In an industry defined by volatility, consolidation, and constant technological disruption, few executives have managed to consistently operate across multiple cycles of growth the way Grayson S. Hanes has. Best known as a co-founder and managing partner of Homeside Financial, now operating under the Lower.com platform, Hanes has spent more than three decades building, scaling, and repositioning businesses across the U.S. mortgage and investment landscape.
His career offers a case study in how experience in traditional banking, disciplined execution, and strategic diversification can combine into a modern entrepreneurial playbook.
From Traditional Banking to Mortgage Market Operator
Hanes began his professional journey in the early 1990s after earning a degree in political science with a background in economics from the University of Lynchburg in 1987. Like many executives who would later transition into entrepreneurship, his early career was rooted in established financial institutions, where he worked across mortgage-focused roles at firms including Fidelity and Trust Bank, Prospect Mortgage, and NFM Inc.
These formative years shaped the operational foundation of his later ventures. He held positions ranging from regional manager to director of builder services and executive vice president, gaining exposure to both the retail lending side and the infrastructure required to scale mortgage distribution across regions.
This combination of field-level execution and leadership responsibility would become a defining feature of his approach in later ventures.
Building Homeside Financial: Timing the Non-Bank Lending Shift
In 2014, Hanes co-founded Homeside Financial, which would later align with Lower.com as part of a broader mortgage banking platform. The timing was strategic. The post-financial crisis era saw non-bank mortgage lenders rapidly expanding their market share, reshaping how home loans were originated, processed, and distributed in the United States.
Hanes assumed the role of managing partner from the outset, helping steer the company through a period of aggressive expansion in the residential lending sector.
Under his leadership, Homeside scaled from a small operation of just a handful of employees to a national platform employing thousands. Industry coverage has noted that the company expanded its workforce to more than 2,500 employees while building a broad regional presence across multiple U.S. markets. Its growth trajectory also earned recognition in rankings such as Inc. Magazine’s fastest-growing private companies list.
Rather than focusing solely on volume, the company’s expansion strategy emphasized distributed growth, building regional offices and localized lending teams to improve responsiveness in competitive housing markets.
Scaling Strategy: Growth Through Distribution and Talent
A consistent theme in Hanes’ leadership approach has been recruitment-driven expansion. Instead of relying solely on centralized operations, Homeside Financial developed a decentralized structure that allowed it to scale rapidly while maintaining localized customer engagement.
This model required heavy investment in talent acquisition, leadership development, and regional autonomy. Hanes’ oversight of business development and recruiting initiatives positioned him as a central figure in shaping the company’s organizational architecture during its most aggressive growth phase.
At a time when mortgage lenders were competing not just on rates but on speed and service experience, Homeside’s expansion strategy reflected a broader shift in the industry toward customer-centric lending models.
Diversification Beyond Mortgage Lending
While mortgage banking remains the core of Hanes’ professional identity, his entrepreneurial activity extends well beyond a single sector.
He has held leadership roles in multiple organizations, including serving as co-chairman of Mid-Atlantic Loans and chairman of Hanes Capital. From 2018 to 2024, he also served as chairman of the board at Medalist Insurance, further extending his footprint into adjacent financial services verticals.
His involvement has not been limited to traditional finance. Hanes has participated in nonprofit work, including engagement with the Casey Cares Foundation, reflecting a broader interest in institutional leadership beyond profit-driven enterprises.
Expanding Into Sports, Manufacturing, and Investment Vehicles
In the 2020s, Hanes’ portfolio of activity broadened significantly into sports governance, manufacturing, and investment structuring.
He joined the board of governors of the Congressional Country Club in 2020 and later became its board president in 2025. His involvement in golf administration also extended to the PGA of America leadership structure, where he was appointed to the Congressional leadership board and later named vice chair for the 2027 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
In parallel, Hanes expanded into industrial and investment ventures. In 2024, he founded Eco Gel, a packaging manufacturing company focused on gel-based materials. A year later, he formed the Washington Baseball Group, an investment consortium exploring acquisition opportunities within Major League Baseball.
By 2026, he had also taken on a senior leadership role as managing director of Madison Capital Group, signaling a further shift toward diversified investment management and capital allocation strategies.
A Pattern of Platform Building
Across industries, Hanes’ career reflects a consistent pattern: identify structurally growing sectors, build scalable platforms, and expand through leadership systems rather than isolated deals.
Whether in mortgage lending, insurance, sports governance, or investment vehicles, his approach has emphasized organizational architecture, building entities capable of scaling beyond their founding footprint.
This “platform-first” mindset is particularly evident in his work with Homeside Financial/Lower.com, where growth was not driven by a single product or market, but by geographic expansion, recruitment, and operational replication across regions.
Industry Recognition and Market Position
Homeside Financial’s growth has been documented in industry coverage and independent financial analyses, including consumer-facing evaluations such as those published by Forbes Advisor. These assessments have provided context for the company’s product offerings and its position within the broader non-bank lending ecosystem.
More broadly, Hanes has been recognized within industry circles for his role in advancing non-bank mortgage lending models and for helping scale customer-centric lending operations during a period of rapid transformation in U.S. housing finance.
The Long View
Hanes’ career illustrates a broader evolution in American financial entrepreneurship, from institution-based careers to multi-sector portfolio leadership. His trajectory reflects how modern executives increasingly operate across overlapping domains of finance, investment, and governance.
Rather than being defined by a single company or sector, his professional path is characterized by repeated cycles of building, scaling, and diversifying, an approach that continues to shape his involvement in both established financial institutions and emerging investment ventures.
As the financial services industry continues to evolve, Hanes’ career offers a clear example of how adaptability, timing, and organizational design can function as a long-term entrepreneurial strategy.