Canadian Private Lenders’ Podcast

Ryan and Neal sit down with Andrew Stephens, co-owner of Exit Realty Metro and one of the most consistent top producers in the Halifax real estate scene. Andrew brings a unique perspective to the show as a second generation realtor who grew up riding shotgun with his dad Sterling Stephens, now runs the family brokerage alongside him, and still competes for top sales honours every single year while juggling the demands of being a managing associate broker.

The conversation covers everything from Andrew’s early life as a kid with a briefcase sitting at kitchen tables while his dad showed houses, to playing Team Canada volleyball in Gatineau, to building a 90 agent brokerage in Burnside. The guys get into what actually works for growing a real estate business today, why social media and sphere of influence beat cold calling and door knocking, and the hard truth about what it really takes to break into real estate investing in 2026.

Andrew also gives a refreshingly grounded take on the current Halifax market, pushing back on the doom and gloom narrative and arguing that what everyone is calling a soft market is actually just a normal one. The three of them dig into neighbourhood opportunities, the untapped potential of North Dartmouth, the up zoning play on peninsula properties, and why Halifax traffic is both a legitimate problem and a problem people love to over complain about. If you want a boots on the ground view of the Halifax market from someone who lives it every day, this one is a must listen.

Show Notes:

• 00:00 Three year podcast milestone and intro to the Andrew Stephens interview
• 01:53 Meet Andrew Stephens of Exit Realty Metro
• 02:23 Growing up as the son of Halifax real estate legend Sterling Stephens
• 04:33 Playing Team Canada volleyball in Gatineau and getting into real estate
• 06:08 Life as a 17 year old at MUN and the Newfoundland experience
• 08:56 How a competitive athlete mindset translates into sales
• 11:02 The Exit Realty franchise story and merging the Halifax and Dartmouth offices
• 13:08 Running a 90 agent brokerage with his dad as the active broker
• 14:22 Joining the family business in 2014 and finding his own path
• 17:48 The real playbook for growing a real estate business today
• 20:07 Why volleyball and sports networks produce so many referrals
• 22:15 The two thirds agent, one third broker owner split
• 23:57 What the brokerage’s pitch to new agents actually sounds like
• 26:40 The state of the Halifax real estate market in 2026
• 28:37 Why comparing today’s market to 2021 is unfair and misleading
• 29:41 The widening gap between affordability and average price
• 31:51 Why Andrew is deeply optimistic about Halifax’s next 10 to 15 years
• 35:37 Why realtors are suddenly back to doing real realtor work
• 38:06 Real estate investing in 2026: where the actual opportunities are
• 42:00 How a young buyer should get into the market today
• 42:49 The North Dartmouth, Woodlawn, and Springfield plays
• 46:17 The peninsula thesis: why you’ll never buy there for under a million again
• 48:42 The Halifax traffic debate
• 50:09 The realtor’s view on private lending
• 53:00 Bonus round: Oakfield, golf in Utah and Canmore, and Halifax’s best new restaurants
  
  

Resources:
Keystone Capital Group
CPLP Instagram: @cplpodcast
Keystone Instagram: @keycapgroup

Find Neal On:
Instagram: @neal.andreino
LinkedIn: Neal Andreino

Find Ryan on:
LinkedIn: Ryan MacNeil
E-mail: [email protected]

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Ryan flies solo for Episode 156 and sits down with Jordan Ellis of TMG, The Mortgage Group out of Summerside, PEI, marking the first time the podcast has welcomed a broker from the Island. Jordan brings an unconventional background to the mortgage world, going from calling junior hockey play by play for the Summerside Western Capitals and working in radio sales to becoming one of CIBC’s top ranked mortgage advisors in the country before taking the leap into the independent broker side.

Jordan walks Ryan through his wild early run at CIBC, where he closed 125 mortgages in his first eight months with zero banking background, then explains the thinking behind leaving a top ten national ranking to build his own business at TMG. He gets candid about the real differences between the bank and the broker world, why having access to alt and private lending has transformed his business, and the referral network and local relationships that fueled his rise.

