Adam Torres and Bill Bymel investing in the secondary mortgage market.
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Show Notes:
Investing in the secondary mortgage market can be a great way to diversify a portfolio. In this episode, Adam Torres interviewed Bill Bymel, CEO and Founder of First Lien Capital LP. Explore what it takes to invest in the secondary mortgage market along with Bill’s new book, Mission Matters: World’s Leading Entrepreneurs Reveal Their Top Tips To Success (Real Estate Vol.3).
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About Bill Bymel
In 2011, Bill created a team at Spurs Capital LLC and directed the asset management of non-performing and sub-performing residential mortgage loans as well as REO fix-n-flip residential properties: personally responsible for the acquisition, management, and liquidation of over $300 million in real estate and mortgage investments since 2012.
As Founder of RSI Asset Management LLC, Bill built a network of loss mitigators, REO Brokers, loan servicing agents, property managers and vendors as they represent corporate and independent investors in the acquisition, mitigation, and disposition of residential and commercial mortgage loans and its underlying real estate.
As a Partner of Retail Sites International, Bill was responsible for tenant representation-expansion consulting of national credit retail and restaurant concepts in SouthEast Florida. Clients of RSI include BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse, Darden Restaurants, and Taco Bell.
Currently, Bill is the Founder of First Lien Capital LP, a private equity real estate and mortgage investment platform offering investors access to the secondary mortgage market and LP opportunities in commercial re-development and distressed residential real estate.
About First Lien Capital LP
First Lien Capital is a privately owned mortgage and real estate investment platform focused on establishing a new relationship between investors and borrowers through the creation of win-win resolutions to sub-performing, non-performing mortgages on residential and commercial real estate.
For more information about their experience in all asset classes of real estate, asset management, portfolio servicing oversight, and mortgage finance, and how First Lien Capital is shifting paradigms in the mortgage and real estate industry.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to mission matters.com and click on Be Our Guest to Apply. All right, so today is a very special episode. Myself and Bill, we’ve been working on this.
Book for a whole long, a whole lot of time, uh, putting it together and we finally announcing that, uh, that it has been released. It’s up, it’s live. So, hey, welcoming back. Bill Biel, c e o, and founder of First Lien Capital to the show. Bill, welcome back. Hey, it’s pleasure to be with you, Adam. I. Come on man. So I know you have, uh, this is your, now you’re multi-time, um, published author.
Um, you have another book out Win-Win Revolution, which we’ll talk about that as well. But, uh, your first mission matters release with us. How do you feel? Uh, it’s phenomenal and what I’m most excited about is I wrote this chapter, it’s called Play to Win. Mm-hmm. And, uh, I wrote it. I was looking it up this morning.
I said, when did I, when did I, when did we actually go to print with this thing? And I was one of the first chapters in the book, I think complete. It was June of last year. Yeah. And it was meant to speak to what the next year or two might look like. Mm-hmm. In my world of real estate and mortgages. Mm-hmm.
And it’s amazing how much predictions I have already come true in what I wrote in the chapter. So, I saw it and, and you and I have been having these kind of discussions offline about maybe this, uh, I’m using these words, you didn’t, but, uh, that, that whole crystal ball thing, I was like, as, as we’re going further and further into this, I’m like, I’m like, okay, bill, like this is, uh, this is interesting and we’ll go into some of those specifics in a moment.
Of course. Um, but before we do that, uh, you already know the drill. We’ll start this episode the way that we start them all with our mission matters minute. So Bill, we at Mission Matters, we amplify stories for entrepreneurs, executives, and experts. That’s our mission. Bill, what mission matters to you? I.
The mission that matters most to me, Adam is simple, well, and yet so complex. Mm-hmm. I want to make a difference in the world and I wanna leave a legacy. I wanna impact the world in a positive way. People, I. Their livelihood and you know, really leaving that educational impact and really having an influence on folks and making the world a better place.
That’s the mission that matters most to me. That’s great. Love bringing mission-based, I. Uh, executives and entrepreneurs on the show to share, you know, why they do what they do, how they’re doing it, and really what we can all learn from that so that we all grow together. So, um, great having you back on.
