A lender's reputation? Look at who keeps coming back.
The best measure of a manager's reputation isn't what it says about itself: it's what investors and borrowers say through their actions. Repeat borrowers reveal something fundamental about how a lender operates.
A partnership-focused approach means staying constructively involved for the life of a loan: regular conversations with borrowers, monitoring properties, and addressing issues before they become problems.
When borrowers trust their lender, they bring deals before they go to market.
Watch to hear Fortress Co-CEOs and Managing Partners Drew McKnight and Jack Neumark explain why they believe a partnership-focused lending model really matters in private real estate credit.
Drew McKnight:
When evaluating investment managers, reputation really matters, and the best measure of reputation isn't what we say about ourselves – it's what our investors and our borrowers say about us by coming back.
Jack Neumark:
We have repeat borrowers across our real estate credit business. That tells you something fundamental about how we operate.
Drew McKnight:
Our approach is partnership focused. We want borrowers to succeed because that's how our investors succeed. When you're building long-term relationships, you think differently about every interaction.
Jack Neumark:
Our approach is asset management from day one. We're talking to borrowers regularly, we're monitoring the properties, and we're staying involved in a constructive way throughout the life of the loan. That's very different from making a loan and hoping everything works out. When borrowers trust you, they bring you deals before they go to market, they give you better information, and they work with you to solve issues before they become real problems. That's the kind of partner you want when you're allocating to private real estate credit.