The two also dig into the PEI market and its massive post Covid price surge, how remote work changed the Island forever, and what Jordan is building next, including his plans to grow a team and expand into other Atlantic markets. If you are a bank mortgage advisor considering the broker side, or just curious how a small market broker becomes a national Rising Star, this one is loaded with real tactical insight.

Show Notes

• 00:00 Ryan’s solo intro and setup for the Jordan Ellis interview
• 01:16 Meet Jordan Ellis of TMG in Summerside, PEI
• 01:32 Jordan’s hockey broadcasting career with the Summerside Western Capitals
• 02:12 How a broadcaster actually preps for a game
• 03:37 Why a numbers brain translated so well into mortgages
• 04:12 The random text from a friend that got Jordan into CIBC
• 05:54 Starting at CIBC in November 2019 and surviving Covid
• 06:36 Closing 125 mortgages in his first eight months
• 08:01 The decision to leave CIBC at number 13 in Canada
• 09:38 How quickly Jordan rebuilt his pipeline at TMG
• 11:04 Why so many ex bank advisors never explore the alt and private side
• 12:34 Does Jordan wish he had made the jump sooner?
• 14:03 Advice for a bank advisor thinking about going independent
• 15:34 Why TMG’s culture made the move an easy choice
• 17:26 The PEI market: how prices went from 185K to 310K
• 20:52 The unique Northwest Territories referral pipeline
• 23:00 How Jordan hit Summit Five two years in a row
• 24:39 The CIBC market share story and what it taught him
• 25:42 Being a solutions guy as the real differentiator
• 27:08 Why so many people are still moving to PEI
• 31:15 The Canadian Mortgage Professionals Rising Star award
• 31:42 What’s next: team building, Ellis Mortgage Group, and expansion
• 34:41 The hardest part of scaling: letting go of files
• 37:20 Bonus round: Blue Jays wild card hopes and the Avs season ahead

Resources:
Keystone Capital Group
CPLP Instagram: @cplpodcast
Keystone Instagram: @keycapgroup

Find Neal On:
Instagram: @neal.andreino
LinkedIn: Neal Andreino

Find Ryan on:
LinkedIn: Ryan MacNeil
E-mail: [email protected]

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Ryan and Neal take listeners deep into one of the least glamorous but most important parts of running a private lending business: what happens when a borrower stops paying. This episode is a tactical breakdown of how to handle missed payments, when to escalate, and how to actually recover capital without blowing up the deal or the relationship.

The guys walk through the three phases of enforcement, from proactive communication and payment plans, to underwriting for downside protection, to the moment it is time to hand the file to an enforcement lawyer. Ryan shares a detailed real world story about a long time borrower who went through four renewals, multiple NSF fees, and a listing in a softening market, and how a judgment call on waiving some renewal fees turned a stressful file into a clean exit. Along the way, the two cover provincial differences in foreclosure and power of sale, why your commitment letter is your most important asset, the levers lenders have that banks simply do not, and the real reason renewal fees are a bigger piece of lender revenue than most people expect.

Show Notes:

• 00:00 Cold open: a four renewal loan and the moment the payment bounced
• 00:38 Costco cookies and setting up the enforcement topic
• 01:34 Why enforcement thinking starts long before a payment is missed
• 02:09 Phase one: proactive communication and payment plans
• 02:28 How to react when a borrower proactively tells you they will miss a payment
• 03:16 The instant phone call rule and the River Rock approach
• 05:11 When a second missed payment should be escalated to ownership
• 06:37 Why Ontario deals demand faster action
• 07:38 Levers lenders can pull: partial payments, timelines, rate reductions
• 09:01 The four renewal borrower story
• 13:05 Why a bulletproof commitment letter is everything
• 14:49 Judgment calls on waiving renewal fees for strong borrowers
• 15:41 How this exact scenario would play out at a big bank
• 17:17 Phase two: underwriting for downside protection
• 18:18 The underrated power of cosigners and guarantors
• 19:30 Underwrite like you are going to have to buy the property yourself
• 19:45 Phase three: when the client goes dark and you call the enforcement lawyer
• 22:28 Provincial differences: power of sale vs judicial foreclosure
• 24:16 How to find the right foreclosure lawyer in your province
• 25:26 How commitment levers protect lender capital and create negotiation power
• 26:19 The surprising role renewal fees play in a lender’s revenue
• 28:02 How often borrowers throw in the towel vs fight to the end
• 28:57 Why most real losses come down to fraud or a bogus appraisal
• 30:17 Why loan to value means nothing if the value is wrong