And I guess maybe just to get us kicked off here, um, let’s just dive right into the book. So, uh, play to win investing at the end of the great vacation. Now again, you wrote this, um, I believe you said last June or so, right? Um, what was the inspiration for the content? Like where, where did it all start for you?
Because a lot of different things you could have wrote about. Yeah, I, you know, I am a money manager in essence, but our, our focus is real estate and mortgages and so where being ahead of the trends, being on the forefront of where the industry is going in terms of valuations, the way things get financed, where there may be distress and opportunity, being on the front forefront of that is the key to being a successful manager who really creates alpha.
For his clients and, and, and what the, what played a win was about was we were in June of last year. We were three months into the beginning of these interest rate increases. Mm-hmm. And what did that mean? What did that foretell, what was ahead at the time? Mm-hmm. It really, the, the standard line was, you know, this might just be temporary.
You know, hopefully there won’t be, this won’t continue, you know, hopefully inflation will get under its hands. We will get control of it, and a lot of those things have yet to happen. Interest rates have continued to rise. There’s never been a time in American history where the federal government has raised interest rates by 5% or more in less than 12 months.
Yeah, that time happened. Year at the ti and it was just starting at the time that I wrote this episode, this, this chapter. So, you know, predicting what would happen and seeing that coming to fruition now is, is, is kind of what the chapter’s about. Mm-hmm. So how does this affect, um, and what you’re doing on a day-to-day at First Lien Capital, like maybe give us a little bit of insight into your process.
Sure. You know, I buy seasoned mortgages, uh, from the secondary mortgage market. My first book, win-Win Revolution. Was all about that guide to my experiences of becoming someone who acquires real estate through the secondary mortgage market. That’s a good old boys network. It’s the big private equity funds, it’s pension funds and it’s banks.
Mm-hmm. So, If I’m acquiring from those folks, you know, the, the, um, knowing how, how to acquire, how to model, how to deal with those people is one thing. Mm-hmm. And then knowing where the industry is going, where the stress is, where the opportunity is. That’s the key. I have access to a good old boys network, so to speak, a very small group of very influential, high net worth folks in Wall Street and around the world who invest in trade in mortgages and real estate in large quantities.
And by being someone who can step into that market and knowing where the opportunity exists, that’s really kind of, you know, that’s what’s happened in the last year. Is we’re seeing a transformation in where. Product will be coming from mm-hmm. By increasing interest rates. So significantly the way the federal government has had to do to tame inflation, we have subsequently broken the backs of the commercial real estate industry for Indus In, in since, yeah.
And, and, and the banks. And so that’s really where, you know, that’s where the opportunity is gonna be coming in the next couple. So what does this do to, to like just supply overall? Like how does that affect supply? Yeah, and it’s interesting because the normal everyday consumer isn’t feeling this. If anything, yeah.
The supply of real estate in your local markets is still zero on the residential side. So if you go to buy, if you’re in the market to buy a house anywhere in America, Yeah. Chances are there’s less inventory than there are buyers out there. Mm-hmm. Um, now we are seeing parts of the US cool in terms of residential real estate prices and in even certain areas of the West Western US where, where actually we’re seeing a decline in certain specific markets that we’re probably overheated to begin with.
Mm-hmm. Uh, but even a decline of 10% in an area like Austin, where you’ve seen increases of 20% per year. It doesn’t mean that, you know, you’re still ahead, obviously, in the long term. Mm-hmm. Um, and, and so that’s kind of where, you know, the, the what we, what we’re seeing about to happen. Mm-hmm. Um, it’s happening kind of behind the scenes in a way because it’s happening at the big mega financial institutions.
Mm-hmm. Uh, banks, for instance, are highly leveraged. Institutions, so as much as we wanna believe that the federal government is regulating them correctly, mm-hmm. The reality of it is, is that most countries in the world have maybe a dozen banks in their country. Mm-hmm. We have 1500 banking institutions around America.
