One was Christopher Pepe (pictured top), CEO of LoanGeek.com. He said that one of the things they take pride in is their ability to handle complex files. While some in the industry have lamented that high interest rates are keeping deals from happening, the files Pepe and his team are dealing with have more complicated problems.
“We’re very active with deals that have hair on them,” Pepe said. “We see a ton of them. That’s one of the value-adds that we have to our partners. Of course, you can send me the easy stuff, but the easy stuff, everyone is going to fight over it. The complicated stuff, I feel like, is where a lot of the opportunity is.”
Pepe provided examples of challenging files his team had recently worked on.
“Last month, we funded a $6.5 million second mortgage on a spec property,” Pepe said. “Not a lot of people would even consider that loan, but that’s something that’s outside of the box, that is challenging. We have another deal that’s not yet funded … it’s an $18 million hotel deal. The client’s in default on the first mortgage, default on the second mortgage. We didn’t even know they had a third mortgage until the title came in.
“Mechanics liens, partners are fighting, it’s a disaster. Most lenders would probably walk away from it, but the leverage is low on the property. It’s like a 30% LTV or 35% LTV. And this lender happens to not care about all that stuff and really likes the asset.”