How AI Is Changing Real Estate Lending, Construction Loans, and Investor Speed

Kirill Bensonoff (00:00)
I think just for people are listening, you know, we talked, we touched on AI and how it’s changing sort of, you know, the world, I guess, for, for the lack of a better term, because I think it is. Um, I think everybody that’s in real estate really needs to spend time and, know, buy one of these tools, whether, you know, one of the big LLMs, chatGPT, Claude, whatever you like, right. And, spend time learning that stuff, right.

Q Edmonds (01:58)
Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds. I’m excited to be here today. Have another fantastic guest. And you know AI is a big topic right now. It is a tool that, honestly, if we’re not using, we’re probably going to get left behind. And so I’m so excited about this gentleman. He’s come from the tech side.

Sure, he’s going to talk about AI. He’s going to talk about, you know, providing transparency, transparency on prices. And I’m just excited. I’m excited about what he provides to this space called real estate. And so I am so excited to introduce you all to Mr. Kirill Bensonoff Mr. Kirill, how you doing today,

Kirill Bensonoff (02:39)
Very good, Quentin. Thanks for having me.

Q Edmonds (02:41)
Absolutely, man. Thank you for being here, sir. And listen, man, I kind of want to dive in, brother. I would love for you to tell the people what your main focus is these days. You can give us a little bit of an origin story, kind of how you got to the place where you are now, like walking through the journey. We love the origin story. And then, tell them where you are in the world, because people love to know where you are geographically, especially if they like this guy’s right around the corner. So we can, you know, we could partner up, spark something up. And so again.

What you’re doing, your origin story, and where you are. Mr. Kirill you got the floor, What’s up?

Kirill Bensonoff (03:11)
Awesome, thank you. Yeah, I

mean, you I’d love to tell my whole story, but judging by the gray hair I got here, it’s gonna be a very long one. I’ll try to keep it short and sweet. ⁓ I’m a first generation immigrant. I moved to US when I was about 11 years old, ⁓ moved and lived in the state of Connecticut. Now I’m in Boston, right outside of Boston. ⁓ And ⁓ essentially I kind of…

Q Edmonds (03:18)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Kirill Bensonoff (03:38)
mixed entrepreneurship and technology just right from their early days. I started my first business, which was a web hosting company when I was, ⁓ I believe about 19 years old. And, you know, it was a great experience and I kind of took it from there. And I started my first company right out of college. Everything, ⁓ including New Silver, actually my current company, but everything has been in the tech sector or at least tech related, which I put New Silver in that category.

You know, sort of, you know, had a couple of successful companies prior to this one and somewhere along the way, I’m not a huge real estate guy like we talked before and ⁓ I did invest in a fund that a friend of mine ran in Connecticut, which was post great financial crisis, which essentially, you know, bought and renovated ⁓ single family residential properties. That’s kind of how I learned about the fix and flip.

you know, construction industry in general. And I liked it, you know, this was whatever, 2011 or 12 or something like that. And, you know, I’ve always kind of had in the back of my mind and I, I, I, and then when there was an opportunity, I ended up selling my previous company in 2017. So 2018, a long-term friend of mine, Alex and myself were just playing around different things. created some software along with our CTO.

The software basically is something we still use today and the main purpose is to provide fast and transparent pricing using like a pricing engine that we built for construction lending, right? So that was kind of the crux of what we did and ⁓ we made a lot of pivots along the way. It wasn’t a smooth journey, but we are here today with New Silver in operation about six years.

And we were a tech-enabled lender for the construction industry, fix and flip, ground up construction, a little bit of commercial real estate, DSCR and that type of stuff. And so, yeah, mean, that’s kind of the short end of my story.

Q Edmonds (06:30)
Love it, man. Thank you, sir. Thank you for sharing. I always love when people share the origin story of their journey because there’s different people at different parts of their journey. Some, you know, they start out, you know, illustrious. Some is not so illustrious, but I think we can always respect everybody’s journey and we can learn something from it. And so, man, first generation immigrant came here when he was 11 years old, started, I believe he said a web posting company, sold one of your companies in 2017.

