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Show Summary
In this episode of the Investor Fuel podcast, host Michelle Kesil speaks with Jay Field, CEO of Rocfield Capital, about his journey in the real estate investment space. Jay discusses the various services his firm offers, including private lending and investment strategies for clients looking to diversify their portfolios. He emphasizes the importance of personal client engagement, competitive rates, and the challenges faced in real estate transactions. The conversation also touches on the goals for future growth and the strategies employed to help clients navigate the complexities of real estate investment.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Jay Field (00:00)
Yeah, I would say honestly our rates, right? So a lot of times when you’re looking at doing a fix and flip, you know, project, no matter where you are, it could be in Tennessee, it could be in Georgia. A lot of times those rates can look at anywhere between 11 to 15 % interest, right? And then you’re looking at three to four, maybe even five points, which a lot of that times that’s going to kill your pocket, especially if you’re a seasoned investor that’s looking to simultaneously do two or three deals at the same time.Right. The other thing that I would say helps us out is that we can go pretty big as far as our loan amount. Our LTC and LTVs are very, very high and super, super competitive.
Michelle Kesil (02:11)
everybody, welcome to the Investor Fuel podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil. And today I’m joined by someone that I’ve been looking forward to chatting with, Jay Field, who’s been making serious moves as the CEO of a capital investment firm and yeah, helping investors buy properties, helping them with their lending and just supporting them throughout their journey. So.Excited to dive into all of these conversations with you.
Jay Field (02:41)
I appreciate you. Appreciate your time. Thanks for having me.Michelle Kesil (02:43)
Yes, absolutely. So yeah, first off, for people who are not familiar with you and your world, can you give the short version of what your main focus is?Jay Field (02:53)
Yeah, our main focus is working with investors, either investors looking to diversify their retirement portfolio or investors that are also developers in that space of ground up construction, fix and flip that are looking for private lending. So we kind of do a little bit of everything from the acquisition side of things up in investors find properties, as well as the private lending side of things. And then obviously for those clients that are not necessarily looking to⁓ Be a fix and flip or a ground up construction developer or GC They’re just looking to get into the real estate space and diversify their allocations as far as moving money from their 401k to a different private fund We have that as well
Michelle Kesil (03:34)
Awesome. And what markets are you operating in?Jay Field (03:37)
Yeah, so for our private lending, we’re all in 50 states. So we lend anywhere from Hawaii to Alaska, even though we don’t really get too many clients in those spaces, all the way across the board from California to New York, Florida. Of course, it kind of depends on the deal itself. But yeah, we can get very super creative as far as our lending. That’s not an issue whatsoever.Michelle Kesil (03:57)
Awesome. So what has been like one of the main keys to keeping this business running smoothly with all of these different segments you guys offer?Jay Field (04:06)
I would say the biggest key is just how we go about things. We’re very personal. We like to make sure that we’re communicating very thoroughly. ⁓ It’s one of those things where we don’t drop the ball with our clients. So even when we’re wrapping up a deal, let’s just say it’s on the lending side, we will personally fly out to those clients, sit down with them, take them out to lunch, take them out to dinner, making them feel like they actually have a team behind them. A lot of general contractors, investors, developers.They’re always looking for that team opportunity, That opportunity to look for the next best opportunity as far as acquisition, looking for the best way to basically save money, especially on closing costs, interest rates and things of that nature points a whole nine yards. So we try to make sure that we do everything that we can for our clients. We try to go above and beyond. A lot of times when you’re working with other brokerages as far as the private lending or hard money firms.
They’re really cut and dry. They’re not really personable. Their terms are sometimes not super favorable as well. So we try to make sure that whatever we can do in-house to make sure that the terms are favorable for our clients, that we do so.
