This month’s Member Spotlight is the two owners of CityWide Homeloans, Karl Smith and Curtis Wilken. CityWide is a residential mortgage bank. In their Hawaii office Karl and Curt focus heavily on construction loans and VA (veteran’s loans) – both of which there is a large need for here in the islands.
Their successful business relationship was actually forged many years ago – the two met with they were kids growing up in Ogden, Utah. They have been friends since 7th grade and remained friends through their college years at Weber State, also in Utah. It wasn’t until Curt retired from the AirForce, last year, that he was finally able to convince his friend Karl to come visit, and their company grew from there.
CityWide is already one of the largest lenders in the Western states. Regarding their loan services in Hawaii, Karl notes that Hawaii banks tend to be a little more conservative with their lending criteria, and CityWide was able to step in and offer loans for a wide range of projects. They offer homeowners the opportunity to rebuild old homes, expand their home’s footprint, or do refurbishments and improvements.
The CityWide team was one of our very first members here at Impact Hub, and their time here has proven successful – they’ve expanded their business and added three new members to their team. When Impact Hub HNL was featured on Hawaii Public Radio recently, Karl was quoted as saying, “We can grow within the space and it’s just a really neat atmosphere.”
If you want to learn more about lending and construction loans, you can listen to Karl and Curt on the Fix it Friday show from 8am-9am weekly with Mike Buck on AM 690. They are also hosting an upcoming Lunch & Learn at Impact Hub HNL, 7 Nov at noon, with Amber Lethem about improving your sales growth. You can register for this FREE event by emailing Curt directly.
