By David “Dirk” Smith, M.Sc., SDL (He/Him)
Our managing editor of sports, Dirk Smith caught up with Compete Sports Diversity member, Andrew Dort who is the owner/founder of Pride Lending. Pride Lending helps “LGBTQ+ clients reach their financial and homeownership goals by establishing a better relationship so that they can finally find the home of their dreams.” Check out our interview with Andrew to learn more about his work as well as his love for Flag Football and getting involved in Las Vegas’ LGBTQ+ community!
Dirk Smith
Hi Andrew, thank you for joining me and I am excited for our chat! Tell me about yourself and the work you do!
Andrew Dort
I am the Primary Loan Officer and owner of Pride Lending; we are an LGBTQ focused mortgage brokerage. While we work with everyone, but our market outreach is focused on the LGBTQ community. The LGBTQ community trails their heterosexual counterparts quite dramatically in terms of homeownership. Additionally, there are often feelings of discrimination that exist within the real estate industry, whether that’s directly from realtors, sellers, or the ancillary industries, like appraisers and others. Story after story of appraisers finding out that the same sex couple lives in a home and the value going down, which is also common with people of color. It’s even more compounded for people of color who are also members in the LGBTQ community. So, there’s definitely a need for this kind of representation existed, and seeing competes mission to help kind of grow those. Well, you know, whether it’s awareness, or other leagues, similar or support, networking, whatever they can do, it seems like a worthwhile mission to support. So that’s how I got a originally involved.
Dirk Smith
Nice. And you said that you originally came up in the Denver Flag Football League, an expanded from there. Are you still working in Denver too?
Andrew Dort
I have a house in Aurora. But I live in Vegas and before I opened private lending, I was working for a mortgage company out in Denver, and they wanted open a branch in Vegas which I then moved. Then COVID hit and I lost all the support from that company’s home office. That ultimately was a springboard to start my own company that became Pride Lending.
Dirk Smith
That’s awesome. It’s really neat to hear you’re not just working, but you’re the foundation of Pride Lending and then you’ve been able to start growing and expanding. I bet the Las Vegas market has a lot of great real estate to work with as well.
Andrew Dort
Yeah, it blows my mind. I’ve started adding different states across the country, like Texas is insane. I mean, the prices of these McMansions out in western Texas for like, $200,000 but then you find out the property taxes and the homeowners insurance costs are through the roof.
Dirk Smith
Do you just work with residential real estate? Or do you work with commercial real estate as well?
Andrew Dort
I have the ability to do some commercial, but I’m a firm believer in you have to be an expert in the products you sell and since I live and breathe residential mortgages, I am focused more on that. So, I tend to refer the commercial stuff out. When it comes to finance, it is an old straight white man’s club which can make it difficult sometimes, but we persist.
Dirk Smith
Are you involved with the Las Vegas Gay Flag Football League?
Andrew Dort
Actually, I’m attempting to start it up as we speak! There’s around 12 of us that come out every weekend just to try and drum up interest. The problem is we’re sandwiched between two very large LGBTQ+ sports organizations, The LGBTQ+ Softball League and the OutLoud Sports kickball League. Between those two, it’s pretty much anyone who wants to play a sport is in one way or the other. So, we’ve got to find out a way to either work around their schedules and we’ve been trying to get our flag football league going for the better part eight months now.
Dirk Smith
Vegas is kind of an interesting market in that regard because, since most other major cities have a nice variety of different sports offerings. Vegas hosts the Sin City Classic every year, which is a huge event and there’s more than enough venues and facilities and people who can organize it. But there’s very little offered in terms of an LGBTQ+ sports community for people who live in Vegas.
Andrew Dort
Yeah, I don’t know if part of that is because we have a lot of people that come in and then move on. It’s hard to find someone who’s ever like truly born and raised here. I am not sure if that has an impact on it, but I know Vegas is also a growing city. It’s shocking how much has changed in the last few years, but it’s no longer just the strip. We’re starting to see more healthcare industries pop up, also tech startups are coming in from California because it’s so much cheaper, and there’s no state income tax. Then we have all these sports teams that are coming, like the Knights and the Raiders. So, it’s really up and coming.
