Embracing Change

Craig Strent pulled over on the side of the road, his stomach in such tight knots he thought he might be sick. For weeks, he had been plagued by anxiety over his decision to leave his job, with its promise of promotion to regional manager and accompanying handsome salary. It was the type of offer most twenty-five year olds only dream about, but it had felt wrong to Craig from the start.

The business, which Craig had helped build over the past three years, had been acquired by a Fortune 500 company, which planned to expand from nine branches to 54 virtually overnight. “The company had a broken foundation, and they were expanding too quickly for their own good. I just didn’t trust what was happening,” he explains. “My coworker, Eric Gates, and I had been talking about starting our own company for some time, and that seemed like our chance, even though it was a very risky career move.”

Initially, his father thought he was crazy to even consider giving up such a promising package, urging him to save as much money as he could now and start his own company later if it didn’t work out, but Craig felt that if it was ever going to happen, he needed to act now. “Also, Eric is the smartest guy I know in the mortgage business, and I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to partner up and do business with him,” Craig says.

Craig and Eric started operating their business out of a hallway in Greenbelt, and today, Craig is the CEO of Apex Home Loans, the largest independent mortgage banker headquartered in Montgomery County. Apex originates residential home loans throughout the District of Columbia, Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware, with Craig handling the marketing, customer relations, and business development along with his partner. Michael Parsons. Eric now focuses on the operations side of business with their fourth partner Stewart Zemil. “The key term that defines us as independent is that we are not affiliated with any national companies or owned by a bank. We lend our own money as a mortgage banker, as opposed to a broker who acts more like a middleman,” he explains. “We control the loan and process in-house, fund it under our name, and then sell it individually or as a package to bigger banks.”

In the early days, Apex utilized telemarketers and direct mail as their primary modes of customer recruitment. In the  early 2000’s however, they were hit by the liquidity crisis, forcing the company to completely change their model into an almost entirely new business. “Mortgage companies using the same model as us were going out of business every day, so we decided we had to try something new,” he says. “In the past, we had relied on direct mail and telemarketing, so I loaded up my car with marketing materials and started attending networking events to seek out referral partners, which was a new method for us. I’d read that financial advisors could serve as an exceptional resource for mortgage referrals, so I sought them out and put together educational programs for them. After a lot of effort, follow-up, and repetition of the programs, word got around in the financial advisor community about our expertise in mortgages and financial planning. The referrals picked up significantly, and this became our primary driver of new business.”

After its redesign into a completely referral-based business, Apex began to expand its network to include realt estate agents, accountants, estate planners, and attorneys, while continuing to market heavily to its existing database of customers and networking contacts. Thanks to this diversification, it was one of the only independent mortgage firms left still thriving in the wake of the housing crisis that started in 2008. Most other firms have become affiliated with a bank or a national company, or focus solely on brokering loans. “We were always an anomaly in our field,” Craig remarks. “We contracted when others expanded, and vise versa. We always did the opposite of what the herd was doing, which served us well.”

From 1999 to 2010, Apex operated as a mortgage broker, until they realized once again that their previous model was no longer relevant. “Just like in 1999, we realized in 2009 that our model was no longer effective,” Craig explains. “Brokers were facing so many obstacles in the regulatory environment, so we decided to convert to being a mortgage banker.” With that, Apex took on employees from Nationwide Home Mortgage in 2010, expanding from nine to 25 people, and have continued to grow to 60 employees in the past three years.

Craig was unusually successful for a man of his young age, but also unusually brave to face the risks that came with such a life-changing transformation. As it turned out, his gut instinct was correct: the previous company, who had promised him so much, was out of business within three years of Apex’s conception. His finely honed intuition served him well, and Craig continues to draw upon this strength as he leads Apex today. “Since starting the company, I’ve operated on the theme of searching for the better and more efficient way to do our job, following the Japanese principle of Kaizen, or continuous improvement,” he says. “As the environment changes, we change with it so that we are positioned to be the best possible offering in the market. I want our customers to look at us and our model and say, ‘That’s the best place to get my mortgage,’ so we continue to change to make sure we’re always the best and smartest option for our customers.”

Craig learned from an early age to trust his instincts, and as a result, welcomed transition when the change felt needed. His parents divorced when he was nine years old, and after spending four turbulent years with his mother and older brother on Long Island, he moved in with his father. “The divorce had taken a heavy toll on both my mother and I, so we tended to clash as we worked through our readjustment,” he explains. “Over time, things improved, and I soon realized that change can really be a positive thing. In fact, I’ve come to use it as a tool to accomplish goals.”