When you include credit, small regional banks, 70% of the commercial real estate debt in this country is held on the portfolios of those 18, 1500. Banks and credit unions. So if we see a major decrease in commercial real estate values, the story of Silicon Valley Bank and signature. Mm-hmm. That’s just the beginning of what we might, what might lie ahead.
Yeah. And if we look kind of, um, like what’s possible with all these smaller and regional banks, so they were, you know, a, a, a decent size, you know, a bank overall. But if we look at even some of the smaller regional players, depending on what their balance sheet looks like, it seems like they might even be more susceptible.
Am I, am I kind of off on that or, that’s the great irony. You’re totally right, Adam. And that’s why the news doesn’t properly reflect what’s, yeah. Going on. If you can have three of the top 20 banks in this country fail because of a slight remark in their portfolio. Hmm. Then what does that do to a bank that’s only got a maybe a billion dollars of deposits or a hundred million of deposits?
And so you’re absolutely right. That is the. These banks that failed recently are the canaries in the coal mine. Yeah. And, and as much as Wall Street, as the, as Janet Yellen or the Fed, or, or Jeremy Diamond mm-hmm. Um, wanna come out and, and, and say that, that, that it’s over. That there’s, that the, that the distress has gone.
It just hasn’t true. It’s just not factually true. Mm-hmm. Um, there is a, there is a reckoning coming in commercial real estate. It to the likes of what we probably saw in the savings and loan. Mm-hmm. Um, crisis of the eighties and early nineties, I was just a kid, so I really wasn’t pion to like presence, like what was going on on a daily basis.
But if we have to liken what we’re walking into, it’s probably similar in many ways. Mm-hmm. Uh, what it means for an average consumer is probably not much other than, you know, if banks fail, then, then businesses will fail and new people will lose jobs. But you know, the federal government will step in and ensure deposits.
Small depositors will be, will be, will be covered. I think that we’ll see a meltdown from the top down. That’s what guys like Larry Summers, um, are saying that, that, that what may be ahead is more of a top down meltdown, uh, crisis. Mm-hmm. Where some of the higher financial institutions, um, either have to merge or go out of business and, and you’ll see some consolidation.
And what will happen for us, hopefully, is there’ll be a trickle out and trickle down of supply inventory that certainly on the commercial side, there’ll be a ton of opportunity. And one would think that that would, that would in some small way, uh, add to our supply opportunity on the residential side.
One of the things that you, uh, that you wrote about, and this, I mean, the title was, or the heading was just genius. Um, when I, as soon as I read it, I’m like, oh, come on, bill. Like this was overreaction is the American way. I was like, you and I talk quite a bit, so I’m like, I’m like, all right Bill, this is great.
Um, I mean, what, what do you mean by that? Statement. Right, right, right. And well, the, I thought you were gonna refer to the, you know, playing the win at the end of the great vacation. Oh, that one’s a given. Yeah, I was I to that one yet, but we’re I, you know, because Covid in many ways was a big vacation, For us, you know, and the government stepped in and printed $3 trillion to begin with and added a few trillion, um, after the new administration come in, came in.
And when you print that much money, you, you, you allow people to don’t have to work. To not work. And that’s all classes by the way, of people. So that’s not making any kind of a. A political statement. Mm-hmm. Um, but, but your comment about the, uh, overreaction is the American way is just that, um, it is so true that when you look at what happened after, like the last time we had a financial crisis was 2008.
And leading up to that, um, there was an oversupply of, of free money in the mortgage world. There were these no interest, no dock loans. Anyone with a pulse could get any number of mortgages on any number of properties. It was very easy. Uh, and, and, and, and what happened when that all started to crumble as the market?
Screeched to a halt in late 2007, early 2008. Mm-hmm. The banks lost liquidity in mid 2008, and the overreaction to that was nobody could get a mortgage for years. Yeah. And what happened on the, um, banking side? On the secondary market where I play, where we’re talking? Mm-hmm. Pools of investments, pools of mortgages, pools of real estate.