Michelle Kesil (05:12)
Yeah, I love that. how are some, like what are some ways that you guys differentiate yourself from other firms?Jay Field (06:08)
Yeah, I would say honestly our rates, right? So a lot of times when you’re looking at doing a fix and flip, you know, project, no matter where you are, it could be in Tennessee, it could be in Georgia. A lot of times those rates can look at anywhere between 11 to 15 % interest, right? And then you’re looking at three to four, maybe even five points, which a lot of that times that’s going to kill your pocket, especially if you’re a seasoned investor that’s looking to simultaneously do two or three deals at the same time.Right. The other thing that I would say helps us out is that we can go pretty big as far as our loan amount. Our LTC and LTVs are very, very high and super, super
So when you’re looking at interest rates, you know, we’re in those high eights, low nines. You know, a lot of times people talk about they can only get 65 to 70 % LTV. We can get all the way up to 80%. Sometimes we can get up to 93 % LTC on ground up construction. So when you’re talking about getting creative and have those favorable terms.
That is something that I believe that really separates us from a lot of people in the nation and in the actual industry itself.
Michelle Kesil (07:11)
Amazing. Yeah. So what got you started in this business?Jay Field (07:17)
Yeah, man, I’ll try to keep the story super, super simple. Kind of started in the finance space, life insurance, annuities, financial advisory, security works, things of that nature. I was super young, trying to convince people in Beverly Hills and Newport Beach to let a 22 year old help with their future retirement was a struggle. It was not a easy thing.So I ended up joining a investment firm here in Newport Beach, California where that kind of translated more so into dealing with the back office things and then that rolled into our proprietary product that we did have which is our real estate investment. And from there I started to kind of learn and understand just every aspect of real estate across the board spent about six years with that company becoming the real estate portfolio manager. So I was
helping with you know basic debt debt data analysis performer work ⁓ helping acquire properties helping you know coordinate with the gcs in and our firm as far as you know you know the rehab and all this stuff you know together and what not so that kind of just translated to me started my own being in getting my real estate license working with the retail clients of course but more so transition back towards the investment side of things and you know we’re here where we are today
Michelle Kesil (08:34)
I love that. What an amazing story to get to the point that you are now. So your current business, I know it has like multiple segments for these investors to choose from. And are there any sort of like, are there any sort of people that are investors that maybe would not be a fit for your services, even though you have multiple types of offerings?Jay Field (09:01)
Yeah, I mean, I would say, you know, if you’re looking to diversify your portfolio, right? So if you’re looking at Rocfield Capital, what we do with Rocfield Capital as far as our buy and hold strategy, providing dividends back quarterly for all of our investors, if that’s something that you’re looking to do as far as getting into real estate, you know, want to diversify 2 to 5 % of your future retirements into something that is a little bit more aggressive, a little bit more safer, because as you can imagine, a lot of people still rent.in 2025. So those opportunities to, you know, be able to receive dividends off of rental income is very huge, right? So that is going to be one of the biggest attributes for our firm for people that are looking to diversify their portfolio, no matter if you’re a doctor, teacher, or any of that case, right? So Rocville Capital probably want to be a good fit if you’re super, super conservative, excuse me, if you’re not really looking to take that next extra step as far as
diversifying your portfolio, it wouldn’t make sense. If you’re looking to buy your first home, if you’re an investor looking for off-market properties, of that nature, we can be a mutual benefit as well. Then on top of that, not only can we help you find properties off-market, even on the market as well, we can help you turn around and lend on it. So a lot of times our clients on the lending acquisition side of things,
They’ll come to us and let us know like, we’re looking at this property right here. Can you run some numbers for us and kind of give you, know, give us your, your two cents on, you know, where we should buy it at, how much rehab we should kind of put into it based off of the market and understanding of that. And then basically where we should exit at. because we have those relationships with our clients, that’s another thing. Like I said, again, they kind of separates us from a lot of people because it’s simple fact that we can do more than just be a lender. can actually run through the numbers, run through everything across the board, no matter if it’s a buy and hold property.
or a fix and flip property or a ground up construction property, we can help them every step of the way.
Michelle Kesil (11:26)
I love that you guys have that capability to help people through all phases of their journey. So when it comes to business growth, what are you guys focusing on solving or scaling to next?Jay Field (11:42)
Yeah, I would say it’s a mixture of education. It’s a mixture of bringing on new, new private lender brokers as well. Maybe somebody that’s looking to change firms to get, know, to have a little bit more access to new, you know, more products and things of that nature, better terms, better rates. You know, we’re always looking for, you know, that continued growth there just because we’re getting a little bit more busier than we were kind of expect, especially coming up here in the 2025 fourth quarter.That’s right around the corner as 2026 is right around the corner as well. So we’re always looking for that as well. You know, we’re gonna continue to expand and do what we can, you know, within reason. Obviously, when you’re building a company or when you’re in a company, you never want to over expand and you don’t want to under expand as well and then just kind of stay put in the same spot.
