Greg Sinclair did not take a straight line into private lending. He went from teaching school in Ontario and the UK, to selling beer on the night shift at a local brewery, to building out the sales and marketing function for the Peterborough Petes in the OHL, to joining Magenta Capital when Covid shut down the sports world. He is now COO of one of the longest-standing MICs in Canada, a company founded out of a basement in 1994 that now manages $470 million in residential mortgages across Ontario.

Ryan and Neal sit down with Greg to talk through what has kept Magenta disciplined for 32 years, why they built a $470 million book with zero commercial, zero construction, and never leaving Ontario, and what drove the decision to finally enter the GTA a year and a half ago. They also get into Greg's read on where the Canadian real estate market sits right now, why condos are likely still a couple of years from recovery, what AI actually looks like inside a private lender's operations, and why tightening bank regulation keeps sending better and better borrowers into the alt space.

Plus career advice for anyone trying to break into the mortgage world, and some honest Leafs talk to close it out.

Show Chapters:

2:07 Meet Greg Sinclair, COO at Magenta Capital 

2:47 From Teacher to Brewery to OHL Analytics 

7:21 Landing the Peterborough Petes Job 

10:25 How Covid Led Greg to Magenta Capital 

11:09 32 Years and $470M: How Magenta Got Here 

13:36 The Decision to Enter the GTA 

16:57 $470M AUM on 1,000 Residential Loans 

17:19 Magenta's Products and Lending Parameters 

22:38 Looking Three Years Ahead: What Magenta Is Building 

24:29 Market Outlook: Near the Bottom or In It? 

26:20 Atlantic vs Ontario: Two Very Different Stories 

30:39 AI as an Accelerant, Not a Replacement 

33:40 Why Alt Lenders Keep Taking Market Share 

36:16 The Biggest Risk for MICs Right Now 

38:44 Career Advice for Mortgage Professionals

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]

ENROL IN THE CPL NEWSLETTER:

http://eepurl.com/FIKgpXhSbH

Part two of the MIC series shifts from structure to strategy. Ryan and Neal make the case for why mortgage investment corporations have become one of the most compelling income investments for Canadians who have already won the real estate game and are looking for somewhere to put the proceeds.

They break down where MICs sit in the investment spectrum (between government bonds and equities), who is actually investing in them (it skews heavily toward boomers and recently exited real estate investors), and why the 9.2% average returns in 2024 and 7.7% in 2025 are pulling in institutional capital alongside individual investors.

They also go deep on the risks most people overthink: redemption gates, borrower default rates (around 2-3% in alternative lending), and what actually causes a MIC to blow up. Not every failure means investors lose money. Defaults are not the same as losses, and a fund that gates redemptions may be doing exactly what it should be doing.

Neal runs through the questions every investor should ask before putting money into a MIC: average loan to value, property types, first versus second mortgages, portfolio diversification, how loans are sourced, historical default experience, and how experienced the management team actually is. Plus one red flag worth knowing: a MIC chasing rapid growth is almost certainly lowering its underwriting standards to get there.

Show Chapters:

2:00 Today: The Investment Side of MICs

2:38 Where MICs Fit in the Investment Spectrum

5:11 The Compounding Math Nobody Talks About

6:32 GICs, Bonds, and Equities vs a MIC

10:02 Why Investors Love Monthly Income

13:09 Volatility Is Driving Investors Out of Equities

13:42 Who Actually Invests in MICs

14:19 9.2% Returns in 2024, 7.7% in 2025

15:36 Understanding the Real Risks

18:39 Redemption Gates Aren't a Red Flag

19:23 When MICs Have Failed or Struggled

21:20 Not All MICs Are Equal: What to Evaluate

24:57 Defaults Are Not the Same as Losses

28:16 Is a MIC Right for You?

30:00 Red Flag: Beware of Rapid Growth

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]

Most Canadians think mortgages only come from the big six banks. They're wrong, and it's costing them. In part one of a two-part series, Ryan and Neal break down what a Mortgage Investment Corporation actually is, how it works, and why it exists in the first place.

They cover the borrowers banks turn away, how non-bank lenders get their capital, and why Canadian MICs are nothing like the Big Short. They dig into the numbers from Wawa's research: the top 43 mortgage investment entities manage nearly $38.5 billion in assets, delivered 9.2% weighted average returns in 2024, and yet still represent only 4% of Canada's total mortgage market. Compare that to the UK, where non-traditional lenders now account for 60% of gross mortgage lending.