You went from, uh, stuff that was. A hundred percent of value. To pools of mortgages from 2008 to 2012, selling for anywhere from ten nine cents on the dollar for a second mortgage, or 25 cents on the dollar for an upside down first mortgage on a brand new house in Port St. Lucie, Florida. You know, up to 70 cents on the dollar, where, you know, things still trade today for non-performing loans.
Mm-hmm. So you see, you see. When, when financial crisises happen. Mm-hmm. And liquidity dries up, which is what’s happening right now. Mm-hmm. Banks are out of liquidity. Private investors are running out of cash. The credits are, the credit is drying up. Which is, which is the backup to folks’ liquidity. Mm-hmm.
Which is feeling, making them feel poor or having less cash on hand to finish those real estate projects or reinvest in new deals. Mm-hmm. As that happens, forced sellers Yep. Are gonna be coming to market and the, and the American Way will be, That it’ll be a fire sale. Mm. And there will be op, we will go into a time of opportunity where you’ll see downtown office buildings in major metropolitan cities in America.
Yeah. Are basically being given away. Yeah. And we see that in LA right now for sure. Yeah. Like already we do. Yeah. You saw Major, you saw, you saw Brookfield came in Yeah. And gave away, gave back three office buildings to their lender. Yeah. And who is their lender, by the way? Their lender’s gonna ultimately be the American taxpayer.
Mm-hmm. Your lender, our ccb. We’re talking a huge company. Huge company. One of the the biggest real estate investment companies. Just walked in and gave back the keys on hundreds of millions of dollars worth of real estate. Mm-hmm. And that’s been happening slowly over the course of the last year as the interest rates have just made these deals untenable.
Hmm. And we’ll see more of that and we’ll see. It’ll get to the point where, um, buyers will start to become much more. Selective. Mm-hmm. Right. And, uh, there’ll be fewer because less liquidity exists. Yep. And you’ll see office buildings like that will be selling for less than their replacement costs. Yeah.
In, in the not too near fu No, I mean, it’s already happening, like I said. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, so what’s the play? What’s the play as we, uh, as we kind of see some of the things that are gonna play out? Um, like, like how do you foresee navigating this? Well, one play is you invest in the first lean N P L opportunity fund.
Mm-hmm. I, uh, we are into our second fund right now. Our first fund amidst of a market that was, congratulations, by the way. Second fund now. Yes. I know we’ve been talking long enough for the first one, but that’s awesome. So I founded this new fund, this new company, firstly in about just over two years ago as March.
Uh, we’ve bought our first deal in March of 2021. We’ve since raised and deployed, uh, over $70 million of cash into, uh, over a hundred million dollars of debt that we purchased against over a hundred. And 40 million of real estate. So very safe investment. We’re buying stuff at a percentage of the underlying real estate collateral.
We’re buying at a, at, at a low enough percentage that if real estate values decline or turn in any way, we still get paid in full. And our, we’ve modeled, uh, consistently even prior to the. Foundation of first lien capital, I’ve consistently returned, uh, a mid-teens unlevered returns to my investment partners.
Mm. And first lien, N P L Opportunity Fund is our first opportunity to go out to a wider range of investors. Albeit you must be an accredited investor to invest with us. Yeah, but we take investments of a hundred thousand, 500,000 up to, uh, $20 million. Uh, it’s obviously a cash intensive business. We’re in the fundraising for fund two right now.
We have mm-hmm. Great returns in fund one, and it’s just, and it’s building up that war chest to really take advantage of the opportunities, because I’ll tell you what’s hap, what’s changed for me in the last few months, Adam. Mm-hmm. I have been chasing banks for 15 years trying to buy, trying to buy loans, trying to buy real estate.
You know, you knock on every bank’s door and they just don’t wanna listen to you. Mm. You know, because they obviously are not in a position to really want to take losses on stuff. Of course, I have not ever until the last six months, I’d never been re reverse inquiry by banks. Wow. I’ve got banks calling me, offering me stuff.