Resources:
Keystone Capital Group
CPLP Instagram: @cplpodcast
Keystone Instagram: @keycapgroup

Find Neal On:
Instagram: @neal.andreino
LinkedIn: Neal Andreino

Find Ryan on:
LinkedIn: Ryan MacNeil
E-mail: [email protected]

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For Episode 154, Ryan and Neal skip the deal talk and pull back the curtain on the personal journeys that led both of them into private lending. Neither one of them came from a banking background. Both are engineers by training. And both took very unconventional paths through corporate life, entrepreneurship, and real estate before eventually crossing paths on a private lending deal that would change everything.

Ryan walks through his journey from mining engineer in Sudbury during the 2008 financial crisis, to grinding on the Costco desk at PepsiCo and Reckitt, to eventually joining his family's private lending business and helping build it before co-founding Keystone. Neal shares his hustle heavy path from flipping cars and importing products in university, to buying his first rental with a fake income sheet, to a legendary refinance that put a $150,000 check in his hands during his final year of engineering school. He walks through the burnt out 11 unit building that introduced him to private lending, the moment he realized how scalable the lender side of the business really was, and the exact meeting with Ryan that planted the seed for what would become Keystone.

Along the way the guys get into a wide ranging debate on whether Costco is actually the best shopping experience in Canada, why engineering as a profession can feel like a trap, and the one regret they both wish they could go back and change.

Show Notes

• 00:00 Cold open: origin stories and Costco tangents
• 00:36 Neal's Ironman training update
• 02:22 Neal's conspiracy of the week: immigration cuts and forced wage growth
• 07:04 Setting up the topic: how we actually became private lenders
• 09:32 Ryan's story starts: mechanical engineering at UNB and Rollercoaster Tycoon dreams
• 10:33 Working in the Sudbury nickel mines during the 2008 crash
• 11:45 MBA at Laurier and life on Bay Street
• 12:02 Learning modern sales at PepsiCo head office
• 13:24 Reckitt, key accounts, and the Costco desk
• 14:32 Joining the family business at Grazier Capital
• 17:41 The Costco negotiation story: selling a shit sandwich
• 22:20 Why Costco is actually the best shopping experience in Canada (Ryan's take)
• 26:42 Neal's counterpoint: the feral Costco parking lot experience
• 31:16 Trust, quality, and staff: why Costco keeps winning
• 34:18 Neal's story starts: how he chose mechanical engineering
• 35:24 The Dean's advice that killed his automotive dreams
• 37:38 Flipping cars, importing products, and hustling through school
• 39:44 Buying his first rental with a fake income sheet
• 40:47 The $355,000 listing drop that changed everything
• 43:30 The $150,000 refinance check and quitting engineering
• 45:24 Getting his real estate license in 13 days
• 47:26 Buying the burnt out 11 unit building for $300,000
• 50:23 How private lending saved the deal
• 53:32 How Neal met Ryan on a construction site draw inspection
• 54:37 Why the lender side felt more scalable than being a developer
• 57:07 Is engineering actually a career scam?
• 01:00:09 Neal's story about the $2M cost saving that got no credit
• 01:03:59 The one thing they would each change looking back
• 01:05:56 Take more risk: the investor advice that stuck