They also break down what causes a MIC to blow up, why the biggest players are built to survive a downturn, and the uncomfortable truth about what your bank is actually doing with your savings account.

Show Chapters:

4:56 Today: What Is a MIC (Part 1 of 2)

6:09 Why Canadians Only Think of the Big 6

7:14 The Borrowers Banks Turn Away

10:44 Why Canadian MICs Aren't the Big Short

11:00 What a MIC Actually Is

13:30 What Causes a MIC to Blow Up

15:36 MIC vs Broker vs Bank

16:12 Who Actually Borrows From a MIC

18:39 $38.5 Billion Managed by the Top 43

19:22 MIC Returns: 9.2% in 2024

20:45 MICs Are Only 4% of the Mortgage Market

21:41 The UK Has 60% Non-Traditional Lending

23:32 Banks Give You 2% While Lending Your Money at 9%

25:47 Why Big MICs Will Survive the Downturn

29:39 How a MIC Expands Through Acquisition

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]

Episode 143 marks a milestone: CPL has officially passed the total episode count from Neal's old Master Keys podcast. To celebrate, Ryan turns the mic on Neal and runs him through a real estate investing Q&A.

Neal started buying property at 19, picking up fully vacant, boarded-up, and fire-damaged buildings in Halifax that nobody else wanted. He breaks down the value-add strategy that made him the most money, the cash crunches that nearly broke him, and why losing relationships worried him far more than losing money. He also covers how he stumbled into private lending, why the rates and fees never scared him, and what he would actually do starting with $50,000 today.

They also get into which pre-COVID investing principles still hold in this market, why vendor take-back mortgages are starting to come back, how overleveraging kills investors who are doing everything else right, and what Canadian real estate looks like in ten years if fertility rates keep falling.

Chapters:

0:35 Passing the Master Keys Podcast Episode Count 

2:22 Real Estate Investing Q&A with Neal 

3:07 The Investing Belief He No Longer Holds 

5:28 How the Forbes List Started It All 

7:22 The Strategy That Made Him the Most Money 

9:56 Cash Crunches: Rich on Paper, Broke in Real Life 

12:16 Why Relationships Stressed Him More Than Money 

13:18 Why Starting Young Made All the Difference 

15:10 What He'd Do With $50K Today 

18:30 Can You Still Build That Portfolio Today? 

20:49 Vendor Take-Back Mortgages Are Coming Back 

21:00 How Neal First Discovered Private Lending 

23:54 Investing Principles That Never Change 

25:11 Cash Flow in a Market That Doesn't Cash Flow 

26:12 The Overleveraging Trap 

28:50 Canadian Real Estate in 10 Years

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]

Most people think of private lending as something new. It isn't. In this episode, Ryan and Neal trace the complete history of private lending in Canada, from the handshake loans of the pre-WWI era to the creation of Mortgage Investment Corporations in the 1970s, through the mortgage broker boom of the 80s and 90s, the stress test of 2016 to 2018, and the pandemic explosion that followed.

They break down how MICs were designed to democratize mortgage investing for everyday Canadians, why the structure is uniquely Canadian and doesn't exist anywhere else in the world, and how securitization let the big banks squeeze out individual lenders for decades. They also get into where things are heading: more institutional capital entering the space, tighter regulation, and AI starting to reshape how mortgage applications get processed.

A must-listen if you want to understand the full arc of an industry that has been quietly solving problems banks won't touch for over 100 years.

Chapters:

2:39 Why We're Covering Private Lending History

6:01 Before the Big Banks: Lending Pre-WWI

7:44 The Borrower Profile That Never Changed

8:05 Banks Were More Conservative Back Then

10:24 Why MICs Were Created in the 1970s

11:00 How a MIC Actually Works

14:23 MICs Are Uniquely Canadian

15:04 When Mortgage Brokers Changed the Game

17:37 When Housing Became an Asset Class

20:03 The Stress Test That Changed Everything

23:32 Was Growth Need-Driven or Lender-Driven?