Every day it is, I’ve got the federal government coming to me with opportunities to buy stuff at a discount, uh, to the face value of the debt that is encumbered. Mm-hmm. The, I just happened to be sitting at the, kind of, at the, at the door stop of what this opportunities that Lia had and just in the right time, right place, and, and so that’s my play is, is to continue acquiring pools of real estate residential.
Or commercial pri primarily residential. Mm. And, uh, and working out those distressed opportunities on quality real estate, in some cases, flipping the real estate and some cases, helping borrowers to modify their loans and stay in their properties. Mm. This is also a, a real benefit that we think we give back to the society because, you know, as private equity investors, we can go in and.
Be more lenient than the banks maybe were, yeah. So if I can go buy a loan from the bank for 60 cents on the dollar. Get to that bar where and say, Hey, we’re gonna give you a little time. We’re gonna work through a modification with you. Mm-hmm. I can go and sell a modified loan for 90 cents on the dollar.
That’s a win-win. That is, that’s where the book comes from. And, and speaking of that, I don’t want, I don’t wanna assume that everybody, um, kind of followed your train of thought towards the end there. Yeah. Maybe tell us a little bit about the, maybe the underlying assets and the things that you actually invest in, in, in the fund.
Uh, the fund is, is not an investment in my business. My business gets paid fees to manage the fund. Mm-hmm. And that, and then, and that’s how I pay my people. As a matter of fact, our, that we are designed in a structure so that we really only make. Money if the fund profits above, above a certain return. So, so we’re in it for the long haul with each of our investors.
Mm-hmm. And I privately, as well as my partners here at first Lien are all privately invested as limited partners in the fund. Hmm. The fund itself only buys real estate related investments. Mm-hmm. A hundred percent goes to the purchase of either a first lien mortgage mm-hmm. Or the real estate. Itself.
Mm-hmm. Primarily first lien mortgages because this is a nuanced business, one that I have access to buying mortgages at a discount to their face value. Mm-hmm. And at a safe underlying, uh, l t v to the real estate that it encumbers. And we make our profits by either taking a full payoff or working it out to take back the real estate and, and then sell the real estate at a profit.
Yeah, and it’s primarily commercial. Am I off or excuse me, um, residential? Am I off? Primarily residential? Yeah, absolutely. I, we do reserve the right to, um, allocate up to 30% of our investments towards commercial. We see so much opportunity in the commercial real estate world, especially in some of our markets that we play really well in.
And, uh, so we will, we will. Uh, dabble a little bit in commercial. Mm-hmm. You know, there’s commercial paper that you’re buying on residential real estate. For instance, a multi-family residential building. We might buy the note on something like that. There’s a lot of opportunity coming in, small multi-family buildings, but something that’s bigger than maybe your one to four residential.
But the primary focus is buying first lien mortgages. On homes owned by Americans all across America. Yeah. In the case where they’re not performing, if we can help folks to reperform that loan mm-hmm. All the better. That’s the first priority. And in the case where they don’t, they can’t afford to stay, we, we let them exit with dignity.
We offer them cash. Mm-hmm. We offered them to waive the, be the debt or whatever it might be. And that, and that really is the win-win part. And I, I wanna, I wanna maybe stick a little bit longer on this and what that idea of modification means. Because up to this point, you know, we’ve been talking about, you know, really your role as a, as a, as a partner and a fund and, and re and returning, um, the rate of return that you, you know, to your investors that you, that you are working with them on.
And also, you know, purchasing the right types of assets, taking the right amount of risk, all those things. So that’s from the investor side of things that accredited investors can take part in. If. Day if they meet the qualifications. But on the other side of things, like your approach to creating these win-win solutions and to trying to keep Americans in their home, it’s not, it’s, it’s so much further away from the idea of maybe some predator lending or some other things that other people are doing.
Like you have a completely different model. So I do wanna spend some time with you maybe kind of unpacking that. Sure. Yeah, no, that’s, that’s good stuff. Um, I got into this business, kind of fell into it as a real estate investor in Florida. Mm-hmm. Back in oh eight, it was three months before the fall of Lehman Brothers.