Michelle Kesil (12:31)
Yeah, absolutely. That’s so important. So let me ask you this. Every business owner has moments where things got real, maybe a deal doesn’t go as planned, or you have to make fast pivots. Would you mind sharing one of those moments for you and how you overcame it?Jay Field (12:49)
Yeah, I mean in real estate It’s a funny thing. I mean the cool thing about real estate is it’s it’s something new almost every single time every single transaction It’s never the same it may come off like it’s the same right because you have you know Somebody that’s trying to buy you have somebody that’s trying to sell so you kind of think that it just meshes and go easily But it doesn’t it can come down to somebody’s FICO can come down to an appraisal coming back thatthat we expected to be higher but it came back lower market comps as far as rental comps things of that nature anything can happen issues with title issues with escrow people getting cold feet but the overall objective is obviously you know don’t really really ride the highs with the highs or the lows with the lows it’s just really being kind of neutral until you get to the you know that finish line so I know earlier this year we had a
basically a DSCR refi that took a lot longer than we really wanted to and partially the reason why is because we end up every sometime we get ready to basically what is called CTC clear to close the file and issue loan docs something else will pop up credit issues there was something to do with I believe a foreclosure one of his other properties have 42 liens on it and
Unfortunately, we were able to figure all that stuff out and obviously get the deal closed but in real estate, like I said again, things pop up left and right, right and left. It just all varies but at the end of the day for us, we strive again to do everything we possibly can. We’re not saving lives or anything like that, like surgeons or whatever but we try to take that same approach where whatever we can do, if the deal closes, great. If it doesn’t close, we can basically
you know, keep our head up high and say, hey, we did every single thing possible to work the problem and solve the problem. Typically, if we can’t figure out the problem, it’s just a problem that just can’t be solved. So I would definitely say that was definitely a challenge this year. Took a couple of months. The property was on 200 acres as well, which didn’t help either. We were still able to get it done. Most people don’t even touch anything on that many acres, especially with that much problems that the client brought to the table.
But we were still able to get it done.
Michelle Kesil (15:41)
Amazing. Yeah, I love that. It’s really shows that you are supporting the clients and yeah, able to be thinking of that longer term vision versus just that, you know, short term win that some people focus on.Jay Field (15:57)
Absolutely.Michelle Kesil (15:58)
Awesome. So what are some goals that you have for your business coming up?Jay Field (16:03)
Yeah, kind of like what I mentioned earlier, just try to finish off the year as strong as possible. Build that momentum going into 2026, usually around that first quarter, especially first two months. Or I should say the last month of the year going into the new year, first two months, it’s usually pretty slow. Everybody starts going on vacation and things of that nature. Market starts to slow down. People tend not to want to sell.⁓ Buyers don’t typically want to buy, investors even slow down as well. So we just want to continue that momentum, close out the year as strong as possible, but really kind of set up 2026 strong as well. We really want to make sure that we’re touching base with all of our previous clients, our current clients, even new clients. And it really kind of give them a education component of what we do, who we are, what we can do for them, how we can benefit them.
And so, know ultimately in real estate what you’re doing today basically ⁓ Equates for two three months down the road So what we’re doing today is going to equate towards that December January time frame and we really want to make sure that we’re locked in So when that don’t you know those slow periods do happen. We’re able to make sure that we’re still continuing our growth
Michelle Kesil (17:12)
Yeah, absolutely. love that. So I know that one of the main components of your business is like helping the investors diversify their funds and work on that. Like what are some of those strategies that you share with people that are looking for more solutions?Jay Field (17:29)
Yeah, mean, so what I always like to try to tell people, you know, when you’re talking about diversifying, you know, and allocating funds elsewhere, you know, I know that we were kind of stuck in a situation where most of the times when we’re growing up, it’s go to college, get a good job, you know, put money towards your pension in 401k, right? That’s completely fine. There’s nothing wrong with that. Unfortunately, a lot of times because those companiesbasically outsource, you know, kind like where that contribution plan is going to sometimes, you know, basically sometimes those people are not fully invested in the right necessary funds for their future retirement. So I’ve seen people have, you know, maybe two, $300,000 and out of the two $300,000 and their 401k majority of it’s caught up in, I don’t know, like an ETF or whole food stock or whatever the case may be, which there’s nothing wrong with that.
