Kurtis & Rehan McNeil: The Struggles & Successes of Mixing Business & Love

Story by Walinda West
Photography by Todd Wood

When Rehan and Kurtis McNeil married in 1993, they thought the next step in the relationship would be to go into business together. They were committed in life, so why not business, too?

“It was a disaster,” Kurtis says of the pair’s first attempt to start a business.

In 1995, the two opened The Happy Factory, a small gift shop in Charlotte, NC, that sold flowers, balloons and other novelties. A new marriage and a new business were losing combinations, the couple says.

“Rehan was thinking from a creative structure and I was thinking from a cost structure, and the numbers weren’t adding up for me,” Kurtis says.

Within two years, The Happy Factory shuttered its doors and Kurtis—who had been toggling between the store and his full-time job as an industrial engineer in the food and pharmaceutical industry—focused on that job. Rehan, a communicator by training, went back to school to earn her degree in gerontology.

“That business almost cost us our marriage because we didn’t see eye to eye,” Kurtis says. “We didn’t know how to compromise in marriage, let alone compromise in business.

Of the experience, Rehan says the two were going in two directions, even though they appeared together. “I don’t think we communicated well. He was going one way and I was going in another way. What I learned from that experience is that if we are not in agreement, we don’t do it.”

Trying New Things

In 2005, when a job move sent the McNeils to Waco, Texas, Kurtis decided to try his hand in the mortgage business at a time when the housing industry was enjoying a boom.

He had no way of knowing that a short time later, the market would take a dive, resulting in a collapse buoyed by low-interest rates and lenders doling out loans to borrowers with low- to- no credit histories as part of a sub-prime lending scheme. Kurtis’s short-lived mortgage career ended with the historic housing crisis amid a wave of defaults and a recession that crippled the housing industry throughout the country.

The housing crisis sent Kurtis back to the engineering field he knew, while Rehan worked as a manager at the Methodist Children’s Home in Waco.

But Kurtis says he couldn’t get the mortgage business out of his head. He knew—based on his organization skills—that he could be successful at it, with time.

Rehan, on the other hand, was drawn to child welfare non-profit work and did not share her husband’s interest in the mortgage business.

In 2014, Kurtis and Rehan moved to Savannah to work for the Kerry Group while Rehan went to work for Effingham Schools in a role in which she served as a liaison between schools and parents.

The Right Time

The latter part of 2016 was the year that changed everything for the McNeils.

With two daughters—Cicely and Clarissa—facing the teen years and college looming, the couple had numerous discussions about their futures and what would bring them joy in their careers.

There was no question for Kurtis that he would re-enter the mortgage industry, and Rehan later moved from her job with Effingham schools to become a real estate agent.

Kurtis—who also goes by “The Savannah Mortgage Man”—took a job as a loan officer with mortgage lender Homestar Financial in 2016.

Since joining the firm, he has gained a faithful clientele of repeat and recommended customers who want to work with him because of his part-friend, part-disciplinarian, tough-love approach to successfully getting a mortgage.

“For me, it’s simple. If you follow the plan and let me tell you what to do, you’ll get a mortgage,” Kurtis says. “You just have to follow the plan.”

This strategic approach is important, Kurtis says, because home purchasing can be very frustrating and unfair.

“You can have a client with little collateral who can walk into a car dealership and buy a $50,000 car, but that same client can’t get into a house. Nothing has changed. They have the same income, the same credit score, the same everything, but we can’t get them in a house,” he says.

Giving Family Business Another Try

For the past four years, Rehan has worked as an agent with Rawls Realty, a Pooler-based real estate firm. Once again—with lessons learned from their previous business attempt—the McNeils are working together. If Kurtis gets calls about a mortgage, he will refer the buyer to Rehan if they need a real estate agent. Conversely, if Rehan is working with a client, she will refer the client to her husband to assist with financing.

The pair focus their attention on Effingham and Bryan counties, primarily catering to African American buyers whom Rehan says are underrepresented in homeownership. In Effingham County, the African American population stands at a little over 14 percent with about 2 percent in neighboring Bryan County.

Now the couple’s cherry wood table in their sparsely decorated dining room is part dining table, part desk and part conference table for impromptu meetings with clients who feel comfortable enough just stopping by with questions or to drop off paperwork.

“Clients say we are personable and approachable. We work on deals right here at this dining room table,” Kurtis says. “If clients have to come by the house to drop something off, they know where to find us any time of the day.”

“We are not just there to get them into a house,” Rehan says. “We stay in contact with them after the sale. We have a relationship with them. We want them to see us as friends.”

Making the Process Pain Free

Stephen Crowley estimates he met with Rehan 11 times as part of his home buying process. At 25 years old, the HVAC specialist has purchased two homes and sold one—using the McNeils and following their advice.

“I was of the mindset that I didn’t want to pay someone else’s mortgage. I wanted something that was mine,” Crowley says. “They made the process pain free.”

Crawley is now looking to build a home. “I plan on using the McNeils until they stop doing this work,” he jokes.

Crowley is one of many of the McNeil’s success stories in their second attempt to work together after more than two decades.

In addition to managing successful businesses that generate millions in sales and raising two daughters, the McNeils have added foster parenting to their busy schedules. The couple have been fostering two siblings since April.

Rehan says they are handling everything because they’ve got it down now through learning how to respect each other understanding their individual lanes and boundaries, and their spiritual grounding.

“What makes us successful is not the money we make, but a spiritual foundation that anchors us in knowing that what we are doing is bigger than us,” Rehan says.

7 Tips for Couples Who Work Together

Guidant Financial, a small business financing company that helps start-up businesses, offers these tips to couples working or considering working together.

•  Learn to communicate well. Just as the foundation of a strong marriage is good communication, the backbone of a solid working relationship with your spouse is being able to convey your thoughts, feelings, and perspectives so you can remain on the same page.
• Identify common goals. Having shared goals can be a key factor to establishing a good working relationship for couples. By spending time envisioning your future and creating a list of both short-and long-term goals, it can ease challenges that arise along the way while keeping you and your partner on the same page.
• Work to your strengths. While it’s inevitable that business owners will have to perform tasks they don’t enjoy at some point, it shouldn’t be a regular occurrence. Both you and your spouse should enjoy the work you do. That means leveraging your strengths to do the work you enjoy and hiring others to take care of tasks you don’t enjoy or don’t excel at.
• Assign ownership. Some married couples may also find it useful to assign responsibilities so they each have ownership over specific roles. This ensures all duties are taken care of and may reduce friction that can occur when too many people try to accomplish the same thing.
• Have regular check-ins. No matter what approach you take to assigning responsibilities, it’s always important to have regular check-ins with your significant other for both business-related items personal matters.
• Respect each other. Respect plays a big role in any successful marriage, and it’s even more important for couples that own a business together. Differences in working style can be a major contributing factor to conflict. However, if you take the time to understand how your partner works, you’ll be well on your way to harmony at work and home.
• Carve out alone time. One of the most sought-after benefits of owning your own business is flexibility. But some married couples who own a business fall prey to workaholism and leave little time to reconnect with each other. The most successful working couples remember to schedule time for themselves, whether it’s as simple as dinner together once a week (or a getaway with no work allowed. Having a strong personal connection with each other will only make your working relationship easier.