Veteran real estate executive Chris Heller says LD Holdings Inc. has the feeling of a startup.
It’s an unusual comment because the company is the parent of loanDepot, which has 6,800 employees.
“LoanDepot is one of the fastest-growing and most progressive in the industry,” said the former chief executive of real estate giant Keller Williams Realty Inc.
“LoanDepot has a great reputation. It’s something I feel good about aligning myself with.”
Heller will be starting his own unit, called mello Home, that provides marketing services to real estate agents. He said the unit, which loanDepot announced last month, isn’t competing with agents, but rather helping them obtain clients.
“Real estate agents are spending more time and money than ever before on lead generation,” he said. “LoanDepot has a lead generation machine. Many people who come to loanDepot for financing do not have a real estate agent yet.”
Since the Great Recession, there’s been chronic low inventory; real estate agents here started the year with the second-lowest figure in Orange County history of homes to sell, a figure that now sits at 3,774, according to Steve Thomas’ Reports on Housing.
The average small local real estate office spent $52,848 last year on advertising, a 6.2% increase from the prior year, according to local advertising research firm Borrell Associates.
LoanDepot will refer real estate agents based on their production levels, reputation and other factors “that indicate they know what they are doing,” Heller said.
In the coming year, he said his unit will hire about 30 to 40 people in areas like marketing, customer service and technology.
Direct Report
Heller will report directly to Chief Executive Anthony Hsieh, who founded the Foothill Ranch-based company in 2010 and built it into the second-largest nonbank mortgage lender in the country, with more than $1 billion in annual sales.
Heller, 55, had an unusual experience at Keller Williams, an Austin, Texas-based company that describes itself as having the world’s largest real estate franchise agent count—177,000. Heller, who joined the company in 2004, was promoted in 2010 to president of its worldwide division and was credited with launching the first overseas master franchise expansion.
In 2015, he was named chief executive, overseeing about 325 employees. Early last year, then-president John Davis was named co-chief executive along with Heller. Two months later, Heller resigned; he declined to explain what happened.
“It was the right time to make a change,” he said. “It was a great experience. I learned a lot, and it provided me with a lot of opportunity.”
Coming Home
Last year loanDepot unveiled an $80 million technology platform it calls mello. Heller, who said he wasn’t looking for a job, met Hsieh for the first time in June. Both have a love of fishing, he said.
Heller was impressed with Hsieh’s vision for how mello can affect the industry. LoanDepot is trying to become a platform a la Amazon.com where people can go to one website to get a variety of mortgage-related services.
“This is an opportunity to do something big, to make a big impact on the industry,” Heller said. “We’re looking to provide consumers a one-stop shop—buying, financing, home improvement.”
LoanDepot also announced last month that it would begin another unit, mello Home Services, to permit contractors to offer on-the-spot financing to clients. Borrowers can get up to $75,000 and work with verified contractors through a loanDepot smartphone and desktop computer app. Heller said the two units may overlap in some areas.
The new job is a homecoming event for Heller, who grew up in Irvine from 1969 to 1982 before moving to San Diego and eventually Texas.
Now he’s looking for a home in Newport Beach. He knows where to find a real estate agent.
“That’s never a problem,” he quipped.
