We were lucky to catch up with John Mwemba recently and have shared our conversation below.

John, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about serving the underserved.

I strive to serve the underserved, especially coming from one of those communities. Growing up in Michigan, I saw how black and Hispanic communities struggled to achieve the goal of home ownership in cities like Detroit, Grand Rapids, Flint, Muskeegon, Saginaw, and Benton Harbor. I do my best to utilize credit repair, down payment assistance programs, and other special lending tools to make sure I’m doing everything I can to assist with affordable home ownership.

I had a family I worked with recently who were looking for a home before Thanksgiving. I made sure to explain the entire process and why certain things were needed and what numbers would like like for them as they had moved to the US for work only three years prior. Being an immigrant myself, I knew what they were expecting as how things worked back home, so I had to set a new expectation for how things would work in the US for them. They had struggled to understand the process with other lenders and thus had struggled to get pre-approved. Within a month, we had an accepted offer and we closed just as Thanksgiving came around. I still keep in touch with them and it created friends for life. Letting them know that I wasn’t going to put them in a position where they wouldn’t be able to cover their other finances and putting their family’s financial safety first, not my compensation. It’s satisfying when a deal comes together and I can help someone from the underserved communities achieve a chunk of the American Dream.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is John Mwemba, I also go by Jay, but I got into the mortgage industry by accident. I have always had an obsession to real estate that’s been second only to cars, and while waiting for testing centers to reopen post pandemic, a close friend invited me to join a well known lender as an underwriter. After feeling a bit stuck in that position, another good friend invited me to apply for an account executive role at another lender out of California and from that point on, I got sucked into the industry and haven’t thought about leaving since. I’m one of those people who will Google any and everything just to learn it, including my early mortgage knowledge.

I finally decided to get licensed and began originating after some company changes. I work with buyers from all walks of life and at all stages of home ownership, from first time home buyers, to empty nesters. I specialize in home buyers from underserved communities because it’s a community I’m a part of.

I’m a black millennial raised in Michigan and born in Zambia, so I feel like my perspective from the mortgage industry is unique. Now as a Charlotte, NC transplant, or want to make sure I provide an impact to the community in my new home state and friends and family beyond state lines.

I’m big on the educational part of home ownership. What I’ve found is that being in the industry, we expect people to know what we know, so we speak high level instead of explaining the process and documents the way we should, to someone who has zero insight into the back end of how things work. From debt to income ratios determining your interest rate just as much as your credit score, to ways you can improve your credit score based on your credit report to prepare for homeownership plans down the road.

Even if I’m not working with someone and they have questions about the process and what they need, I’m here to answer those questions. I’m here to be a value add for the industry.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

Social media, if they’re alright with it. Most of the time it’s via email or text and call me old fashioned, I’ve really gotten into sending cards and hand written letters. You guys are missing out on some of the cooler new stamps that are available for snail mail. For new home buyers though, social media and text are how I stay in touch and keep myself top of mind. Custom videos sent via text and email are also methods I stay in touch because sometimes reading paragraphs of information can be so boring with the attention span of the modern home buyer.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Believe it or not, I’ve had several pivots to get to this point. My professional journey after college started in finance and turned to marketing before some PR work. My final two turns before this were within the medical field and finally, real estate finance. My biggest pivot was from the medical field into mortgage. It was supposed to be into real estate with a license but due to social distancing during the pandemic, I had to figure out a different angle to get into real estate so my quick pivot to not lose momentum was to get into mortgage. It’s become my obsession and career all in one, so I would say this pivot was my best one so far.

Contact Info:

• Website: Johnmwemba.carrd.com
• Instagram: Jaymwemba
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/john.mwemba.7?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-mwemba-90a63329?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app