26:29 The Pandemic Boom: 2020 to 2022

28:57 Private Lending Today: More Sophisticated Than Ever

33:54 Future: Institutional Capital and Regulation

34:26 AI Is Coming for the Broker Space

38:31 Where Private Lending Goes from Here

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]

Ryan sits down with the two founders of MCC Premiere Mortgage Centre, Sarah Albert and Sara Wright. They built one of Atlantic Canada's most recognized mortgage broker teams out of Moncton, NB, and are now expanding into Nova Scotia. This episode covers how they met, how they grew a fully salaried team with 12+ year tenure, and why they believe every broker needs to get comfortable in the alt and private space, or they may as well work at a bank. Sarah Albert breaks down why construction loans are simpler than most brokers think, how she compares private vs. CMHC costs side by side for clients, and what the Australian mortgage broker market could teach Canada about collaboration. They also get into the real ROI of social media, why it takes a year before you see results, and why consistency beats tactics every time.

Chapters:

1:09 Meet Sara Wright, From Bank Teller to Broker

3:27 How the Two Sarahs Met

5:16 Sarah Albert's Origin Story & How She Started Premier

8:05 The 70-Page Business Plan That Started It All

11:43 When They Rebranded to MCC Premiere Mortgage Centre

13:20 Growing the Team and Knowing When to Hire

16:57 Their Team Has Been Together 12+ Years

18:20 Expanding Into Halifax, Back to Basics

21:45 Halifax vs. Moncton: The Competition Is Fierce

23:40 Construction Loans Aren't as Scary as Brokers Think

28:27 Why Private Lending Is Often Simpler Than Bank Deals

30:50 Why New Brokers Need to Learn Alt & Private Early

33:45 There's Always a Deal, Mindset Shift for New Brokers

35:54 Alt Lending Builds Client Loyalty That Never Breaks

36:54 Alt as a Tax Planning Tool for Self-Employed Clients

38:55 Going All-In on Social Media and What They Learned

43:06 Consistency Over Tactics, No Magic Bullet

45:09 What They'd Change About the Mortgage Industry

47:04 The Australian Model: Broker Market Share at 80%

53:19 Bonus: Favourite Halifax Restaurant & Best Vacation Destination

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]

Find MCC Premiere Mortgage Centre at:
www.monctonmortgagebrokers.com

The Grechi Carter team is back with a new addition, Amanda Deveaux, a 12-year litigation veteran and Ontario deputy judge who's taking over the firm's entire enforcement practice. Dave, Danielle, and Amanda break down what's really happening in Ontario mortgage enforcement right now: borrowers filing AI-generated defences to stall court proceedings into 2027, why lenders keep losing on fees and penalties, and how forbearance agreements and motions to strike can cut timelines down. They also cover what sets the best private lenders apart from the rest, Grechi Carter's new Etobicoke office, and why social media is becoming a real business driver, even in the legal space.

Show Notes:

1:14 Meet Amanda Deveaux - Newest Partner 

3:48 Enforcement Growth & Commercial Expansion 

7:24 How Long Does an Enforcement Actually Take? 

8:07 AI-Generated Defences Are Stalling Courts Until 2027 

9:38 Forbearance Agreements & Motions to Strike 

11:16 What Counts as a Legitimate Defence 

13:17 Fees vs. Penalties,  Where Lenders Get Burned 

16:17 Why Judges Keep Siding With Borrowers 

19:17 Why Ontario Needs a Mortgage-Specific Court 

33:18 What the Best Private Lenders Have in Common 

37:14 Greg Carter Teaches Real Estate Law at U of T & Osgoode 

40:44 Bonus: Restaurant Rec, Raptors & Leafs Corner

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]

What does it actually look like to run a $1 billion mortgage portfolio with a team of 40? Phil Fiuza, Managing Director of Single Family at Atrium MIC, pulls back the curtain on one of Canada's largest and only publicly traded mortgage investment corporations.

Phil started his career in 1988, right as real estate peaked and crashed, and has spent 30+ years learning how to survive every cycle. In this episode, he breaks down why Atrium went public in 2012 (hint: it's all about permanent capital), how they've kept 95% of their book in first mortgages, and why they're growing in Alberta and BC while staying disciplined in Ontario.

If you want to understand how the biggest players in Canadian alternative lending think about risk, capital, and growth, this is the episode.

