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Now On Demand. In times of COVID/Post-COVID, many investors remain concerned and confused by the commercial real estate market. While it is certain that some sectors of commercial real estate (e.g., office, hospitality and retail) will be challenged for many years to come, one area that will continue to provide consistent, low-risk and high rewards (vs other fixed income investments) will be bridge loans. When banks are stressed, as they are currently, securing even the simplest of loans from a conventional lender can be difficult and time-consuming, whereas bridge lenders – who lack internal bureaucracy – can often provide a loan in days or weeks. Bridge loans are generally provided at a lower loan to value than conventional bank or government-backed loans but require higher rates. A typical bridge loan might be 50%-65% of the appraised property value at a rate anywhere from 8% – 12%. A well-disciplined and experienced bridge lender will provide consistent returns to investors above 10% and specific deals with leverage can even provide returns in the high-teens, all with low-leverage loans that bare less risk than providing equity, which in many cases, provide similar returns at much greater risk.
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John Lettera is a proud veteran having served in the US Marines. He is the founder of RealFi Real Estate Investment Trust, LLC (“RealFi REIT”), is responsible for originations, and is a member of the Credit Committee.
John has over 20 years of legal experience and over 25 years’ experience in real estate debt originations and acquisitions, as well as equity investing. John founded and has successfully managed two real estate finance funds that invested in excess of $100 million.
From 1999 to 2005, John was an Associate at the law firm of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP, where he represented public and private clients in a range of transactions including mergers, acquisitions, asset sales, restructurings, going-private transactions and leveraged buyouts, equity and debt financings, DIP financing, creditor committee representation and structuring private equity funds.
Thereafter, John was a founding member, President and CEO of a privately held commercial real estate private equity investment firm focused in the middle market debt space. John has also structured complex private equity transactions, including early stage venture capital and mezzanine financings, growth equity, troubled-company turn around investments and leveraged and management buyouts. John has extensive experience in real estate litigation as well as structuring complex real estate debt transactions.
John is currently an adjunct professor at Pace University School of Law and is accredited in the State of New York to teach continuing education to real estate brokers, mortgage brokers, mortgage loan officers and lawyers.
An honored recipient of Pace University School of Law’s Leadership Award and the American Bar Associations Professor Roundtable, John has received extensive recognition for his contributions to the legal, commercial real estate and finance communities.
John received a B.A. in Finance from Mount St. Vincent/Manhattan College and his Juris Doctor from Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University. He is currently licensed to practice law in the State of New York. |
Brian is responsible for finance and operations and is a member of the Credit Committee. He served as Chief Investment Officer of Tannenbaum Family Office LLC, the family office of Leonard M. Tannenbaum. In that capacity, he analyzed and invested in multiple asset classes including private equity, real estate, real estate debt, credit, preferred stock, equity, structured products, tax liens and litigation claims.
Prior to the family office, Mr. Walter was Managing Director, Head of Institutional Products at Fifth Street Asset Management, a $5 billion public asset manager (OTC:FSAM). Mr. Walter oversaw all business management responsibilities relating to Fifth Street’s institutional products, including the BDCs, BDC JVs, SMAs, CLOs, credit facilities and the firm’s hedge fund, for which he also served as Portfolio Manager. In 2017, Mr. Walter assisted in the sale of the BDC assets to Oaktree Capital for $320 million and the sale of the CLO assets to NewStar Financial for $7 million. Mr. Walter joined Fifth Street in August 2015 to manage the Fifth Street Opportunities Fund with over 20 years of experience working in the leveraged finance markets.
Before joining Fifth Street, he most recently served as a Managing Director at Stifel Financial, where he was Co-Head of Fixed Income Cleared Products and Head of Leveraged Finance Trading. Prior to that, Mr. Walter served as a Partner, Managing Director and Senior Trader in the Institutional Sales & Trading Group at Imperial Capital, LLC. He was previously a Managing Director with UBS, where he worked for nearly eight years as the Head of U.S. Credit Index Trading and prior to that, Head of U.S. High Yield Trading. He began his career at Lehman Brothers, where he ultimately became Vice President, High Yield Trading.
Mr. Walter received his B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Yale University and his M.B.A. with Beta Gamma Sigma honors from Columbia Business School, where he was a Heilbrunn Fellowship recipient. |
