BlackHawk Mortgage Team Looks To Help A Community Facing Stricter Lending Standards – NMP
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BlackHawk Mortgage Team Looks To Help A Community Facing Stricter Lending Standards

May 11, 2020
Phillip Harris and JoColby Harrell on Bars and Real Estate
A headshot of Navi Persaud
Director of Events

BlackHawk Mortgage was founded by Phillip Harris, (left in photo) a six-year U.S. Air Force combat civil engineer, in 2017. Harris, an African American business owner, has a special interest in helping members of the community acquire wealth through homeownership, according to Q City Metro. With that drive, Harris and a fellow military veteran, friend and experienced banker JoColby Harrell created a platform to help deliver their message to a community that faces stricter lending standards.
 
"Even before the pandemic, data from the State of Housing in Black America report showed declining rates for Black homeownership," according to the report. "The U.S. Census Bureau reported that 44% of Black families owned homes in the first quarter of the year compared to 73.7% of white households, likely widening the wealth gap."
 
The report revealed that the majority of BlackHawk's business comes from word-of-mouth and referrals, however, tighter lending standards has reduced their targeted customer significantly, forcing them to find an innovative way to reach them. Together, Harris and Harrell developed a YouTube series titled, "Bars and Real Estate." 
 
"The video clips feature Harrell and Harris relating rap lyrics to real estate and finances. With music’s cultural impact, Bars and Real Estate seeks to make real estate discussions more relatable for a younger audience," according to the report. "You don’t see too many young, African-American men in the mortgage space," said Harrell, who serves as a senior loan officer with BlackHawk Mortgage. "We wanted to put some flavor to the information and present in a way that [would be] entertaining to someone who looked like us and was in our age group."
 
Harris added that the series was never intended to be a way to gain more clients, as they both have other ways to generate income.
 
"We wanted to share information with the general public and hoped someone could relate to it, gain knowledge, and have a conversation about what they have learned," said Harris, according to the report.
 
Click here to learn more about Harris and Harrell's "Bars and Real Estate" series.
 
About the author
A headshot of Navi Persaud
Director of Events
Navi Persaud is Director of Events at NMP.
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Published
May 11, 2020
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