Private Lending Insights

In this episode of Private Lending Insights, Rocky Butani interviews Kirill Bensonoff, CEO and founder of New Silver, a technology-driven private lender based in Connecticut. Kirill shares how New Silver evolved from building loan origination software into a nationwide private lender funding fix & flip, ground-up construction, and DSCR loans.  The conversation covers lending trends, AI and aut...

Rocky Butani interviews Kevin Kim, Partner at Fortra Law and one of the leading securities attorneys advising private lenders and mortgage fund managers. We discussed rising defaults, increasing competition, and key risks facing private lenders in 2026. We also talk about a mortgage fund in Northern California that recently collapsed, what investors should look for, and why transparency, third-par...

Rocky Butani interviews Shafiq Taymuree from Stonecrest Financial , a California-based private lending firm with nearly $300 million in annual loan originations. They talked about Stonecrest’s unique lending programs, including consumer bridge loans that allow homeowners to buy a new property before selling their existing home, as well as a revolving line of credit program used by real estate inve...

Rocky Butani talks with Robert “Alex” Baker and Kent Liggitt from Coastal Equity Group, a direct private lending firm based in Charleston, South Carolina. They discuss Coastal Equity’s rapid growth, closing over $200M in annual loan volume (mostly ground-up construction), trends they are seeing, capital markets, their lending guidelines, and the Southeast markets seeing the most development activi...

Rocky Butani talks with Christian Faes, CEO of F2 Finance, LLC. Christian shares his journey from founding and scaling a multi-billion-dollar U.K. lending platform (LendInvest) to launching F2 Finance in the United States. The conversation covers F2’s balance sheet lending model, bridge loan guidelines, land and commercial deal appetite, state-by-state strategy, and how they compete in a highly co...

Rocky Butani interviews Melissa Martorella, Esq. , Partner at Fortra Law , for a deep dive into wholesale capital structures in private lending. Melissa breaks down the legal and compliance considerations behind wholesale lending, white labeling, table funding, and correspondent lending , with a focus on residential transition loans (aka hard money). The conversation covers state licensing require...

Rocky Butani talks with Bryan Ziegenfuse and Chris Tereo , Co-Founders of i Fund Cities , a national private lender based in Philadelphia. They discuss the company’s impressive 2025 growth, funding close to $900 million in private loans, their boots-on-the-ground expansion strategy , and trends in construction, fix & flip, and DSCR lending . The conversation also covers market forecasts for 20...

In this episode of Private Lending Insights, Rocky Butani interviews Nema Daghbandan, Esq., CEO of Lightning Docs and Partner at Fortra Law. They discuss nationwide trends in private lending interest rates, loan volume, and market dynamics for both bridge and DSCR loans — based on real data from thousands of transactions each month on the Lightning Docs platform. Nema breaks down rate movements ac...

Rocky Butani interviewed Jon Hornik, Managing Partner of Private Lender Law and President of the National Private Lenders Association (NPLA), to discuss the Baltimore DSCR fraud scheme that shook the private lending industry in 2025, affecting dozens of lenders and millions in loans. Jon explains how the scheme worked, who was impacted, and what the NPLA is doing to fight fraud and protect lenders...

Rocky Butani talks with Wesley Carpenter, Co-Founder and Partner at Stormfield Capital, a Connecticut-based private lender and debt fund manager with $750MM AUM. Wes discusses the 2025 market outlook, the state of bridge lending, and how Stormfield serves investors across the East Coast. He shares insights on loan volume, underwriting discipline, the company’s capital structure, and its plans to e...

Rocky Butani interviewed Paul Jackson, President & CEO of Residential Capital Partners, one of the few private lenders offering 100% financing for residential & multifamily rehab projects nationwide. Paul shares his insights on the real estate market, ground-up construction trends, and how ResCap has maintained steady lending volumes for 16+ years. Learn all about their loan program, borro...

Rocky Butani interviews Anthony Geraci, founder of the newly re-launched Geraci Law Firm and a long-time leader in the private lending space. Anthony discusses his recent split from the firm he originally built, his continued focus on supporting private lenders, and his vision for the future of the industry. Anthony shares his perspective on major trends shaping the industry — from the rise of cap...

Rocky Butani interviews Vance Hillstrom , CEO of Rubicon Mortgage Fund , for a wide-ranging discussion on California’s evolving real estate market, Rubicon’s conservative lending philosophy, and what it takes to survive and thrive in today’s private lending landscape. Rubicon has been originating bridge loans for nearly 20 years, funding deals exclusively with capital from its $150 million discret...

