Source: MPA Magazine —
Like so many others in the mortgage industry, Lamont Harris Jr (pictured), didn’t always think about working in real estate. In fact, he once harbored ambitions of becoming a professional actor after dropping out of college.
“I went to school, pursued film and theatre, minored in pre-law, thought I was going to become an entertainment lawyer, and instead, decided that I was going to be an actor.”
A chance encounter with a loan originator from Maryland, who showed him how much a person could make from a single real estate deal, changed all that. That was in 2004. The following year Harris got his first loan as a mortgage broker.
The period in between says a lot about the founder and CEO of Las Vegas-based Harris Capital Mortgage Group.
“I remember creating a flyer on Microsoft Publisher,” he said. “I went online and just looked at images of mortgage flyers and it probably was the most non-compliant flyer that you’d ever want to see. But I created it.
“Then I just started pounding the pavement. I decided I’d go into hair salons and places where I felt renters were, like a laundromat because he or she wouldn’t necessarily have a washer and dryer at home. I was very comfortable talking to people in that setting because they were very relaxed, it was very disarming to approach them while they are washing clothes. My first mortgage deal came from a lady sitting in a pedicure chair getting a pedicure. It was a $400,000 cash out refi in Maryland,” he said.
It was a novel but effective approach borne out of naivety, and it certainly helped him to scale even bigger heights when he launched his firm towards the end of 2019, not long before the COVID pandemic wreaked havoc on the country.
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