Resources:
Keystone Capital Group
CPLP Instagram: @cplpodcast
Keystone Instagram: @keycapgroup

Find Neal On:
Instagram: @neal.andreino
LinkedIn: Neal Andreino

Find Ryan on:
LinkedIn: Ryan MacNeil
E-mail: [email protected]

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Ryan and Neal sit down with Jason Alexander, CEO of Mortgage Automator and now also CEO of Lendr, for a candid conversation about the software powering a huge chunk of Canada's private lending industry. Jason unpacks his 30 year career in tech, from his very first job working for Mark Cuban in 1996, to leading multiple software companies through major growth and eventually landing in the CEO seat at Mortgage Automator just over a year ago.

The guys dig into the recent Lendr acquisition and why it fundamentally changes how Automator will operate going forward, with Automator becoming Canada exclusive and Lendr taking over as the platform for all US customers. Jason gets refreshingly transparent about what was working, what needed to change, and where the product is headed next. Expect deep dives on the upcoming loan servicing overhaul, why big lenders are asking Automator to help them get rid of their in house IT teams, how AI and MCP integrations will change day to day lending workflows, and Jason's take on the differences between the Canadian and American lending markets. If you use Automator, are considering it, or just want to understand where lending tech is heading, this one is essential listening.

Show Notes

• 00:00 Recap: hosts break down the biggest takeaways from the interview
• 01:31 Meet Jason Alexander, CEO of Mortgage Automator and Lendr
• 02:11 Starting his career working for Mark Cuban in 1996
• 05:20 How Jason went from retirement to running Mortgage Automator
• 06:40 Leaving college 32 hours short of a CS degree
• 08:56 What attracted Jason to Automator from his loan servicing background
• 11:02 Why big lenders want Automator to help them cut their IT teams
• 13:34 Rethinking what Automator's customer service team actually does
• 15:37 One year in: what Jason inherited and what he plans to change
• 17:35 Why the credit union segment needs a specialized product
• 19:10 The big reveal: Automator becomes Canada only, Lendr takes over the US
• 22:57 How the US customer migration to Lendr is being handled
• 23:59 The biggest differences between the Canadian and American lending markets
• 25:37 Why the Canadian mid market barely exists
• 26:07 Inside the Lendr acquisition: how the deal actually came together
• 30:04 The barbecue meeting in South Phoenix that sealed the partnership
• 32:09 How Bryce, the former Lendr CEO, is reshaping Automator's product philosophy
• 34:41 Are more acquisitions on the horizon?
• 36:06 Is AI a threat to companies like Automator?
• 39:11 What Automator customers can expect in the next 12 months and beyond
• 43:12 The MCP rollout and what it means for AI powered workflows
• 46:11 Bonus round: Jason's top food and travel picks in the US

Resources:
Keystone Capital Group
CPLP Instagram: @cplpodcast
Keystone Instagram: @keycapgroup

Find Neal On:
Instagram: @neal.andreino
LinkedIn: Neal Andreino

Find Ryan on:
LinkedIn: Ryan MacNeil
E-mail: [email protected]

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Ryan flies solo for Episode 152 and sits down with James Goode, a realtor with The Agency in Halifax and one of the most recognizable faces in Atlantic Canadian real estate content. If you have ever scrolled through TikTok or Instagram and watched a guy sprint through a stunning listing set to music, chances are you were watching James. In this conversation, he pulls back the curtain on how a random idea from a friend turned into a 200,000 view content formula, and how his social presence has actually closed deals for his clients.

James walks Ryan through his unlikely path into real estate, from a theology degree to becoming a CPA at Ernst and Young, before Covid pushed him toward a career reset. They dig into what makes content actually work in a saturated realtor market, why negativity in the comments is sometimes the best thing that can happen to a video, and the strategic differences between TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. The two also cover the current state of the Halifax and rural Nova Scotia market, the price points that are moving versus sitting, and a preview of James's upcoming HGTV style TV appearance on Oceanfront Property. If you are a realtor, mortgage professional, or anyone building a personal brand, this one is loaded with tactical takeaways.