but you want to be able to have a nice balance across the board when you’re talking about investing from the tech space to the pharmaceutical space to even real estates and rich and things of that nature. So giving ⁓ the opportunity to, know, where we do own and, you know, have those buy and hold properties that produces dividends back, you know, for our clients every single quarter and gives us the opportunity to, you know, basically raise more capital with new clients coming into the fund.
It gives us opportunity to buy even more properties, right? And those more properties and the pool fund of everything, it gives our current clients more opportunities to receive more dividends. So, you we don’t ever look to take, you know, a client’s whole entire 401k or anything like that. We always suggest anywhere between 2 % to 5 % of what you have in your portfolio, transfer that stuff over to real estate with us and receive dividend, quarterly dividends like that, which gives them a
a broader aspect of things instead of just being fully in one allocation, one equity, one bond, one mutual fund, or whatever the case may be.
Michelle Kesil (19:28)
Awesome. So for this process, they don’t really need to seek out their own investments. You guys are supporting them through that.Jay Field (19:38)
Correct, yeah, so it’s a real estate fund in itself, right? So they’ll invest with us, that money circulates with all of our properties, future properties, future acquisitions, things of that nature. We do a buy and hold strategy where we’re looking for condos, single family homes, town homes, and great markets with high rents. Some of our properties are actually on Section 8 as well, where we get even better returns, because we know that…the tenants are actually backed by the actual city or county and the government so those are guaranteed returns, So it’s really good for clients that had an interest in real estate, don’t really know kind of like direction kind of where to go or those clients that don’t want to come down with that 20 to 30 % down payment where they say, hey, I can just allocate $35,000 to $50,000 and receive XYZ back on my return of my investments within a five to seven year period.
And again, we cut quarterly dividend checks every single quarter, so that also benefits them as well.
Michelle Kesil (20:38)
Amazing. I love that. Yeah, that’s such a unique way to diversify those funds without getting into like the nitty gritty of finding those investments.Jay Field (20:47)
Correct.Correct, and partially, you know, we hear it all the time. they want to get into real estate, they don’t want to do the property management, they don’t want to outsource the property management because sometimes property management companies are too expensive. They don’t want to put 25, 30 % down or whatever the case may be. They don’t want to ruin their credit. you know, a lot of private funds like ourselves, we kind of give that opportunity to be able to have those clients that do want to invest in real estate and diversify their actual, you know, future retirement.
We provide that opportunity to have an.
Michelle Kesil (21:19)
Amazing. Yeah, such a awesome way to get people into investments. So before we wrap up here, if people want to reach out, connect, learn more from you, where are the places that they can find you?Jay Field (21:32)
Yeah, absolutely. So you can go to our website, rocfieldcapital.com. If you are looking for private lending, if you’re an investor looking to get your next fix and flip, know, ground up construction, buy and hold, you can go to rocfieldlending.com. You can always reach out to myself directly, the letter J, my last name is Field F-I-E-L-D at rocfieldcapital.com. There’s no K in rock, so it’s just R-O-C, fieldcapital.com.I’m happy to answer any questions that anybody has. it’s simple one sentence questions, I’m happy to answer anything. And then like I I have a full staff that can help out as well.
Michelle Kesil (22:12)
Well, I really appreciate your time, your story, your perspective. Thank you for being here.Jay Field (22:18)
I appreciate you, Michelle. Thanks so much.Michelle Kesil (22:20)
And for those tuning in, if you got value from this, make sure you’ve subscribed. We have more conversations with operators just like Jay that are building real businesses and we’ll see you all on the next episode.
