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A home is the largest purchase and financial decision most people will make in their lifetime. That’s exactly why Neighborhood Loans has spent considerable time, effort, money, and energy to streamline its loan process, ensuring its clients experience a smooth loan process. “We want people to know that their experience doing loans with Neighborhood Loans is the best experience they could get,” says Dan Nieto, the company’s senior vice president of growth and expansion.
Neighborhood’s name speaks volumes, but it does not tell the entire story. Headquartered in Chicago, Neighborhood Loans lends in a variety of neighborhoods and to a wide demographic. “The company was named Neighborhood Loans specifically to show people that we lend in all neighborhoods,” Nieto says. “That’s our approach.”
The goal is not to be the largest lender but to be the best. “We’re a company for the masses, not the classes,” he says.
Founded in 2009 as a community lender, Neighborhood soon expanded regionally before spreading across the nation. Today it operates in forty-seven states. In 2024 it wrote just shy of $2.5 billion in loans. “That’s over 8,500 loans delivered last year,” Nieto says.
Nieto, now in his fourth year with Neighborhood, is tasked with increasing sales production by identifying, recruiting, and hiring new leadership and building around Neighborhood’s already existing quality individuals and leaders. He uses a recruitment strategy that is relationship driven, likening it to a popular pastime.
“Recruiting is fishing, not catching,” he explains. “Recruiting is certainly not an event. It just doesn’t ‘happen.’ It’s not like you’re in a boat and the fish jump in the boat and they join the company and everyone’s happy.” It’s more subtle and challenging than that.
He and his team work to forge a relationship with each recruit by sharing Neighborhood Loans’ business practices. If all goes well, his team persuades the perspective employee to sit down, talk, and ultimately come aboard. “It’s a journey that takes time,” Nieto says.
Like Neighborhood, Nieto is committed to empowering Latino homebuyers and fostering financial literacy in the Hispanic community, which makes him and his company a perfect fit. Nieto, who lives in Texas, was introduced to Neighborhood while taking a business meeting in Chicago as a senior vice president and owner for National Bank.
“Recruiting is fishing, not catching.”
Dan Nieto
One fact about Neighborhood stuck out, inspiring him to sign on. “I noticed some of the top producers in the Chicago region, the largest in the company, were Latino,” he says. “There are so many top producers that we have and leaders that are Hispanic. I thought that was neat.”
Although he has no hard statistics, Nieto estimates that 50 percent of Neighborhood’s employees are Hispanic and closer to 70 percent are people of color. “We just hired the top Hispanic lender in San Diego. He’s our regional manager. We have the top Hispanic lender in Texas, too. I’ve never been at a company that has such a high percentage of leadership, producers, salespeople, and loan officers that are Hispanic,” he says. “It’s neat to see. It’s the best company and the best leadership group I’ve worked for.”
Originally trained as a journalist, Nieto has been in the mortgage industry for twenty-five years, working as a loan officer, branch manager, bank owner, and recruiter. In that time, he and his wife of eighteen years have also had two daughters, Serenity and Stella. Nieto is a proud dad who enjoys mentoring young talent and building high performing teams of recruiters. He’s studied a variety of leaders in his time, from world leaders to coaches.
“I’ve really educated myself on different leadership styles. My leadership style is honest and direct with a focus on goal setting and accountability,” Nieto says. He emphasizes discipline, integrity, and work ethic. “That’s kind of what I expect. It’s actually what my leaders—which are the two CEOs of Neighborhood—have.”
Nieto’s team is dubbed “Powerhouse Recruiting Team,” and it’s clear that “powerhouse” is a word for which the executive has a particular fondness. In fact, he founded and operates an organization of his own called Powerhouse Investing Group, PIG for short. PIG launched in 2023 and has performed far beyond Nieto’s original expectations. “As of today, in just 18 months, we have expanded to close to 150 investors in 23 states and 3 countries, raising over $8 million for 7 companies,” he says.
When Nieto is not crushing it in the mortgage industry, he’s crushing opponents at jiu-jitsu competitions. His moniker? Powerhouse. The owner of forty-four gold medals, Nieto calls jiu-jitsu “the toughest and most challenging martial art there is.” The forty-four gold medals are “nice,” he says, but what swells his chest with pride is the fact that he’s a world champion, an eight-time national champion, and a three-time Pan-American champion.
“It requires a ton of patience. You could do jiu-jitsu for a full-year straight, never take a day off, and you’re still going to be average,” he says. “So, you really have to take a long approach. It’s a marathon and it translates into what I do for a living in recruiting. You have to be patient. You have to play the long game.”