Rocky Butani interviews Dave Orloff, CEO of American Heritage Lending for an in-depth discussion on DSCR (Debt Service Coverage Ratio) loans. They explore current market trends in mid-2025, interest rate volatility, updated loan guidelines, and what makes AHL’s DSCR program stand out — including high LTV options, 40-year loan terms, fee stacking, and their approach to short-term rentals and multif...

Yieldi's principals, Joe Ashkouti and Josh Lloyd, spoke with Rocky Butani to talk about bridge loans for commercial and residential investment properties, their lending guidelines, the company's unique capital structure, and more.  Visit Yieldi's profile on PrivateLenderLink.com to learn more and to contact them:  https://privatelenderlink.com/profile/yieldi/?utm_source=lender-link-podcast This in...

Solomon Suleymanov, Partner and Director of Originations at We Lend LLC, spoke with Rocky Butani to talk about private/hard money lending in the New York City metro area.  Visit We Lend’s profile on PrivateLenderLink.com to learn more and to contact them:  https://privatelenderlink.com/profile/we-lend-llc/?utm_source=lender-link-podcast This interview is Episode #15 of the Private Lending Insights...

Jack Miller, President of Gelt Financial, spoke with Rocky Butani to talk about hard money loans for small commercial properties, their unique lending guidelines, the company's long history, and more.  Visit Gelt’s profile on PrivateLenderLink.com to learn more and to contact them:  https://privatelenderlink.com/profile/gelt-financial/?utm_source=lender-link-podcast This interview is Episode #14 o...

Briana Hildt, Co-Founder and CEO of Cardinal Capital Group, shared some insights about private lending in New England, the state of the market, their lending guidelines, the company's growth over the past few years, and nuggets about each of the different metro areas in the region. Visit Cardinal's profile on PrivateLenderLink.com to learn more and to contact them:  https://privatelenderlink.com/p...

Jon Hornik spoke with Rocky Butani to share his thoughts on the trade war’s impact on the private lending industry as of late April 2025. He also shared insights about the National Private Lenders Association (NPLA). Hornik serves as the Founder, Executive Director, and General Counsel of the NPLA. In addition, Hornik is the Managing Partner and Chair of the Private Lender Law Group at LaRocca Hor...

Andres Saias, Chief Lending Officer at RBI Private Lending, spoke with Rocky Butani to share some insights about their growth in the past few years, their national expansion, and what's happening in Florida.  Visit RBI's profile on PrivateLenderLink.com to learn more and to contact them:  https://privatelenderlink.com/profile/rbi-mortgages/?utm_source=lender-link-podcast Connect with Andres on Lin...

Kevin Kim, securities attorney and partner at Fortra Law, spoke with Rocky Butani to share some insights about private mortgage funds and the secondary market for private lending in early 2025. Kevin specializes in fund formation and has assisted tons of private lending companies with securities and capital raising legal matters. Visit Fortra's profile on PrivateLenderLink.com to learn more and to...

Charlie Einsman, Co-Founder of Clear Sky Financial spoke with Rocky Butani to share some insights about real estate investing and lending in the DMV region (DC, Maryland, Virginia). Find out what's happening with real estate in each of the 3 states (2025 Q1), learn about Clear Sky's unique lending program for real estate investors, and more. Visit Clear Sky's profile on PrivateLenderLink.com to le...

Jeff Tesch, CEO of RCN Capital spoke with Rocky Butani to share some insights about a variety of topics in private lending: 2024 loan volume, interest rates, insurance challenges, multifamily financing, 2025 predictions, RCN's wholesale program and more. RCN is mostly a wholesale lender serving loan originators, and they have a small retail division which is around 15% of their total loan volume....

Rocky Butani provides a report about private lending and Lender Link: thoughts about 2024, predictions for 2025, updates on our podcast, a few new lenders that were recently added to PrivateLenderLink.com, our new AI project and industry conferences.  Visit this page on our website to see a list of all the private lending conferences in 2025: https://pllk.io/evpl.

In the 6th episode of the Private Lending Insights Podcast, Rocky Butani interviewed Marc Rouda and Alexis Rouda from Security Financial Services to learn all about private lending in Northern California. They talked about their loan program, Bay Area private money trends, tenants in common deals in San Francisco and more. The company was established in 1943 and is based in San Francisco. Visit Se...