Back in 2018, mother-and-son team Lisa Pogue and James Sands knew they wanted to start a residential mortgage business because they “deeply enjoy helping people achieve their dream of home ownership.” DC Lending, LLC has now been in business since January of 2019.
“Being local and not part of a big national chain allows us to reduce our overhead costs, in effect passing the savings on to our clients,” Pogue said. “It also allows us the flexibility to have extremely fast closings and excellent communication. Our average close time is 21 days. We enjoy having the technology of a large company and the ability to meet our clients face to face and build long-term relationships.”
Although DC Lending is a newer mortgage company in the Pacific Northwest, the business is actually a sister company to Desert Canyon Mortgage in Kennewick, Wash. Desert Canyon was founded in 1998 as a new family operated mortgage company. According to the DC Lending website, as they moved into the second generation of business, one of the family’s sons settled in Portland and another daughter settled in Eastern Washington. With this new generation, the family decided to continue to share their knowledge and passion for the industry by creating a Northwest-based mortgage company – DC Lending.
Starting out with just Pogue and Sands, DC Lending now has a total of 10 team members, consisting of seven mortgage officers, one full-time processing manager, one part-time processor and a full-time executive administrative assistant. Pogue said the company’s revenue has grown significantly since their team has grown so quickly.
Back when they were researching different areas to start the business in the Portland Metro Area, Pogue said they found that the culture of Clark County aligned with their core values.
“We have found the Vancouver business community to be very welcoming to us,” she said. “We also noticed a lot of participation in community service, which aligns with our core value of wanting to give back. James was also born in Vancouver and raised in nearby Hillsboro.”
Pogue said they feel DC Lending has been successful so far because they offer honesty and transparency in their presentation to borrowers, and genuinely put their best interest first. She said they are also not looking for the short-term profit, but are looking to add value and develop a lifelong relationship with their clients.
“We are also very involved with our realtor partners and work hard to support their businesses,” Pogue said. “We have a culture built on a foundation of personal development and that carries over to striving for excellence in every aspect of our business.”
Pogue points out that DC Lending is one of the few family and locally owned mortgage companies in the area.
“Our culture is unique and all of our team members are incredible and share in our core values,” Pogue said.
DC Lending is located at 1111 Main St., Suite 210, in Vancouver.