Show Notes:

• 00:00 Ryan's solo intro and setup for the interview
• 01:25 Meet James Goode of The Agency
• 01:55 From theology degree to CPA at Ernst and Young
• 04:04 How Covid pushed James out of accounting and into real estate
• 05:07 Why the accounting network was the biggest career catalyst
• 05:42 Hitting his stride five years into the business
• 07:25 The origin of the run through houses concept
• 08:52 Breaking down the time commitment behind viral content
• 10:12 How James is building a YouTube channel from scratch
• 11:35 The $6M Ontario listing that hit 200,000 views on TikTok
• 12:12 Why negative comments are actually great for the algorithm
• 15:06 Testing whether his social audience translates to new markets
• 16:20 Why real estate content is boring and how James breaks the mold
• 20:18 The strategy differences between Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube
• 22:20 Proof that viral content actually sells houses
• 23:20 The state of the Halifax and Nova Scotia market right now
• 26:11 The exact price points that are moving on the Peninsula and beyond
• 29:16 Whether James's clients are shifting toward mortgage brokers
• 30:54 A Keystone success story: saving the kitchenless house deal
• 31:17 James's advice to realtors: stop making boring content
• 34:15 James's upcoming appearance on the HGTV style show Oceanfront Property
• 37:33 Bonus round: favourite Halifax cafes and restaurants

Resources:
Keystone Capital Group
CPLP Instagram: @cplpodcast
Keystone Instagram: @keycapgroup

Find Neal On:
Instagram: @neal.andreino
LinkedIn: Neal Andreino

Find Ryan on:
LinkedIn: Ryan MacNeil
E-mail: [email protected]

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Neal and Ryan are back for a fun one, this time cracking open the strange, sometimes sketchy world of unique lending. Most people think lending means mortgages, car loans, and business lines of credit, but the reality is that almost any asset with real ownership, verifiable value, and a viable exit can be borrowed against. In this episode, the guys walk through the assets that actually get pledged as collateral every day, including stocks, cryptocurrency, fine art, watches, jewelry, wine, classic cars, receivables, inventory, patents, and even goodwill.

Along the way, Neal shares his skepticism on some of the market's more inflated corners, Ryan tells the wild true story of a $2 billion art thief who never sold a single piece, and the two get into the mechanics of how ultra wealthy collectors use their assets to unlock liquidity without triggering a tax bill. They wrap with a rapid fire round on what they would personally lend against, and the one form of collateral that keeps them both up at night.

Show Notes

• 00:00 Cold open and podcast intro
• 00:13 Neal's ongoing sleep struggle and watching his friends survive new parenthood
• 02:24 Setting up the topic: what makes something good collateral
• 04:34 Lending against stocks and investment portfolios
• 05:19 How banks offer 100% leverage on certain investment products
• 06:27 Would you rather lend on a diversified portfolio or a house?
• 08:02 Lending against cryptocurrency and the volatility problem
• 10:24 Fine art as collateral and the fraud risks behind valuations
• 12:58 Ryan tells the true story of The Art Thief and $2 billion in stolen art
• 15:07 Watches, jewelry, and gold: how influencers actually finance those Rolexes
• 17:14 A private lending story: taking a Rolex as second mortgage collateral
• 18:34 Fine wine as an investment grade asset class
• 20:15 Classic cars and the case for and against a $50 million Ferrari
• 24:03 Accounts receivable lending and invoice factoring
• 25:24 How commission factoring works in real estate
• 26:21 What makes good collateral: the five questions to ask every time
• 28:11 Rapid fire: what would you actually lend against?
• 32:22 Why goodwill and government down payment programs are quietly high risk
• 33:29 Closing thoughts

Resources:
Keystone Capital Group
CPLP Instagram: @cplpodcast
Keystone Instagram: @keycapgroup

Find Neal On:
Instagram: @neal.andreino
LinkedIn: Neal Andreino

Find Ryan on:
LinkedIn: Ryan MacNeil
E-mail: [email protected]

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Neal and Ryan hit a big milestone with Episode 150, and they're marking it with one of their most globally minded conversations yet. They kick things off with two massive Canadian deals that just crossed the wire: RBC and BMO offloading Moneris, one of the country's most important payment processors, to US private equity for $2 billion, and Air Canada selling a 25% stake in Aeroplan to Blackstone at a $10 billion valuation. The guys dig into what these deals actually mean for competition, consumer choice, and the quiet devaluation of your loyalty points.