And just you said you had a lot of pivots and now you’re at New Silver, right? This is the new company. And so I say this, Mr. Kirill, probably every episode, because I believe this honors everybody’s journey. So I say destiny has no wasted moments, right? Meaning no matter what you go through in life, every moment, every part of the journey.

you borrow from to make you the person who you are today, right? It’s like a building of compound moments to make you who you are today. And so, I would love to know throughout this moment, throughout these moments of getting to where you are, to get into new silver, what have you learned about yourself? Have you learned discipline? Have you learned humility? Like, what has these moments taught you about you?

Kirill Bensonoff (07:45)
Well, that’s a great question. We could probably spend the rest of the podcast on this because I did learn a lot. It’s a great thing. Obviously, as you know, I speak for myself, but as I’m matured and grown as a human being, obviously, if I were to go back 20 years, I would not have the same mindset. But I definitely learned a lot of stuff. I’ve learned hard work, right? Hard work and dedication. What does that really mean?

⁓ means different things to different people, but you know, to me, means really working hard, meaning, you know, putting in the time, right? That is to me, that is important being there for your clients and for your team, right? Just being the first one leading by example. mean, I put that at the top of the list, right? Like I think any CEO, any leader, anyone that does anything, ⁓ that, you know, essentially helping others or leading others, right?

I’m a big proponent of you’ve got to do what you preach, right? Otherwise, it’s just not the same. So those are top of mind things. And obviously, there’s a ton of smaller things, relationships, not that that’s smaller, that’s super important part, right? Like the more hands you shake, the more things you do for other people, ⁓ the more you kind of get back the goodness that you’ve put out there. So those are very important.

Q Edmonds (09:11)
Yeah. Love it, man. Thank you, sir. I appreciate that. I definitely love how you talked about kind of like practicing what you preach, doing what you said. I mean, that’s what really gives it validity, right? If you just, you know, saying something that you ain’t did yourself, it’s like building a house on sand, right? But when you talk about what you know you’ve done, there’s going to be weight behind it and it’s going to back up a lot of what you’re preaching. That way, if somebody asks you about the intricate parts of it, you can literally talk about the intricate parts. You ain’t talking about something that I made up, like, no.

This is what I know to work because I did this myself. This is what I, you know, what I was groomed on. So I love that man. And so I’m interested with new silver. Of course you said you made some pivots. You always kind of been in tech. Does new silver have new strategies that you’re using that’s helping people or is it just accumulation of strategies that you’ve built kind of over the years?

Kirill Bensonoff (10:36)
You know, I think in the last ⁓ six to 12 months, things are changing so much, have changed so much. I think it’s mainly driven by the AI revolution ⁓ and it is incorporating other things, of course. You know, we’re not starting from scratch. We’ve been doing this for, you know, six years now, but I do think we’re at a pivotal time that, you know, just kind of thinking back, like when I was growing up, internet was, you know, was the new tech.

thing that was just coming out there and everybody was talking about like, how is this going to change the world? Right? And people have predictions like, hey, you’ll be able to buy, you know, pet food online and, and that would be great, right? Like we get delivery, right? So and like now we kind of take all that for granted. Well, I think AI is, is, is, is even bigger than that. I mean, it could be existential for, for the human race, no less, right? Like it could be that big. mean,

Q Edmonds (11:17)
You

Kirill Bensonoff (11:34)
I don’t think we’re there yet and hopefully it’s not gonna go that route. But I do think there is a lot of thought that needs to be put into like the people that make these technologies now and down to just you know the regular folks like us like this is gonna change the way that we work, it’s gonna change the way that we conduct business, that we shop, you know it’s gonna change all of our all of the things that we do. So we are just back to your question we are always

you know, taking what we’ve learned, but layering what’s available today on top of that and trying to build something better.