I get a phone call from a banker that’s a, a private investor that says I can buy this loan from this bank that’s going out of business. I named my price. I just don’t know what the real estate’s worth. Yeah. And so when I got, that was a light bulb moment for me. Yeah. Uh, and, and, but what I realized is, is if I’m gonna start buying notes or debt mm-hmm.
That it’s in default. I mean, who wants to be a debt collector? Right? Yeah. And that’s what’s so beautiful about this business. I’m buying a collateralized debt. So I’m buying a debt on a piece of real estate. I know that real estate is not gonna go down in value. Maybe if it does, I’m buying the debt at a, at a percentage of that.
Mm-hmm. That creates it so that my debt will get paid. So now I knew going into this, I didn’t want to be a debt collector. Who wants to do that? Right? Who wants to take people’s homes? Yeah. So that’s where the win-win paradigm was created. It was 15, 14 years ago. I got together with my partners. I said, if we’re gonna do this, Let’s create a system that works for people.
Mm-hmm. You know, and at the time the loan servicing industry was completely in disarray. Hmm. There was way too many defaulted loans than the servicers could handle. Mm-hmm. People were getting frustrated. I said to myself, there’s gotta be a better mouse trap here. Mm-hmm. So if somebody wants to keep their home, When we buy, you know, something happens, you know, you, you know, you lose your job temporarily.
You, you, you get into a medical situation. Mm-hmm. A loss, you know what something happens that causes you to fall behind on a payment. Mm-hmm. The banks in many cases, or their loan servicers Yeah. Just don’t have a lot of options mm-hmm. As private equity. This is an opportunity for us. Mm-hmm. So we’re buying this loan that’s not working, and the first thing we do on every non-performing loan is we talk to the borrower and we meet them where they’re at.
Mm-hmm. We say, you know, if you want to keep this home and you have the financial wherewithal to do it, let’s find a way to make that happen. Mm-hmm. We put them into a trial plan, we give them six months. We permanently modify the loan and we help them avoid the foreclosure. Yeah. And then I can go back out and sell that loan in pools later on.
But at the meantime, you know, we have a loan now that was non-performing. That was worth mm-hmm. X performing worth a lot more. And we’ve created a situation where we’ve kept people in their homes. Wow. And so this whole paradigm, which I outlined in the book Win-Win Revolution I wrote six years ago is, is really what a many of my, uh, my comp, like a lot of my, um, competition in this industry on the private equity side have adopted.
This similar paradigm. Yeah. I know asset. I know investors that are com competitors of mine that have given this book to their new hires to say, this is the moral code by which we operate under. Yeah. It’s about me listening. It’s about hearing, you know, I sit down with borrowers and they’re so used to being told what they can’t do or what they can do.
Mm-hmm. By the loan servicer, the bank they own. Yeah. Then I sit down and I listen. What do you want? Now, obviously you’re not getting a free home. I’ve got all the leverage. Right. I’ve got of course, course, of course, gasoline. So I don’t need to be a debt collector with these people. Hmm. I get to be a friend.
Yeah. And that’s what I’ve trained my people to do. Let’s find a way to work it. And that’s where we create, create, win-win resolutions every day in our business. Yeah. And one of the things that like, so when you bring up the banks as well, it’s just, and I, I like to kind of make this delineation. I mean, correct me if I’m wrong, but the reason why for many banks, I mean, they’re not necessarily in the.
Business of loan modification, whether it’s in their chart or whether it’s like if they don’t follow by the rules, now they’re breaking something else to their, to their shareholders. Like even if they wanted to. It’s not saying that the banks are bad people, and I know you’re not saying this, but I like to kind of bring that out.
It’s just that they may not be able to, ’cause they’re not in that business. The loan processors, like every single thing, like the collectors, like that’s all set up. That’s a system, so Right. When it comes to like what you’re doing, you’re actually in that business of being able to try to help and to code that extra mile that maybe even, it’s not nothing against your loan officer at the bank.
