What was Trez Capital’s approach to lending activity during the last year?

I started Trez Capital in 1997. I raised $3 million from investors and since that time we have funded over $12.5 billion in loans. We have seven offices, 150 employees and nearly $4 billion in assets under management. We have over 24,000 investors. One advantage of having been in this business for as long as I have, is that you have a lot of experience. While we have not had a pandemic before, we have experienced other challenges. At the onset of the pandemic, when we realized that things were going to be unpredictable, we decided to stop lending. Something was going on out there and we did not know the severity of it. I’ve learned over the years that whatever I plan for is never the problem, it’s the things I can’t control or can’t foresee that become problems. Last year, I thought we might have a lot of defaults but we had no defaults. I thought we would not have loan payoffs, but we had a record number of loan payoffs. So, all the trouble we thought we might have, did not happen. As a result, we came through the pandemic in good shape. Now, we are back lending in full force and once again raising investor capital.

How would you compare the COVID crisis with the recession in 2008?

When it comes to the pandemic and the financial crisis, you can’t compare them. 2008 was a disaster. Property values dropped dramatically, especially residential. The aftermath of the pandemic may not be written just yet. We need to wait three or four years as interest rates start going up. That is when we’ll likely see what happens with those who took on too much debt.

What is your near-term outlook?

We see more of the same. With a focus on multifamily residential, single-family housing, industrial and limited-service hotels. If rates stay low, people will continue to buy real estate and Florida is well-positioned to take advantage of that coming growth.