Baltimore-based Dominion Financial Services, a nationwide private lender that specializes in financing for real estate investors, announced the hiring of Dustin Wells as the president of its newly launched wholesale lending division.
Wells has more than 20 years of experience in the financial services arena. Most recently, he served as co-president of Stronghill Capital, an Austin-based nonbank lender. In its announcement, Dominion said that Wells’ “expertise in and deep understanding of the real estate market make him the ideal leader for Dominion’s Wholesale Division.”
“We couldn’t be more excited to have Dustin join the team and lead Dominion’s expansion into wholesale lending,” Jack BeVier, a partner at Dominion Financial, said in a statement. “We pride ourselves on having an entrepreneurial culture and Dustin fits right in. Dominion has a track record of leaning into opportunities while others are retreating. I’m excited to see Dustin grow the Division and for Dominion to become a go-to lender for all non-QM and traditional mortgage offerings.”
Dominion’s wholesale division will provide tailored financing solutions to address the “unique needs of brokers,” the company explained. Last month, Dominion launched a third-party origination platform for brokers, improving access to products such as debt-service-coverage ratio (DSCR) loans, short-term fix-and-flip financing, ground-up construction financing and bridge loans for multifamily properties.
“The timing could not be better for us to enter this market with our solutions-based approach to this product segment — the broker community is the most significant it has been since 2009, with almost 25% market share of mortgage transaction activity,” Wells said in a statement. “The broker community is scaling rapidly as more and more banks are scaling their operations back.”
Since its founding in 2002, Dominion Financial has reportedly funded more than 11,000 projects across the U.S., with a total origination volume of more than $3 billion.
