CEO Seeks to Increase African American Homeownership Through LEGACY

Ben Slayton, president and CEO of LEGACY Home Loans, has recently opened two new branch offices located in predominantly black communities. Slayton’s company is based in Las Vegas and is considered to be one of the most successful black-owned mortgage banking firms with a focus on building homeownership due to its unwavering loyalty to black communities throughout America.

Slayton has been a prominent community leader since he became the first African American realtor in America in 1964.

The reason behind Slayton’s use of the “legacy” lies in the fact that it has a special meaning to black Americans. Legacy is basically our desire to leave a large amount of wealth for our families. Homeownership is one of the main ways Americans gain wealth. However, African American homeownership is at an all-time low with only 41% of black Americans owning their own homes.

According to Slayton, “If we work together, we can increase that 41% to something close to where the White population is at 72%, which is over a 30% homeownership gap. We all need to do something about this, and one way is to start building sustainable wealth through homeownership and start leaving legacies for our families.”

The new branch offices are located all over the country including Hyde Park in Illinois, a suburb that was Barack Obama’s hometown and downtown Atlanta which is the hometown of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. According to BlackNews.com, the Illinois location is managed by Leonard Pollard, a 25-year veteran of the mortgage business while the Georgia location is managed by Tony Bryant who is also a 25-year veteran of the mortgage business.

What separates LEGACY Home Loans from other mortgage companies is that it uses the profits of the branches to not only open additional locations but to be able to hire people in predominantly black communities and donate to resources that serve the black community as a whole.

According to BlackNews.com, Slayton’s vision for the future of LEGACY Home Loans is to make it a household name in the black American community “when it comes to the purchase of a new home or a refinance of an existing home, by opening branch offices in every city in the United States that has 25% or more of African Americans in the population. And, by hiring local mortgage professionals in the black communities and giving them the tools, loan programs, and resources, they can compete head-to-head with any mortgage lender in the United States.”