They might wish that they could help you, but their hands are tied or the bank itself might wish they could help you, but the bank’s hands tied by the charter or whatever the rules are and the things that their board and all the things that are in place to wear for yourself, um, like you’re in the business of creating that win-win.
Correct. A hundred percent nail in the head. As a matter of fact, you know, I’ll go a step further. Mm-hmm. Not only are the banks not. Really positioned. I mean, they have to set up rules and regulations. Of course. Yeah. Have servicing obligations. But the reality is, is the majority of residential mortgages aren’t even held.
They may be serviced by the bank. They may look like they’re owned by the bank. Yeah. But they’ve been sold, or a portion of that debt has already been sold. Mm-hmm. Either to a government sponsored entity like Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac. Mm-hmm. Uh, f h a or to another fund. So there’s, there’s servicing obligations that really limit mm-hmm.
The options, the optionality. Yeah. And as private investors, we, uh, we provide that optionality. It’s a hundred percent correct. Hmm. Well, bill, I, I have to bring this up. Of course. Um, win-win, uh, win-win revolution we talked about. Now we definitely have to talk about the real estate lowdown. So your podcast, I’m so thrilled and excited you are on your 50th episode, man.
Like, that’s a, it’s a huge milestone. I mean, we’ve launched a lot of shows. Not everybody makes it to, to 50. Like how do you feel you going to Disneyland? Like what’s going on? I’m just gonna keep at it. You know, I was, it’s so funny, I’ve, I’ve got one of my best friends from Poly. I’m 47 years old, so to give you an idea, not, uh, that was a while ago that I was in college, but he was a podcast listener in the nineties.
You know, when there was just, you know, the iPods, right? That was the original podcast, and I used to say, man, what? Who wants to live what? This, this makes no sense. This is like radio. Who wants to do this, you know? I have totally shifted my perspective on it. Mm-hmm. Because the podcast Medium allows, first of all, so many of us spend time in transit.
Mm-hmm. Or on the. To have something of meaningful content, you know, the news doesn’t provide it anymore. Yeah. There’s, there’s no facts in the news unless you’re watching P B C maybe. Yeah. You know, so to, you know, to really educate. I mean, this is a great medium to take along with you, to really speak to.
You know, some of the nuances of whatever topic you might want to discuss. So I started the real estate lowdown and I’m now a hu loyalist of podcasts. I listen to podcasts everywhere I go. Um, not, and not even my own. Uh, but the real estate lowdown is a yes. Entering its f this is, this week will be its 50th episodes.
We’re just coming up on one year. We were, you challenged me. We were, I was one of the original podcasters. Challenge me to get a podcast out every week, and we’ve done one every week and we’ve all never failed. Amazing. And, uh, it’s a mix of interviews with folks. Uh, so in the real estate and mortgage capital markets, real estate investing industry.
You know, I, I, I run the gamut. I’ve invest, I’ve interviewed hotel operators in Cambodia. I. To mom and you know, mothers stay at home moms that do fix and flip real estate, investing on the side to institutional investors in the mortgage market. Um, and, um, and I try to, to, to find some interesting folks.
I’ve met some fascinating people over the years who really have great perspectives on, on, on either their world or on the real estate world in general. Mm-hmm. Uh, and then I do my real tidbit series, which I delve into. Specific topics of the real estate world. So like if you ever wanna know what a escrow meant, I spend 20 minutes talking about what the various meanings of escrow are and how it varies from state to state and how it might be used in a real estate transaction.
So that way when you hear people referring to escrow, you know what it means or what title insurance is. And I, and that’s what the real Tidbit series does. So very, um, I just love it. It’s an encyclopedia, hopefully, of information that we are leaving for the universe. Yeah. And, uh, I think we have a good time.
If you like listening to my voice. I hear I have the perfect face for radio, whatever. I’m not commenting on that one, but, but on that note, I’m gonna say that we’re just so thrilled to have you recording and to. Distributing and just like all of the, the content we put, we know you put a lot of heart into your content, into your brand overall.
