Robert Rink and Andrew Leavitt know where you live; they may have helped put you there.
Rink, Pinnacle Lending Group’s president and mortgage banker, and Andrew Leavitt, its assistant vice president of secondary markets and systems, leverage their shared love of real estate to help people find places to live and work. Besides traditional mortgages, the company refinances mortgages and arranges business purpose loans.
Rink and Leavitt on March 8 appeared on the “Entrepreneur’s Showcase Series” a video podcast produced by Patranya Media. Patranya Bhoolsuwan, who leads Patranya Media interviewed them for a 24-minute episode, posted on YouTube.
Before starting Pinnacle Lending Group, Rink worked for locals casino giant Station Casinos. He told Bhoolsuwan he was following a VIP trajectory, but in 2006, broke off and branched out.
He has built the company into a multistate enterprise with offices in Chandler, Arizona, Capistrano Beach, California, and Joplin, Missouri, complementing its Las Vegas headquarters at 6475 S. Rainbow Blvd., Suite 102. Rink said his company serves clients in 17 states.
Understanding that homes are major purchases, Rink said works to help clients find places they like and may not have thought they could get. And Leavitt, who’d worked as a mortgage underwriter before joining Pinnacle five years ago, said he shepherds clients, some with lower incomes or credit scores, through every aspect of lending.
“If you’ve had trouble getting home loans in the past, whether you’ve been declined, or you just haven’t been able to qualify or the payment was too much, that’s what we really excel at,” Leavitt said. “We can really dive into it and give a lot more options to clients just based off (of) the programs that we have.”
Having a geographically broad company with corporate power and the full team to lead mortgage transactions, including underwriters and Rink working locally, makes smoothing snags and completing deals easier, Leavitt said. He added that Pinnacle finds creative options to deliver clients’ most suitable deals. For example, matching a buyer’s debt-to-income ratio relative to a neighborhood’s median income level opens possibilities, he said.
People shopping for information can find a trove of free-to-download information on his website, Leavitt said.
Rink added that Pinnacle leverages local relationships, too. The company works with the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors and Southern Nevada real estate agents to spread the word about the company and cultivate new clients.
To serve the community, Leavitt added, the company partners with officials such as the deputy director of the Department of Housing and Urban Development and groups such as the Nevada Mortgage Lenders Association to help aspiring mortgage lenders learn skills and establish business.
Rink encouraged aspiring real estate entrepreneurs to be impatient and work diligently, grabbing opportunities while they’re hot. Rink said construction continues to churn and joked that Nevada’s state flowers could be the cones surrounding building sites.
Leavitt said there’s enough business for many players in Las Vegas real estate, and more business coming.
“As it grows,” Leavitt said of Las Vegas, “so do we.”