From there, they zoom out to the main topic: private credit as a global asset class. Now worth over $2 trillion, private credit looks very different depending on where you are in the world. Neal and Ryan walk through how the US, Europe, Asia Pacific, Australia, and Canada each carved out their own version of it, why Canada's market is heavily tilted toward real estate, and where the sector may be headed next. They close with a sharp take on why Canada is unlikely to ever mirror the US model, and why that might actually be a good thing for disciplined lenders.

Show Notes

• 00:35 Episode 150 milestone and Neal's kiteboarding recap
• 02:15 Setting up the main topic: private credit as a global asset class
• 02:24 The Moneris sale and what it says about Canadian competition
• 04:03 Why the real problem is concentration, not the buyer
• 05:20 The Canadian monopoly problem: banking, telecom, and payments
• 06:08 Air Canada sells 25% of Aeroplan to Blackstone at a $10B valuation
• 08:07 Why loyalty programs are often worth more than the airlines themselves
• 09:00 How private equity ownership could accelerate points devaluation
• 10:05 The hidden business of loyalty: companies buying points in bulk
• 10:29 What is private credit? The categories that make up a $2T market
• 11:45 How the US came to dominate 65% of the global private credit market
• 13:56 Europe: infrastructure, renewables, and cross-border lending
• 17:15 Spotlight: United Wholesale Mortgage and the US private lending giants
• 17:35 Asia Pacific: Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, and India
• 19:07 Canada's role: filling gaps rather than replacing banks
• 20:05 Why Canadian private credit is structured around real estate
• 21:31 Canada vs the US: mortgage-focused vs corporate-focused lending
• 22:08 Is Canadian lending really conservative? A different view on debt loads
• 24:08 Global trends: institutional capital, tech, higher rates, retail access
• 26:21 Where private credit is heading and Canada's real opportunity

Resources:
Keystone Capital Group
CPLP Instagram: @cplpodcast
Keystone Instagram: @keycapgroup

Find Neal On:
Instagram: @neal.andreino
LinkedIn: Neal Andreino

Find Ryan on:
LinkedIn: Ryan MacNeil
E-mail: [email protected]

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Neal and Ryan are back with a solo news roundup episode covering the biggest stories moving Canadian real estate, lending, and beyond. They kick things off with a wild data point out of Halifax: a brand new 291-unit downtown tower is sitting at just 20% leased, and what that could signal about vacancy risk creeping into REIT-owned portfolios across the country. Then they dig into new Mortgage Professionals Canada data showing broker share is climbing fast, hitting 38% overall and 48% among first-time buyers, with Quebec and Alberta leading the way and Atlantic Canada still lagging behind.

From there, the guys pivot into a very different conversation: Nvidia has struck deals with major investment firms to borrow against its chip inventory, and Neal shares his theory on why tech could become the next major asset class for lending (with a bonus Taiwan conspiracy thrown in). They wrap with a quick take on Mortgage Automator's acquisition of Lendr, why AI is starting to disrupt the legal tech stack, and a preview of who's coming on the pod next.

