Buying a home is a lifelong dream for many. However, the homeowner tag doesn’t come cheap. At the same time, investing your life’s savings into a home deal can also leave you vulnerable for those unpredictable rainy days. While the easy line of credit available today has made homeownership relatively easier, there’s still a lot of aspects of mortgaging that need to be cleared.

One still needs the right guidance to navigate the unknown home loan waters. In other words, you need someone who understands your needs, simplifies the whole process, and brings you the best financing strategy that fits your budget. Mindy Rothenberger is one such rare leader who has carved out a niche for herself as the mortgage expert for dreamers. As the President and CEO of SouthPoint Financial Services, Mindy helps clients -from varied financial backgrounds- in realising their dreams of becoming a homeowner.

The SouthPoint Legacy: Removing Home Ownership Barriers

Established in 1996 by Larry Overby and John Murphy, SouthPoint is a full-service mortgage provider, offering clients government-backed and conventional loans. The firm covers everything -from buying a new home and refinancing an existing loan to exploring investment opportunities. The USP of the firm resides in its ability to provide clients with a full-spectrum view of the loan process, including answering pertinent questions like what happens if you can’t repay the loan or what happens after you repay it.

At SouthPoint, our aim is to be the best-performing, not biggest lender. We value our clients and focus on their needs, curating lending strategies best-suited for their well-being – Mindy Rothenberger

SouthPoint believes in overseeing the process through and through and thus handles everything from in-house processing and underwriting to document preparation. The company’s unique client-centric approach has made it a top option for first-time home buyers, looking for more than just basic mortgage guidance. With the integrity, goodwill, and stellar track record the company has created over the years, SouthPoint is one of the most rapidly expanding firms in the East Coast with operational licences for 16 states in the US.

Working to Materialise Dreams

Having spent over two decades in the mortgage and finance industry, Mindy is well-poised to offer her clients insights when they are borrowing to buy a home or refinancing their existing loan. She is motivated by the aim to dispel the myths surrounding home ownership. Most common people believe that home ownership is for the rich. As a result, they often abandon dreams of owning a home even before getting started. Mindy wants to dismantle this myth, making middle and lower income groups aware of financial alternatives that can materialise this dream into reality.

Forging a Path From a Humble Beginning

While Mindy is a D1 university degree holder and today heads one of the most successful mortgage companies in America, her life wasn’t always a bed of roses. Brought up by a single father in a small Indiana town, Mindy did not have the same head start executives commonly share. At 14, she lost her father and had to spend the next three years living with her relatives, until she finally graduated at 17 and moved out. Mindy worked two full-time jobs to provide for her college course in Indianapolis.

This drive she cultivated during her initial years was instrumental in shaping her leadership perspective and career in the later years. She started in the operations side of the market, learning every job function. After a while, she made the bold decision of moving to sales. As a result of this dual-experience, Mindy is undoubtedly one of the most experienced leaders in the market having in-depth knowledge of both sides, sales and operations.

With an underwriting degree and origination licence in multiple states, Mindy started her journey at SouthPoint. She started working for the company as a Regional Sales Manager back in 2007. From there she gradually made her way up to the Senior Executive Vice President post, and then went on to don the CEO and President hat in 2018. In December 2022, Mindy was able to purchase and acquire 100% equity shares in Southpoint Financial Services, leaving her as it’s sole owner, stock holder.  The sale was completed December 28, 2022 with all shares officially transferring to her effective January 1, 2023. 

A Different Leadership Style

Given her broad spectrum knowledge and expertise, Mindy believes in being a hands-on leader. To this end, she works tirelessly to understand every aspect of job functions at the company to better lead its people. She attempts to understand interdepartmental dependency and challenges to institute policies or offer support whenever needed, creating a more conducive work environment. At the same time, she is adamant about creating opportunities for her employees to grow, and thus, works to create a work culture that fosters their growth.

Mindy believes that a woman’s leadership style needs to be different from a man’s as there’s a preconceived notion about how a man leads. From using a stern voice to being loud, these attributes are generally considered masculine traits. For a woman, leadership needs to amalgamate a certain straightforwardness but also humility, and fairness. Personally, she believes in listening attentively, speaking thereafter. Being direct and to the point is also important for her as it helps her clearly communicate objectives and opinions, without any scope of conjecture.

