Speed Wins Deals: How Investor-Friendly Lending Helps Real Estate Buyers Close Faster

Cole Farrell (00:00)
I could spend three weeks alone straight talking through all the mistakes I’ve made and the lessons I’ve learned. They’re unbelievable. ⁓ But I’m to give you the most important one that I have found that transcends many, many years and a bunch of different aspects of our business, which is if you’re focusing on 10 different aspects of the business and you’re trying to do it all, you will lose ⁓ or you will not get any real traction.

And that’s something that I didn’t understand for years.

Michelle Tack (01:58)
Hi, welcome everyone to Real Estate Pros podcast. I am Michelle Tack. am the podcast leader and I’ve got a great operator with us today, Cole Farrell. Cole, will you say hi to the folks?

Cole Farrell (02:10)
Hi guys, this is Cole from Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Michelle Tack (02:12)
Yes, indeed. We spent some time with Cole, I did previous to the podcast, obviously. And what I really like about what Cole has to offer and is concentrating on is the ability to provide loans specifically to one to four ⁓ units, but really knows the market in Allentown in Pennsylvania.

understands the area and is putting a hard work into exercising that capability. So with that, Cole, can you tell us a little bit about your business for people that don’t come from that side of the business of the investment side of underwriting loans, et cetera, lending money, and what differentiates you and what markets you serve?

Cole Farrell (03:04)
Absolutely and before I get into exactly what we do want to give you the quickest snapshot of a backstory which is I started investing super young and I built a portfolio and I learned how to raise money and I learned how to manage assets and we managed just under a hundred units that we still own now and through that process I had a ton of difficulty and frustration with ⁓ current lenders and so whether it’s private money that we use or traditional lenders or hard money we used it all.

and it was all incredibly frustrating. And so I thought I could change that. And so we set out just to…

be the better lender. And so we work primarily with one to four units, as you mentioned, and our two biggest strengths are we can guide you and help you through the process, but more specifically, we know the problems that you’re gonna face before you know their problems. And in theory, we’re gonna solve them before they become a problem. And of course, speed’s important, right? We know speed wins deals, right? That’s how we win all of our deals. And so we’re on your side for that. We understand it’s late nights, it’s early mornings, and it’s whatever it takes. So I’ll say those are our strengths.

Michelle Tack (04:07)
That’s awesome. know what, what is interesting to me is that you’ve had this experience with a hundred units and how does that experience ⁓ morph into things that you are ensuring that are operationally consistent to run a smooth business as much as it can be right when you’re dealing with people and money and properties, you know, there’s variables there, but can you talk to that about the keystones of, you know,

operating smoothly from your experience and maybe infrastructure, what have you.

Cole Farrell (04:41)
Absolutely, I mean I would say and this is so cliche but it’s relationships that are paramount and what I mean though when I say relationships because that’s so ambiguous is just that

It’s our conversations that we have. I’m going to try to up front tell you everything that’s going to happen and everything you’re going to need. And I hope that somebody would listen to that. And then we’re just going to follow that process. But we try to make it crystal clear. And we follow that through our own portfolio,

How it’s going to work, if we’re going to bring on partners, if we’re going to close an asset, if we’re going to stabilize it, there’s no ambiguity. We’re doing step one, step two, step three, we’re done. And we bring that same process here, where we’re going to do X, Y, Z.

And everybody understands the process and it’s just do the next step move on close. So we’re trying to keep it simple That’s really what we learned in our portfolio as soon as it gets complex it gets difficult. So let’s just avoid that. Let’s keep it simple

Michelle Tack (06:17)
Yes.

We talked about your network as it just leads into that naturally of, you know, what your network is and what you do. Can you talk to that? Because that goes into that people equation. ⁓ Please ⁓ spend a little bit of time on that.

Cole Farrell (06:34)
Absolutely. So I built my network just by looking for other people that have what I want. And so I look for people that were successful and I just had conversations with them. And basically that meant I was in the field all the time. I was doing my own deals and I met people around me and just talked with them, you know, just be a normal person. And we ended up building our own meetup and we did a meetup every single month at the same time, the same day. And we’d bring professionals on that were really good at what they do. They had success and we’d interview them and say, Hey,

What do you do? And that was fantastic building the network because then I built the relationship with these people that were really good at what they did. And then we could share networks. And we also got to help out these people that were starting out that might need the advice on that. So we’re learning, they’re learning, and everybody’s benefiting from that. And so just talking to people, understanding their problem, trying to lend a helping hand, that’s really what helped us. But it’s more just having as many conversations as possible.

Michelle Tack (07:29)
Paul, one thing that you didn’t mention, but you said it in essence, that, I asked you earlier today, how ⁓ did get these people to come? And the consistency, and you immediately said you’re doing it every week at the same time or every month, I’m sorry, I think. And then also that you’re not trying to sell anything, that you’re just giving information. And I say just as.

that’s really important and that’s way that you’ve been able to, you know, continue to grow in those. Did you want to add anything to that or? ⁓

Cole Farrell (08:05)
I just want to emphasize that ⁓ I see so many whether it’s meetup hosts or whether it’s Podcasts or just people I meet for coffee and they just immediately start selling me something Not interested what I am interested in is figure out what you’re working on and what you’re going through and then talking about it Because it’s not about the making money It’s about the solving problems because when I was building my portfolio when I was going through all this I didn’t know what to do. I was having all these issues and I’m just looking for somebody to give me some guidance and the people that did are the people that

I really respect and spend time with today and so that’s what we just want to focus on as well. It’s not just about the money. It’s really not. It’s about fixing everyone’s problems or just trying to help them along the way. The money is just the byproduct.

