{"id":17228,"date":"2023-05-24T04:53:40","date_gmt":"2023-05-24T11:53:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/westcapitallending.com\/blog\/?p=17228"},"modified":"2024-03-27T11:44:36","modified_gmt":"2024-03-27T18:44:36","slug":"west-capital-lending-founder-on-paying-his-dues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westcapitallending.com\/blog\/west-capital-lending-founder-on-paying-his-dues\/","title":{"rendered":"West Capital Lending founder on paying his dues"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
From call center work to co-founder, it’s been a tough climb<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Eric Hines (pictured), co-founder of West Capital Lending, knows all there is to know about paying one\u2019s dues.<\/p>\n

\u201cI initially got into the field by bumping into some different sales jobs,\u201d he told Mortgage Professional America during a telephone interview. \u201cI liked the idea of doing sales and liked working with finances. The first few jobs I had in that kind of realm were working with businesses and doing financing for business that needed funds to pay for inventory \u2013 like short-term loans called merchant cash advance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before that, he dabbled in debt consolidation. \u201cHelping consumers who had personal debt to help them consolidate it so they could manage it,\u201d he explained. \u201cThere were pros and cons,\u201d he said of his past jobs. \u201cIt helped me get my feet wet in doing sales on the phone and taking about people\u2019s finances.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/section>\n
\n
\n

For a young man in his early 20s, he recalled the money was pretty good: \u201cIt worked for me as a single young guy where I was able to make more money than I\u2019d made in any prior jobs and be able to learn some things as I went along.\u201d<\/p>\n

The novelty begins to wear off<\/strong><\/h2>\n

But the novelty soon began to wear off, particularly after working in the merchant cash advance field he likened to a payday loan for businesses. \u201cI didn\u2019t really find a way of moving up in my career by continuing in that path,\u201d he said. \u201cThe industry had a bad reputation. Some unscrupulous companies ruined it for the rest of them. Even if you wanted to do good business, the companies didn\u2019t have the best interest of the consumer in mind, in my opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n

He decided to move on to other things: \u201cIt was 2007 when I ended that that part of my career,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

By 2012, he found himself at Green Light Loans as a loan officer. \u201cThe mortgage business was hot again,\u201d he recalled hearing from friends in the Orange County section of California. \u201cThere was a lot of buzz. Green Light in Irvine, California was my introduction to the mortgage business.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was something of a defining moment, he suggested. \u201cIt was a motivating experience because it was the first time I was introduced to heavy competition and compared to my peers with metrics in a really big way. I\u2019m a competitive guy, and the competitive side in me came out and that made me push myself to the next level and work hard.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/section>\n
\n
\n

Stints would follow at\u00a0Nationstar Mortgage<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0New American Funding<\/a>\u00a0before spending more than two years at E Mortgage Capital Inc., where he was leader of the independent branch \u2013 hiring and supporting more than 80 loan officers while originating around 30 loans each month as a loan officer.<\/p>\n

Growing family proved to be a career motivator<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Getting married proved to be another powerful motivator, as he longed to spend more time with family after his wife gave birth to their first child. Seeking more flexibility and a healthy work-life balance, he launched\u00a0West Capital Lending Inc.<\/a>\u00a0with co-founder Danny Iskander in 2021.<\/p>\n

Although he has been able to make it in the industry, he acknowledged being hard-pressed to recommend it to others \u2013 at least for now with mortgage rates in the 7% range and inflation stubbornly refusing to go away.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to recommend getting into the industry,\u201d he said. But for those still intent on doing so, he offered advice: \u201cYou must have a plan for the ups and downs, and plan for the unexpected,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a rocky road, unpredictable and goes through cycles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want to make your inbox flourish with mortgage-focused news content? Get exclusive interviews, breaking news, industry events in your inbox, and always be the first to know by\u00a0subscribing to our FREE daily newsletter<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From call center work to co-founder, it’s been a tough climb Eric Hines (pictured), co-founder of West Capital Lending, knows all there is to know about paying one\u2019s dues. \u201cI initially got into the field by bumping into some different sales jobs,\u201d he told Mortgage Professional America during a telephone interview. \u201cI liked the idea […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westcapitallending.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17228"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westcapitallending.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westcapitallending.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcapitallending.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcapitallending.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17228"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/westcapitallending.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17229,"href":"https:\/\/westcapitallending.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17228\/revisions\/17229"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcapitallending.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westcapitallending.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcapitallending.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcapitallending.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}