His father was an accountant and the managing partner of a CPA firm, which later inspired Craig to study accounting for the last three years of high school. At the same time, his father encouraged him to explore other interests, first sending him on a summer bus tour of the United States and then helping him secure work as a golf caddy at the local club. He loved both experiences, but discovered a deep and unwavering passion for politics during a family trip to Washington, D.C. “I was especially moved by the Lincoln Memorial,” he recalls. “It really sparked my interest in politics, and to this day I enjoy reading about Lincoln’s life and legacy.”

Craig has always found himself in natural leadership positions, gravitating to leadership roles in sports as the goalie in soccer and the catcher in baseball. He also involved himself in model congress and the world affairs club. “People always looked to me for an opinion because I was always up to date on public issues,” he says. “If you had asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up at that age, I would have told you President.”

Craig attended the American University, having felt the pull to D.C. since the family vacation in elementary school. He majored in accounting but decided to switch to International Business during his senior year, finding he enjoyed the material he was studying for the first time. He interned in the White House during the Clinton administration for the first semester of his senior year, and after realizing that it was not a field he wanted to make a career in, he applied for a three-year post-graduate program with MAERSK, a shipping company based in Denmark that would take him around the world.

His application, however, was not accepted, so for the first two months after graduating, he worked for US Assist, a customer service provider for American Express. He felt unsure about the future, until one of his fraternity brothers called that August, inviting him to work for his mortgage company. Without hesitation, Craig made the switch, and found that within sixty days he was flourishing in his new role.

In 1998, the company was sold to a larger firm, with hopes of taking the current mortgage platform and making it national. Craig, who was only 25 at the time, had done so well at the company that when they decided to expand, they promoted him to regional manager of the branch of his choice, prompting his decision to transform his future by breaking away to launch Apex. “The expansion was happening too quickly, and I felt I could do it better myself, so why not take a chance on start my own company?” he says. “I was young, and if I was going to fail, that was a good time to do it since I had no kids or large expenses yet. “

Luckily, Craig’s wife, Amy, was fully supportive of his decision to try his hand at being a business owner. She had recently graduated from law school, so the couple had a small safety net beneath them to break his fall, should it happen. After carefully calculating the potential risks and benefits, he decided to turn down the company’s offer and take the leap.

While Apex has changed its models several times since its inception, Craig is unrelenting in maintaining a consistent tone of honesty and integrity towards his customers. “People are terrified of mortgages,” he says. “They hear horror stories, and all they want is a comfortable experience with someone they can trust. That’s why we’re different. We treat people fairly and are straightforward with them, so they come back again and again. If you do the right thing for your customers and your employees, your business will take care of itself.” As a result, Apex has been recognized as one of SmartCEO’s fastest growing companies in the region in their emerging growth category, as well as Small Business of the Year for Montgomery County and one of the top one hundred mortgage companies in America by Mortgage Executive Magazine. Most recently, it was named to the Inc. 5000 list as one of the fastest growing private companies in America. Apex even received a “Healthy Employer Award” from Community Health Charities for its voluntary payroll deduction program that allows employees to contribute to their favorite health organizations.

Throughout the many transformations the company has undergone, Craig has come to learn the value of networking and creating a presence in the local business community. “Small business owners frequently feel they are too small to make a difference in chambers or other business organizations, but it’s important to expand your horizons and be a part of the conversation,” he explains. “I’ve learned to get involved and stay involved. A lot of people abandon relationships if they don’t get business out of it right away, but that’s the wrong approach. I choose to go and help as many people as I can; I’ll give before I’ll receive. By connecting with people, I give myself a voice in the business community.”

When Craig is not busy with Apex, he serves on the Board of Directors at Leadership Greater Washington and at the Greater Washington Board of Trade.  In his personal life, he serves as his synagogue’s golf chair for their annual outing and coaches his two sons’ hockey teams. “I apply many of the valuable lessons I have learned in business to my role coaching the boys and their teams,” he remarks. “Running a business and coaching sports teams are interchangeable roles, and I enjoy being able to apply lessons between them.” Laying out his advice to young people entering the working world today, Craig says, “It’s about hard work, staying accountable, and learning as much as you can. Whatever role you are in, be open minded and ready to adjust if the situation around you does. Make the most of your role and position yourself to be indispensable to the team.” As Craig’s story shows, embracing change in this manner is the only way to get from friction to dynamism, from wrong to right, and from a dream worth having to a reality worth living.

‍