Michelle Tack (08:47)
Absolutely. ⁓ In terms of your goals for a year from now, if it was a year from now, what opportunities would you like to see actualized going forward for you and your business?

Cole Farrell (09:03)
Yeah, so we do two primary things. We do DSCR loans and then we do private lending. And so we’re just ramping up our DSCR. And so we’d love to start having that kind of grow and do at least 10 a month on that, which would be pretty exciting. But again, we’re just starting our company in terms of this stage of things. And so all these systems we have, they’re perfect. And now we just need to fill in with people.

And besides that, ⁓ the private lending side, we’re raising money for that whole venture. And so we want to get that to 5 million and we want that to be cruising and burning along. so those two things are our top most priority. And then we’re just going to double down on those the next year.

Michelle Tack (10:17)
That’s awesome. As we spoke about before, you grow and regardless if you’re a company, you know, under two or three years old, or if you’re a company 20 years old and trying to morph and change given today’s environments or, you know, the change in the landscape, not, don’t want to use that literally, but can be. Can you tell me about how you, you know, the things that you’re thinking through?

maybe an experience where you had to, a deal was going south and you had to morph and quickly address it and, you know, salvage it or, and doesn’t have to be a deal, or it wasn’t salvageable, but you had a learning lesson that was very tantamount to your success. We always think about, you and I had talked about earlier, you know, people get into real estate and,

it sounds great at first, you know, people dabble in it and then they realize, Hey, there’s a lot of variables here, right? There’s variables to, you know, global warming. There’s variables to mortgage rates. There’s variables to CCNRs. There’s variables to state and local taxes. And it can get overwhelming sometimes. And it’s really the player that’s in there long-term that ends up becoming, you know, consistently successful. And really no one wants to hear that because that’s not sexy.

Right? That’s not the way this, know, but that’s how it is ⁓ often. And so can you talk about maybe something yet that really challenged you that people could learn from and you’re proud of that you feel comfortable talking about?

Cole Farrell (11:53)
I I could spend three weeks alone straight talking through all the mistakes I’ve made and the lessons I’ve learned. They’re unbelievable. ⁓ But I’m to give you the most important one that I have found that transcends many, many years and a bunch of different aspects of our business, which is if you’re focusing on 10 different aspects of the business and you’re trying to do it all, you will lose ⁓ or you will not get any real traction.

And that’s something that I didn’t understand for years.

fought it tooth and nail. And I kept switching and switching and adding and adding. And I didn’t understand that that was such a problem. And so I would just encourage anybody out there that’s like, hey, I want to do flips. Hey, I want to do rentals. Hey, I also want to raise some money. Maybe I’ll do a syndication or two. And then maybe I’ll do some lending. And these things will also be really nice together. Maybe this ecosystem. ⁓ And although that’s really great in theory,

Michelle Tack (12:20)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Cole Farrell (12:43)
You can’t be excellent at any of those things. And I can say this because I did syndication and I was good at that, but in order to build that, we had to go all in on that. And that was the decision, do we want to, do we not? And I’ve done a couple flips. Some of them went fantastic and some of them went…

really sideways. And the reason those deals went sideways is because I wasn’t having my full head in it, right? I made mistakes that I wouldn’t have made if I was completely invested in that and I became the best at that one thing. So I would just say, do one thing, be the best at it, and you’re going to have the most success. You’re going to be happier just because if you don’t, it’s stress, it’s difficulty. It just doesn’t really work.

Michelle Tack (13:18)
And I think sometimes we get ahead of ourselves, right? In terms of being human, right? And we think that we’re built to do multiple things at once, but the human brain hasn’t really changed in a couple thousand years. So, you know, we think we’re multitasking, but you’re still doing one thing at a time. So how do you make the best out of that is what you’re talking about that you’ve done so well. Focus, focus, focus. Doesn’t mean you don’t have outside interests or outside.

other businesses, but where does that sit? Because we all want to do what’s easiest first. I’m a big believer in eat the frog early, do the things that are most difficult the earliest part of the day, and then you’re going to feel lot better. So you represent that. So I’m thrilled that you have been on with us today. Can you give your contact information to the folks that listening that may want to invest, need a loan, or level up their game?

Cole Farrell (14:12)
Absolutely. I’m gonna give you a couple different ways. They all will reach me first and foremost feel free to call or text me I’m just gonna give you my cell phone ⁓ Which is 267-865-3445 267-865-3445 Another one is email which is Cole C O L E at Volcan Capital V O L C A N the word capital C A P I T A L.com ([email protected]) and then you can also just go to that website the same thing. VolcanCapital.com.

Michelle Tack (15:32)
can’t let you off until you show the story which I asked you earlier about where’d get the name Volcan and we’ll end on that for the company.

Cole Farrell (15:39)
I love it. Well, I

started this when I was 17 and I didn’t really know what I was doing, but I knew I wanted to build something incredible. And so I wanted something that had meaning and something that was powerful to myself and to others. so Volcan is two separate, let’s say a prefix and a root. So VOL is like a Latin prefix meaning to wish or to want, and can is just the word, right? Can, meaning if you wish or want something, you can have it. And our tagline basically is, if you want it, you can.

Michelle Tack (16:05)
I love that. you’ve been a wonderful guest. Thank you for participating. A lot of great content there, a lot of learning. For those that are subscribers and enjoyed the content, please continue to subscribe and we appreciate your business. For those that have not subscribed as of yet, but would like to have the wisdom of folks like Cole ⁓ in content, please subscribe. And I wish you the best of success, Cole, going forward. Thank you very much for participation.

Cole Farrell (16:34)
Thanks guys.