Q Edmonds (12:12)
Love it, man. So, so, so, so well said. Sticking with ⁓ your business, man, what is the next real goal? Like, what are you looking to solve a scale next, sir?

Kirill Bensonoff (12:25)
Yeah, I mean, we are just growing. I mean, we’re growing in various directions. We’re always trying to solve for a better customer experience, ⁓ help making our customers as happy as they can be doing the stuff that we do the fastest, the most efficient way, you know, being out there the most, having our name out there the most. Yeah, we’re just, you know, we’re in growth mode right now. So that means a lot of different things, right? This is just

high level, but it means, know, because we are a lender, it means securing and keeping the capital that we have, you know, the cost of capital as low as possible so we could pass on those savings, right? The consistency of that capital so that we can provide the sure closing to our investor clients that we do now, right? Once we’re at a certain point, we don’t back out because we don’t have that capital, right?

We always have that capital. ⁓ It’s about providing the platform, the customer service, the whole experience and wrapping it in ⁓ just a wrapper that makes somebody feel good at the end of that whole process.

Q Edmonds (13:40)
I it, man. I know you brought up in the past the word relationship. And when you said it, stuck out because that’s something I always like to talk about, that specific word within business, right? And so I love to ask people their perspective on the word relationship. It could be building healthy business relationships, could be relationships within partnerships. I would just like to know that word relationship, how does it play a role within your business?

Kirill Bensonoff (14:09)
No, it’s a great question as well. You asked really good questions. Very deep. Yeah. ⁓ cause yeah, we could take, take a long time discussing each one, but I think, you know, being an immigrant when I was kind of growing up and getting into business, I heard that word relationship and what did that mean? mean, to me, when I was, you know, being from another country, I’m from, from Eastern Europe, you know, I think a relationship in that part of the world is, is, is maybe deeper and

Q Edmonds (14:12)
Appreciate it. Appreciate it.

Kirill Bensonoff (14:38)
It might mean getting drunk together or something. Yeah, like now you have a relationship. Whereas here in business, it doesn’t necessarily mean that. It could mean that you have a few conversations. ⁓ But yeah, think it’s just doing something for the other person, maybe small. Maybe it’s providing just a question that they’ve had and you provide that answer.

Or you give them an opinion on what they’re not sure on something, right? Just, you know, being there, could be a tiny thing. It could be going out to lunch with somebody and just kind of getting along.

I mean, it obviously varies, right? You have your, like, I don’t know, some people talk about circles, right? You have your family and then there’s circles outside of that, right? But it could be just from the smallest thing. I mean, you know, you could be walking down the street and somebody needs, you know, something.

you give them a dollar or whatever, that’s probably your relationship right there, right? Maybe it ends at that point, but you’ve done something nice there. I don’t know, mean, it could be much deeper than that. But I think for us in business, I mean, again, I think just kind of trying to go back to being there, being available, paying attention to what people need, what people ask of me, trying to provide.

the feedback and whatever that they need as far as I can, right? Try to be there, try to be a good human being, I guess.

Q Edmonds (16:47)
Yeah, no, I love it. I love your perspective because this is my perspective is it has to be organic. I don’t believe in forced relationships and like just like you so eloquently said, it can be relationships in so many different facets. know, relationships socially, relationship business, you know, on a business level, either way is going to have to be natural. It’s not going to be forced and it can just be a one off or it can be something, you know, that goes on a little deeper, but either way is just going to have to be not forced. And so

I hear you on that, man. I’m listening, Mr. Kirill Is there anything, a topic that I have not brought up that you would like to talk about? Or is there any other kind of words of inspiration, education, motivation? I kind of just want to open up the floor. If you came in with something on your mind like, okay, I want to make sure this sticks. I want to make sure the viewers know this. I want to open up the floor. If there’s something like that you would like to deliver.