Show Chapters:

• 00:00 Cold open: broker share, tech lending, and Neal's electrolyte comeback
• 01:00 Catching up: biking, Portugal, kitesurfing in Brazil, and Costa Rica villa recs
• 04:12 The 291-unit Halifax tower that's only 20% leased
• 07:55 Overbuilt on multifamily, undersupplied on single family
• 09:58 Nova Scotia officially shifts into a balanced housing market
• 10:14 Why sellers are finally starting to concede on price
• 11:12 The ego problem in Canadian real estate
• 12:26 MPC data: broker share hits 38% overall, 48% with first-time buyers
• 13:29 Why younger buyers are ditching the bank branch experience
• 15:16 Continuity of service: why the broker relationship wins long term
• 16:32 Regional breakdown: Quebec, Alberta, Ontario, BC, and Atlantic Canada
• 19:22 How the UK compares and what it would take to close the gap
• 20:38 The education problem holding broker share back
• 22:13 Nvidia is now lending against chip inventory
• 23:32 Is tech becoming a viable asset class to lend on?
• 26:03 Neal's Taiwan conspiracy and the coming tech inflation cycle
• 28:28 Would you finance a phone on a 5 year loan?
• 29:51 The future of wearables, headsets, and brain implants
• 31:11 Mortgage Automator acquires Lendr in a major US play
• 31:43 Will firms start building their own AI tech stacks?
• 32:52 Preview: Jason Alexander of Automator coming on the pod

Resources:
Keystone Capital Group
CPLP Instagram: @cplpodcast
Keystone Instagram: @keycapgroup

Find Neal On:
Instagram: @neal.andreino
LinkedIn: Neal Andreino

Find Ryan on:
LinkedIn: Ryan MacNeil
E-mail: [email protected]

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In this episode, Neal and Ryan sit down with Arees Jiwani, President of TM Investments. Arees walks us through his journey from the Ivey Business School to helping build one of Canada's most rapidly growing financial services groups, going from seven employees to over 400 in a decade. We dig into RFA's acquisition of Street Capital, the launch of TM Investments in 2024, and the group's unique capital structure backed by long-term institutional investors and a wealth management arm based in the Cayman Islands.

Arees shares why permanent capital is the name of the game in today's private lending market, how TM Investments approaches AA and AAA deals in the competitive GTA space, and where he sees the biggest opportunity hiding in plain sight: the $3 to $4 million home segment in prominent Toronto neighbourhoods. We also cover bridge financing, blanket mortgages, creative deal structuring, and TM's ambitious plans to scale well beyond the $300M mark.

Show Notes

• 00:00 Hosts' recap: big goals, permanent capital, and competitive GTA pricing
• 01:30 Interview begins with Arees Jiwani
• 02:13 From the Ivey Business School to RFA: the origin story
• 04:00 RFA's growth story, from 7 employees to 400 in a decade
• 05:39 The three gaps in the private market TM Investments was built to fill
• 08:45 Breaking down the capital and infrastructure gaps in more detail
• 09:44 Inside the Cayman Islands wealth management operation (Five Continents)
• 12:06 The 20+ year investor relationships that anchor RFA
• 13:09 The RFA and Artis REIT merger and TSX listing
• 15:30 How TM Investments establishes truly permanent capital
• 18:31 Why the LP structure won out over the MIC
• 19:31 A walk through the RFA verticals
• 20:55 Ideal borrower profile: business-for-self and bridge financing
• 23:49 Underwriting the exit on bridge deals
• 24:53 The case for blanket mortgages in today's market
• 27:02 Beyond pricing: the step-up rate structure that wins deals
• 30:22 Average mortgage term and payout timing
• 32:05 The hidden opportunity in $3 to $4 million GTA homes
• 37:14 Scale on their terms: the 3 to 5 year vision
• 41:09 Opportunistic capital in a shrinking market
• 42:56 Acquisitions as part of the growth playbook
• 43:31 Bonus question: Flames or Leafs?
• 45:11 Restaurant recommendations in Toronto and Calgary

Resources:
Keystone Capital Group
CPLP Instagram: @cplpodcast
Keystone Instagram: @keycapgroup

Find Neal On:
Instagram: @neal.andreino
LinkedIn: Neal Andreino

Find Ryan on:
LinkedIn: Ryan MacNeil
E-mail: [email protected]

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