Show Notes:

1:32 - Meet Phil Fiuza & Atrium MIC 

2:10 - His Career Started During the 1989 Crash

4:05 - How Today's Market Compares to the 90s

5:21 - Why Atrium Went Public - Permanent Capital Explained 

7:12 - The Tradeoffs of Being Publicly Traded

10:10 - 71% Residential, 29% Commercial - Atrium's Book 

11:46 - Growth Plans: Alberta & BC

13:09 - Defense First - Protecting Your Best Loans 

16:03 - 95% First Mortgages & 87% GTA Focus

17:55 - How They Keep Winning First Position

19:17 - How Atrium Rewards Brokers

20:39 - Renewal Trends & Borrower Stress

27:33 - Moving to 2-3 Year Terms & Amortized Loans

29:14 - Atrium's Rate Range

31:50 - Canadian Economy Outlook - Condos, Construction & Inventory 

35:51 - Most Impressive Moves From Competitors

37:21 - The LOC Product Phil Thinks Is Misleading Borrowers

39:56 - Bonus: Leafs, Jays & the Draft Lottery

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]

Find Phil on:

LinkedIn: Phil Fiuza

Instagram: @philfiuza

Dean Koeller, President & CEO of Calvert Home Mortgage and Board Chair of CAMLA, joins Neal and Ryan live at the CAMLA Ontario Expo. In this episode, Dean breaks down Calvert's unique $20K-down flip and BRRRR program, how their in-house appraisal team gives real estate investors a genuine edge on after-repair value, and how they've been closing deals in 24 hours since before it was a selling point. We also get into the story behind CAMLA, why Dean went to 20 competitors to solve a compliance problem and ended up building Canada's national alternative lending association. Dean makes the case for why calling ourselves "private lenders" may be hurting the industry, what the 2025 CAMLA position paper means for regulators and consumers, and the real risks posed by unregulated lenders operating outside the system. Plus, he tells the hosts they might want to think about changing the name of this podcast.

Show Notes:
1:09 - Meet Dean Koehler & Calvert Home Mortgage
1:41 - How Calvert Was Founded in 1975
3:48 - The $20K Down Flip & BRRRR Program
5:19 - In-House Appraisals & the ARV Advantage
8:32 - Why Dean Started CAMLA
9:27 - Building a National Association
11:17 - Alternative vs. Private Lending — Why the Distinction Matters
12:47 - The Risks of Unregulated Lenders
14:41 - Should We Change the Podcast Name?
16:13 - New AML Rules & Advice for Brokers

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]

Find Dean on:
E-Mail: [email protected]
Linkedin: Dean Koeller

Neal and Ryan sit down with Yitz Levinson, President of Hillmount Capital,  a Toronto-based private lender with over $400M under administration and 22 years in the business. Yitz shares how his background as a licensed insolvency trustee shaped the way Hillmount underwrites every deal: exit first, entry second. The conversation covers their unique MFT structure, how they flex across residential, commercial, and construction depending on market conditions, their approach to special situations and insolvency lending, and why Yitz is more focused on deal terms than competing on rate in today's aggressive market. If you want to understand how a sophisticated, long-running private lender thinks about capital preservation, risk, and the current economic climate, this is a must-listen.

Show Notes:
1:45 - From Accountant to Insolvency Trustee
3:23 - How Hillmount Was Founded
4:27 - The #1 Reason Deals Go Bad
5:56 - Hillmount's Lending Profile
7:21 - Construction Loans
8:12 - What Differentiates Hillmount
9:20 - Special Situation Lending
11:07 - Speed, Direct Lending & the HiLOC
12:30 - White Glove Service
14:54 - MFT vs. MIC
16:11 - Organic Investor Growth
17:59 - Staying Disciplined on Rate & LTV
18:15 - Preservation of Capital
19:09 - Concerns About Today's Market
21:49 - Tariffs, Recession & the Macro Picture
22:23 - Warning Signs on the Street
23:21 - Short-Term vs. Long-Term Loans
24:13 - Are We in a Recession?
25:33 - No Land Buying = Future Housing Shortage
26:06 - Regional Market Breakdown
28:06 - Bruised Credit Borrowers
28:45 - Working With Borrowers in Distress
30:14 - Mortgages Act Reform
31:45 - Concerns About New Products in the Market
32:46 - "We Underwrite the Story, Not the Box"

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]