Kirill Bensonoff (17:40)
Yeah, no, I appreciate that. think, I think just for people are listening, you know, we talked, we touched on AI and how it’s changing sort of, you know, the world, I guess, for, for the lack of a better term, because I think it is. Um, I think everybody that’s in real estate really needs to spend time and, know, buy one of these tools, whether, you know, one of the big LLMs, chatGPT, Claude, whatever you like, right. And, spend time learning that stuff, right. Watch some YouTube videos.

read whatever you like. mean, there’s so much stuff out there, but I think, I think, you know, having that skill set will, will be extremely beneficial in the coming near term and long term. Right. So I think that’s just why, I I, just, I think about the stuff that we’re building a ton of stuff with AI. ⁓ we are, you know, I’m, mean, I’m, I’m sometimes shocked by, by what these things can do. And we’re just at the early stages.

Q Edmonds (18:38)
So you mean people could actually learn different ways how to use it and stuff or just asking it like definitions and stuff like that. You mean we could actually learn how to use A.I. huh.

Kirill Bensonoff (18:50)
Well, could, you could, yeah, you could ask AI like teach me, cause it is a thing, right? Like tell me how do I like do this or that? And it’s actually gonna tell you, right? I mean, there’s also tons of tutorials on all over the place on this stuff, right? ⁓ So there’s no shortage right now. I think that’s one great thing the internet has brought us, right? Is just learning is like.

Q Edmonds (18:52)
You

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Kirill Bensonoff (19:17)
You could just learn like all day and never see the end of it, right? ⁓

Q Edmonds (19:21)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I was just being funny because I just know, yeah, you’re some people that, you know, and I’m not trying to just, I’m not trying to be dogmatic, but to your point, I’m just trying to say AI is a tool. If you learn how to use it, if you literally reach out to sources to learn how to use it, you will find out that you can use it in amazing ways. And so I think some people are still just learning that. So I was just being funny, but I wanted to stick that, how you say, you know, check on YouTube.

Kirill Bensonoff (19:42)
Exactly.

Q Edmonds (19:49)
find different ways on how to use the tool properly, and you’ll be amazed the tool that’s in your hand, it will open up your world in so many different ways. So, yeah, absolutely. So Mr. Kirill man, thank you so much, sir, for being here. If someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate with you, learn more about what you’re doing, how can I get in contact with you,

Kirill Bensonoff (19:58)
100%.

⁓ Probably LinkedIn is the best tool. Maybe you guys can post the link to my profile or however it works. could search Kirill Bensonoff on LinkedIn and I’m sure I’m the only one. I check those messages. So if anyone wants to get in touch, our website is newsilver.com as well. ⁓ Check it out and let me know any questions.

Q Edmonds (20:31)
Absolutely. Well, listen, man, let me say three things to you, sir. First, thank you for your time. You you could be anywhere in the world. We can put a premium on our time. So, man, thank you for your time for being here. Secondly, thank you for your story, sir. Thank you for what I call the gift of your transparency. I put a premium on stories, you know, us taking our narrative and presenting it to the world. I think it’s just an amazing gift. And so I’m sure you said some things that’s planted some seeds in people that can literally course correct them.

And so thank you so much for coming and sharing the seeds and the nuggets. And lastly, brother, thank you for the way you think, for your perspective, the way you’ve been building this perspective over the years. You might’ve paid some money for it. I know you definitely paid for it and experienced. Thank you for bringing that perspective to this platform. I greatly appreciate you, sir.

Kirill Bensonoff (21:18)
Hey, thank you so much for having me. Thanks for the great interview and very insightful questions that made me think. Thank you.

Q Edmonds (21:24)
Absolutely, no problem, Well, listen, y’all heard him. Please look in his show notes, check him out. His LinkedIn link should be there. Everything he gave should be right in his show notes. Please contact and connect with him. But definitely make sure you are subscribed here, because I promise you we’re going to continue to bring up amazing people, just like Mr. Kirill So sir, thank you so much. And everybody else, listen, y’all have a fantastic day.