Dismantling the Challenges Along the Way

According to Mindy, trust is the very foundation of any relationship, especially a financial one. Buying a home is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for most, thus, to trust an organisation with this decision is a huge deal. This is why it took the company some time to earn the client’s trust and establish itself as an ally in the home ownership and mortgage management process.

For me, success is a long-term achievement not a short-term gratification tool – Mindy Rothenberger

However, with the existing success ledger of the company, its consistently outstanding market performance, and excellent customer servicing history, SPF has crafted a pioneering reputation in the market.

Promoting Diversity and Inclusion

SouthPoint’s custody was previously held by a long list of male CEOs. Therefore, when Mindy inherited the reins of the company, her focus was on re-branding the firm by infusing diversity into its cultural ethos. Today, all the major executive positions in the company have Women incumbents. Moreover, this diversity is not just in terms of gender but also along other verticals, presenting minority women with opportunities to reach their potential.  

As a firm believer in merit-oriented rewards, Mindy has worked relentlessly to ensure that everyone at SouthPoint is judged not on the basis of their gender, race, or religion, but rather by virtue of the skill sets they bring to the table. At the same time, understanding the existing gender-biased compensation and rewards systems in the industry, she has worked to pursue the cause of diversity and inclusion at SouthPoint.

By ensuring job function-based compensation tiers at the company, Mindy has created a system where people are rewarded based on their abilities, rather than socially accepted differentiating markers. Mindy has also instituted a casual dress code at the company to ensure a level playing field where no one feels the need to spend more to meet certain standards.

Pillars of Inspiration

Mindy draws her inspiration not from ultra-successful women leaders in business but from real women who have overcome the trepidation of daily life to achieve their potential. For her, women hailing from a humble background, who have struggled to get a college degree or working mothers balancing a job and kids are true inspirations.

She finds commonality with these women having witnessed a fair share of struggles during college and work years. Having to work twice as hard as men, balancing a family and career while moving up the leadership ranks hasn’t been easy for Mindy. Thus, she finds encouragement in the stories of these women who have battled through the toughest situations to emerge victorious. For Mindy, these women define the zeal and relentless perseverance we, women, embody.

Sharing the Borrower’s Perspective

SouthPoint’s success can be attributed to key differentiators in terms of customer service and employment cultures. Sharing in the same humble beginning as most of these borrowers, Mindy understands their perspective. She knows that buying a home on mortgage is a significant decision that comes with a lot of apprehension and questions. To help solve this, the SouthPoint team is ever ready to impart valuable knowledge about the mortgage process to its clients. Clients are counselled in a way that helps them understand how to repay a mortgage in the long-run, familiarise themselves with loan terms, and all other such aspects. Moreover, Mindy focuses on helping first-time buyers maintain a healthy debt ratio. In other words, she helps ensure that the borrowed sum is well within their affordability threshold.

On the employee front, Mindy believes that empowered employees are always happy employees. Since employees are the backbone of any organisation, ensuring their well-being and growth is key to the organisation’s success. To this end, SouthPoint believes in respecting and appreciating its talent pool to ensure all-round success.

Word of Advice to Fellow Women Folk

Appreciating women’s formidable drives and creating new opportunities for them, Mindy offers some advice to budding women leaders. ‘To make a mark in any male-dominated business vertical, self-confidence is essential. Nothing can replace your self-worth knowledge and confidence’ asserts Mindy. ‘Use people’s opinions as feedback and constructive criticism, but never let it define your self-worth. Only you have the power of defining who you are’ continues Mindy.

She advises aspiring business women to gain in-depth knowledge of the market and hone as many skills as possible, as there’s no substitute for thoroughness and constant learning. At the same time, they shouldn’t be too caught up in fitting into a mould. Mindy’s philosophy is simple- if you were meant to stand out, why bother fitting in? Most importantly, women should never be afraid to start afresh. If they feel unvalued and under-appreciated, they should be ready to take risks and forge new paths.

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