Bridge Capital Resources - Member Spotlight

A Faster Way to Borrow

An Interview with Greg Osborne with Bridge Capital Resources

Greg Osborne is an Office Evolution member at Office Evolution Greenwood Village (Denver Tech Center).

Greg’s business, Bridge Capital Resources, is a hard-money lender for real estate investors. He thrives on relationship-driven customer service and extremely quick pay off.

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Meet Greg and Bridge Capital

My company is Bridge Capital Resources and what we do is provide real estate finance services to small investors who cannot or choose not to use traditional financing for real estate investment properties. That’s what I do. It’s a very niche, grassroots, belly-to-belly, mom and pop, relationship oriented business.

What Makes You Different?

What makes me different in the hard money or private lending space is three things. Number one, I have thirty years of mortgage banking experience. Number two, I’m loaning my own money. So I make all of my own credit decisions and I can be very speedy from application to close. As a matter of fact, my record is 30 hours from application to close. Always want to beat that record, but speed is what people pay for, and I can be very speedy given the fact that it’s my own capital. And number three, my clients deal with one point of contact from application to pay off, and that’s little old me. There’s an opportunity to develop a deep and meaningful relationship.

How do you approve people so quickly?

I focus on one of the five C’s of credit and that is collateral. Traditional banks and mortgage companies focus on the five C’s of credit which are collateral, credit, cash flow, capacity, and character. They underwrite all of those things in making a loan decision for you. I underwrite just one of them. So when you’re using hard money, the advantage is speed to close, because I’m underwriting one of the five C’s, not five of the five C’s. It’s all about the collateral and the strength of the collateral.

Best Business Tips:

Business Tip #1: Know Your Numbers

My top business tip for real estate investors is number one, know your numbers. Specifically, there’s only one number that’s fixed in the entire equation. And that is what can you sell the property for or what can you rent the property for. Why is that fixed? Because the market sets that price, and we don’t have any control over that. The free market sets the value of the property from an income or sales perspective. So that means two things: 

You have to work backwards from that number once you know it. 

All other numbers have to be elastic because that one is fixed.

Business tip #2: The Market’s the Boss

Tip number 2 would be to remember who’s boss. And the market is the boss. And the market changes as supply and demand ebb and flow. So what that means is that we as real estate investors have to really do a good job researching the market.

Business tip #3: Keep one: Speed, Quality, or Price

Another business tip that I would offer is a tip that I was given by a wonderful mentor years ago. He told me, “In business, you have 3 things: speed, quality, and price. And as a business man, you can give away any two to your customer, but you have to keep one.” 

Let’s just test that for a second. If you’re a customer at McDonald’s, what do they give you? Speed and price. What do they keep for themselves to stay in business? Quality. They’re not serving you a steak at McDonalds, they’re serving you McDonald’s food. But you get speed and price. 

In my business, I give my customers speed in the form of a fast collateral based underwrite and quality in the form of the collateral based underwrite and my level of knowledge and experience in the business. But I keep price for myself. It’s fun to test this theory because it helps customers understand your value proposition and it helps business people understand what we need to do to run an effective business and stay in business and serve customers.

So speed, quality, price: pick any two to give to your customers, keep one, and you’ll do fine.

Experience with Office Evolution

I’m old school. I need four walls and a door. I admire people who can work from home, I admire the commuter folks that we have here that can come in and work in a common space and get their job done. But I’m old school and I need four walls and a door. I also like having a mailbox onsite. My mail comes right there, it doesn’t pile up on my desk. It’s right there where I need it every day. This is a great concept.

What’s Your Favorite Part of Being an Office Evolution Member?

I appreciate that you’re growing. I want you to grow and be successful, because what that does for me is bring in lots of other business people with whom we interact and we help each other. For example, you brought in a mortgage lender that I’ve known for a number of years. It’s an opportunity for me to refer business to her and likewise, because we’re not competitors, we’re very specific in whom we serve. It’s nice to be able to refer business to her.

For more information about Greg Osborne and Bridge Capital Resources, visit her website at https://bridgelending.com/

For more information about Office Evolution and how we may help you get an office for your business, visit our website at https://www.officeevolution.com/locations/greenwood-village/office-space or call 303-447-6846.