Dirk Smith
Especially with those professional sports teams as Vegas went from no sports teams, now it’s got two and maybe three, or maybe even more. I noticed that too because of my work with Compete and going to the Sin City Classic every year. There’s also been more of a community resurgence for the LGBT community, I’ve done interviews with different LGBTQ+ businesses and non-profits, not just in Las Vegas, but Henderson, North Las Vegas, and the towns that are all around it. The community’s exerting itself a lot more, which is really nice to see and showing that it’s not just centralized into one part of Vegas.
Andrew Dort
Absolutely. There’s an LGBTQ+ neighborhood/ area here we call it the “Fruit Loop”, down by the university. It’s a small section, but it’s nothing like you know, Denver or Seattle, who have bigger neighborhoods like Capitol Hill. It’s nothing quite like that. You’re right, it is kind of a bit more spread out.
Dirk Smith
But at the same time, Denver and Seattle are more condensed cities that have an urban core whereas Las Vegas is different because the strip and then even downtown Las Vegas are much more touristy.
Andrew Dort
Exactly and that’s the thing that I miss most about Denver is that there’s no downtown here.
Dirk Smith
I’m from Denver as well. The city that I’m in right now is, Cologne, Germany. There is a huge urban core, but I still miss some of that. It’s got a different vibe to it, which is really nice for kind of walking and chunks where there’s different bars and clubs. But here it’s a great scene overall too.
Andrew Dort
Yeah, absolutely. I was pleasantly surprised to find that there’s pretty vibrant community out here.
Dirk Smith
Exactly. And that helps too because organizations like Pride Lending, as well as nonprofits and for-profit organizations are important for building that community. In the past, it’s always just been bars and clubs. But now it’s businesses, organizations and nonprofits that are able to offer more than drinking and partying. Do you have any particular goals or visions with Pride Lending?
Andrew Dort
Yeah, I want to be in all 50 states. Well, I say all but there are some like New York and Illinois that are almost impossible to get licensing in, so we’ll see about those two. But I want to be in the vast majority of states. I want to be *the* gay lender and were working on getting a warehouse line, so right now a broker. Part of our goals is to get our own set up to fund deals in house. I want to employ a diverse and a very representative group of people as well. I want to make a place where we can employ and work with the underserved communities that we’re a part of. I know that I am cisgender, white, even if I am gay, I still have a lot of privilege, so I also want to make sure that I’m employing BIPOC and diverse gender identities in positions of leadership and authority. I have a lot of big goals and it sometimes feels like I’m taking on more than I can chew. I mean, even just the licensing itself is, is a nightmare and a half, but it’s all worthwhile. Especially with all this new legislation throughout the country, making it more difficult for LGBTQ+ people just to exist. That’s why we’re targeting the southern states first because representation is most important in areas where it’s needed most.
Dirk Smith
Take it from a sports psychologist, it’s good to have these big, huge long-term goals that feel like a huge mountain to climb but break it down and chunk it into mid-term goals and then chunk those into small term goals. Focus on each step at a time so that you just work on what’s important right now and then move on to the next step. Before you know it, you’re going to stop and realize how far you’ve come
Andrew Dort
I appreciate that!
Dirk Smith
The last question I have, what does sports diversity mean for you?
Andrew Dort
For me, it’s about finding a place where I could be authentically myself for the first time in my life. It wasn’t just cathartic it was incredible and possibly up in the top three single most important… inner interactions that I’ve had in my life to put me to who I am today. That was directly through the power of sport which gave me the confidence to be who I was, and it also introduced me to so many other people and viewpoints that I never would have been exposed to. For me, it’s not just a nice thing to have, it is essential. That’s why I was so interested in joining ya’ll with Compete when you approached me because I truly see the value in all this.
Dirk Smith
And we are happy to have you with us! Thank you, Andrew!
Learn more about Pride Lending at www.mypridelending.com
