By Cathy Spaulding
Phoenix Staff Writer
—
Nick Moore recalls having a knack for finance even during his early grades at Hilldale Elementary.
“Ever since I was 7,” he said. “I always had a bank account and I was always saving, whether it was Halloween candy or my allowance from helping my grandparents.”
However, it was lessons learned on the wrestling mat that helped Moore develop the skills to help him succeed in the competitive field of home finance.
“I learned discipline and how to set goals,” he said. “I learned that once you set your eyes on something, you seek to achieve it.”
At 29, Moore operates America’s Lender, a Muskogee firm that offers mortgages at a low cost. Referring to a successful low-cost airline, Moore calls his company the “Southwest Airlines of home mortgages.”
Moore opened the company three years ago, just as the national housing bubble was beginning to burst. While lenders in other parts of the United States struggled and failed, Moore’s company grew to be one of the busiest lenders in the state.
“When everyone else was getting out, I knew it was time to get in,” he said. “We were coming from the top of the market.”
He attributes his company’s success to the firm’s ability to provide good customer service and offering the most timely, competitive quotes possible.
He attributes his own success to lessons he learned growing up.
Money on his mind
since childhood
Nick Moore said his grandfather was involved in the finance business and first got him interested in finance. In addition to his childhood bank account and stashes of Halloween candy, Moore also started working at an early age.
“I was the kid who was out looking for odd jobs,” he said.
Moore’s mother taught school at Ben Franklin Science Academy and Irving Elementary and now teaches Cherokee at an immersion school. He said his father is a project manager for Johnson Controls.
In high school, Moore developed a sense of discipline participating in sports.
“I learned that once you start something, you finish it,” he said. Nobody is born great.”
He said he was a good wrestler and was a starter for a few years, but did not make state the way the MHS wrestling team did this past school year.
Though successful at sports, Moore recalled not being the most diligent student in class.
“I failed to attend a lot of classes, but I did graduate and I graduated with a good grade,” he said. “I learned that 80 percent of life is showing up.”
Pursuing his dreams
for business career
After high school, Moore majored in business at the University of Oklahoma. He recalled one class that set the outlook for his career. He said a man from a private bank visited the class and discussed the best way to get ahead in the loan business.
“He said to work on the back end, fixing problems,” Moore recalled. “A lot of people can sell a loan, but not a lot can get a loan to close. Make sure you can troubleshoot any problem.”
Right out of college, Moore took a job in Dallas servicing mortgages for GMAC. He moved up in the company, but decided on a change of direction. One reason was that he was engaged to his girlfriend
“I just picked up and left,” he said. “I cold-called Countrywide in Tulsa and set up an interview.”
Soon after, Moore set a one-month volume record.
“When Countrywide was acquired by the Bank of America, I saw the writing on the wall,” he said. “I talked with a few friends and thought “Why can’t we do at Countrywide what we do here.”
He recalled how he and his employees struggled to start America’s Lender three years ago.
“Those first few months, everyone had a number of challenges,” he said. “We were setting up with vendors, working with the Oklahoma Department of Consumer Credit. We did a lot of relationship-building. The first year was tough.”
Dreams begin to
come together
Diligence paid off. About a year ago, the company moved to an old house and former doctor’s office at 2800 W. Broadway. The company has eight employees.
“We’ve been as big as 15 people, but like any sales job, we’ve had people come and go,” he said. “I’d rather have a handful of employees who love what they do than a lot of employees that were not happy.”
The company not only serves Oklahoma clients but also reaches into the rapidly growing northwest Arkansas market.
Moore described his company’s approach as “ultra-savvy, ultra-aggressive.”
He said his customers “want bottom of the barrel, lowest interest rate there is.”
“And as far as closing, we can close you any time, anywhere,” he said. “We’ve closed people in Afghanistan, Iraq, Germany. We e-mail the documents, the customer gets them notarized and Fed-Exed back. We’ve done people on aircraft carriers.”
Although the finance business keeps him busy, Moore still finds time to pursue another passion: Hot rods and muscle cars.
“The first car I ever had was a hot rod 1982 Camaro,” he said.
A current favorite is a 1972 Chevelle SS 454.
“What I like about older cars is that they were solid,” he said. “New cars are mostly fiberglass.”
Meet Nick Moore
AGE: 29
HOMETOWN: Muskogee
OCCUPATION: Branch manager of America’s Lenders.
EDUCATION: Hilldale Elementary through sixth grade, West Middle School; Muskogee High School, 2000. Bachelor’s degree in business with emphasis on finance and marketing, University of Oklahoma, 2004.
FAMILY: Wife, Amber Moore; stepdaughter, Keeley Shelor; daughters Kensington Moore and (on the way) Kaia Moore.
CHURCH: First United Methodist Church.
HOBBIES: Playing golf, running, working out, hot rod cars, “obviously, real estate.”