And uh, and uh, the fact that we get to help on the distribution side of that and, and play any part in, that’s just been a, a, a lot of fun and a, a great ride. And the fact that you’re hitting 50, I’m like, man, this is like, I swear it seems to me like just the other day and I’m like, wow. 50, that’s amazing.
But, um, time like your catalogs. Building. It’s all quality content. I highly recommend. So I’m gonna, we’re gonna put the links to that, of course, in the show notes. Highly recommend everybody watching this. Go check it out. The real estate lowdown. Well, bill, um, I mean, a lot going on, obviously you have the second fund.
Um, you got, you know, your, your book with us. You got your podcast. Um, uh, what’s next? I mean, what’s next for you? What’s next for the company? Like, what’s next? You know, Adam, we met a few years ago when Mission Matters was just getting off the ground. Yeah. And I, and, and the name says it all. I mean, this is, this is, I live Eaton, breathe my mission.
And, and by the way, it’s not just in work. I have a mission in my personal life, which is being a, mm-hmm. A, a father and someone who, who creates op, you know, possibility in people’s lives as a leader and mm-hmm. And helping them see their life in a way so, so, You know, what’s next for me is how can we continue to serve the mission?
Mm-hmm. Not only are we, we know we’re gonna make a ton of money at the, in the first Leann Capital NPL fund, and I acknowledge you for creating this platform that allows folks like us with a mission. Mm-hmm. The opportunity to share that with the world. Uh, and you know, I think it’s about continuing to stay the course that way.
Um, we will, we have, we have some exciting, uh, plans not to, so that, you know, not only are we making money, but we’re now reinvesting back in our society, both through time and money, educating funding deals that are socially responsible. Um, and, uh, and, you know, hopefully leading the way as win-win investors in the, in the, in the world.
Ah, fantastic. Um, I love having you on here. If somebody’s, if somebody, it’s, it’s great, it’s inspiring because now you’re also pushing the needle. So when you’ve been blessed, you’re thinking about like, okay, you know, we’ve been blessed. It, it, we’re on the right trajectory. Now how do we give back more? How do we figure out new ways to even rethink?
Think that, like, to think about what, what you’re mentioning, sustainability or other types of projects or other things like that. Even being a, like a trailblazer into those areas. Much like, you know, 15 years ago when you came up with the win-win, you know, um, revolution and the idea of that concept and that framework and that moral code, you were trailblazing back then.
The only thing like, you know, it’s just different. That’s right. So now to see what you’re gonna build on this next leg of your career with more funds, more things. Thinking about how you can add to that give back portion to it. It’s inspiring. Um, so that being said, bill, if somebody is watching or listening to this and they want to follow up and learn more about, about your business, about the books, about anything else, and just follow your journey, um, what’s the best way for them to do that?
It’s simple first, lean capital.com for investor inquiries. That’s F I r S T L I E n capital.com. And if you’re looking to reach out to me for any other reason, uh, it’s bill by mail.com. My name is spelled below and you just add a.com to it. You’ll find my personal website where you can reach out. Uh, find the book, find the podcast.
Um, stay abridged of upcoming appearances that I’ll be making around the US and, uh, and just reach out. I’m very accessible. Love to do business or, uh, or speak to anyone. Awesome, and we’ll put all those links in the show notes so that our audience can just click on the links and, uh, head right on over.
And speaking to the audience, if this is your first time with Mission Matters or engaging in an episode of the content, we’re all about bringing on business owners, entrepreneurs and executives, and having them share their mission. The reason behind their mission, you know, why they do what they do, and really what wakes ’em up in the morning so they get up into the marketplace and make a difference.
If that’s the type of content that sounds interesting or fun or exciting to you, we welcome you hit that subscribe button. We have many more mission-based individuals coming up on the line, and we don’t want you to miss a thing. And, uh, bill again until, until the next time. I know we got a party coming up.
We got some other celebrations and things. Um, look forward to working with you again. So thanks again. Yeah. Get your popcorn ready. Come on.