Happy SPONSORED CONTENT
BORROW MOORESVILLE RESIDENT AMY MAHAR, co-founder of By Design Lending, knows homeownership is the beating heart of the American Dream. A recent study found that 74% of Americans think of homeownership as the highest gauge of prosperity and generational wealth. In other words, you know you've made it when you own your home. "Up until the 1930s, mortgages were short-term and high-interest," Mahar explains. "For the most part, if you didn't have the cash, you didn't get a house. But after the great depression, the New Deal provided for 30-year mortgages with low interest rates and everything changed." For the last 85 years, home ownership has been the key to building wealth in America. Amy grew up in a blue-collar Michigan town where people worked hard. She was energetic and driven. Midwestern grit was in her DNA. In early 1990, the Berlin Wall just fallen, Vanilla Ice was on the radio, and Amy Mahar was ready to get her career started.
outdated, leadership was entrenched in old ways. "Borrowers were encountering friction at every step," Amy recalls. "There's a lot at stake when you're buying a house or refinancing. Bad decisions and poor consultation during the mortgage process are costly."
Total transparency and fiduciary guidance are fundamental to the #borrowhappy experience.
"The most successful profession I could imagine having at the time was a bank branch manager," Amy recalls. "In smalltown Michigan, that seemed like the epitome of success. So I set my sights on banking." As a management trainee, she was supposed to rotate through each of the bank's departments. "On my first assignment I landed in Consumer Lending—and I never left!" she laughs. "I've actually never wanted to leave my field: Whether it’s someone’s first home or their dream home, helping people chart the best course in a lifechanging moment never gets old."
During three decades on the wholesale side of the mortgage industry, Amy became a skilled strategist, accomplished executive, and force to be reckoned with. She grew national production by 400% at one company and met 12-month growth expectations in six months at another. She was named "Woman of Influence" by HousingWire and one of National Mortgage Professional's "Most Powerful Women." But the industry had become a labyrinthine: Legacy lenders were mired in inefficient processes, technologies were
If you have bought or refinanced a home before, you know all too well that the process can be arduous. That’s because legacy lenders rely on outdated processes bolted onto antiquated technology and generally don’t empower their staff.
“I wanted to build a company with an unwavering client-centric ethos," Amy smiles. "I had spent numerous years trying to modernize other organizations while delivering an exceptional experience for Borrowers and Realtor Partners. We wanted to do better and knew we could. We felt so strongly about this, we call it ‘Borrow Happy’ and trademarked it." A one-size-fits-all home loan is a thing of the past: Powered by decades of experience, By Design Lending works with dozens of banks and lenders and knows how to proactively problem-solve even the most complex challenges. "Total transparency and fiduciary guidance are fundamental to the #borrowhappy experience. Simply put, we have become obsessed over making sure the customer walks away wondering how a mortgage experience could be so damn wonderful!"
Amy Mahar
PARTNER | CO-FOUNDER
nmls#2173708
BY DESIGN LENDING, LLC
nmls#2187347
amy.mahar@bydesignlending.com
call | text: 704.577.2777 www.borrowhappy.com
