Kevin Amolsch
Kevin Amolsch has been a guest on Collecting Keys, the real estate investing podcast hosted by Mike DeHaan, Dan Austin and Dylan Koch.
Creative Financing Before It Was Cool with Kevin Amolsch
Kevin Amolsch of Pine Financial Group walks through two decades in real estate, starting with lease option sandwiches in 2001, losing most of a near-60-door portfolio during 2006-2008, and rebuilding while starting a hard money lending business. He explains how his lending company evolved from brokering a single $100,000 private loan into four mortgage funds with about $140 million under management, the difference between Reg D and Reg A offerings, and the specific risks of gap funding for passive lenders.
Key takeaways
- Kevin's niche was the lease option sandwich — buying on a lease option and reselling to a tenant buyer — which worked on pretty homes with no equity and was easy for sellers to understand. It's harder now because the SAFE Act added licensing and ability-to-repay rules, and the dry double close largely disappeared.
- When he was losing everything in 2006-2008, he prioritized staying current with his lease option sellers over his bank loans, doing deeds in lieu and short sales on the ~8 financed properties and renegotiating option price and rent on his 40-plus lease options. His portfolio dropped from almost 60 doors to about 20, and he rebuilt by bringing in partners to sign on debt in 2009-2010.
- His first lending deal came from standing up at a real estate meeting with $100,000 of one private investor's money — four points origination, 15% interest, two points to the investor — netting $2,000. He later restructured to keep all the points, charge servicing fees, and eventually launch funds to solve investor problems around entry size, diversification and liquidity.
- Reg D is a private placement exemption (advertising only allowed to accredited investors under 506c), while Reg A allows public advertising of a stated return to non-accredited investors but requires audited financials and twice-yearly reporting. Even with an approved Reg A, Texas requires selling the security through a broker dealer.