all common struggles in our industry, but my experience gave me a good background to know what I wanted there and how to put the right experts in place. What I didn’t account for was our growth: I planned to do less business in my first year than previously, and we have grown at a pace that required hiring sooner than anticipated. A great problem to have, but it gave me a new perspective on company culture and how challenging it is to search for something as important as shared values in the hiring process.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
We are a mortgage brokerage based out of Richmond and serving the whole state. I specialize in educational content- my typical client doesn’t make decisions in an information vacuum and wants to understand the “why” behind their mortgage, and I make sure that I give them the background information they need. As a broker, I work for the client and not the lender, which means that their loan is placed with the best fit for their priorities and borrowers who need a different perspective are able to find the right options.
Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
When I was a little girl, I would go out to the farm to ride horses and be completely unreachable for most of the day. I remember one summer that our goal was to teach our ponies to stand politely so that we could ride up to the local convenience store for slushees while they waited outside. We never quite got that far, and as a mom I look back completely horrified at the thought of a kid being set loose with a pony and told to come back before sundown, but any time I have spent with horses has been special.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.canterfinancial.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/canterfinancial/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61572374097816
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grace-wilkins-maxwell-3b404786/
