Trophy property financing, underwritten on the asset
Business-purpose bridge loans from $1,000,000 to $50,000,000+ on high-value property in California and select other states.
THE SHORT ANSWER Kevin Green arranges business-purpose bridge and private money financing on high-value residential and commercial property, from $1,000,000 to $50,000,000+. Underwriting is asset-based: the decision rests on the property, the equity position and the exit, not on tax returns or W-2 income. Pre-approval typically within 12 to 24 hours. Closings typically 7 to 21 days. California statewide, with select other states considered subject to state requirements. CA DRE Broker #01241542 · NMLS #1130752
Why banks decline the properties that are easiest to sell
There is a persistent idea in this business that a trophy property is just a bigger version of a normal loan. It isn't, and treating it that way is why so many of these transactions stall at the bank.
A $9,000,000 oceanfront estate has a thin comparable set. Sometimes four sales in two years, none of them close enough to defend a valuation on a spreadsheet. The buyer's income often arrives as K-1 distributions, carried interest, trust income, or proceeds from a business sale, none of which fits the documentation a conventional underwriter is required to collect. Title is frequently held in an LLC or a family trust for privacy and estate reasons. Any one of those is manageable. Together they put the file outside what a bank's credit committee can approve, regardless of how strong the borrower actually is.
The property isn't the risk. The paperwork is.
That distinction is the entire basis of asset-based lending, and it's why a borrower with $40,000,000 in net worth can be declined by a retail bank and funded by a private lender in the same month.
How the underwrite actually works
Asset-based underwriting asks a different set of questions than a bank does. There are four, and the answers determine everything.
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What is the asset actually worth? Not the automated valuation, and not the list price. On a trophy asset this usually means an appraisal from someone who has valued property in that specific market, plus a hard look at what a motivated seller would realize in 90 to 180 days. Kevin underwrites to the second number.
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Where does the loan sit in the capital stack? First position is the straightforward case. Second position behind an existing low-rate first is common on these transactions, and often the reason the borrower doesn't want to refinance the whole thing.
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What is the exit? A private money loan is a bridge, not a destination. The credible exits are a sale, a refinance into conventional or portfolio debt once documentation catches up, or a liquidity event the borrower can evidence. A file without a specific exit doesn't get funded.
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Who is the borrower, structurally? An LLC, a trust, a foreign national buyer, a partnership. Entity ownership is normal at this level, not a complication.
Income documentation is not on that list. Neither is a credit score threshold.
What changes from market to market
Asset-based underwriting asks a different set of questions than a bank does. There are four, and the answers determine everything.
La Jolla, Del Mar, Rancho Santa Fe and Coronado. A large share of transactions at the top of these markets close in cash, which thins the financed comparable set considerably. Coronado adds a wrinkle no other California market has: Naval base proximity shapes both the buyer pool and insurability.
Newport Beach, Laguna Beach and Dana Point. Tighter lot geometry, more variation between blocks, and a bluff-and-coastal-zone overlay that affects both value and timeline.
Atherton, Portola Valley and Woodside. The most equity-rich and most liquidity-constrained buyers in the country. Wealth is concentrated in stock that can't always be sold on the transaction's timeline, which is precisely the problem a bridge solves.
Select other states considered, subject to state requirements. Requirements vary meaningfully; Florida in particular treats business-purpose loans differently than many people assume.
Beverly Hills, Holmby Hills, Bel Air, Brentwood and Santa Monica. Valuation is the recurring obstacle: gated compounds and canyon lots rarely leave a clean comparable set, and Santa Monica behaves as five distinct markets rather than one. Holmby Hills is the extreme case — some months close one or two sales, enough that a single unusual transaction moves the reported median.
Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach and the Palos Verdes Peninsula. One ZIP code, 90274, spans both Palos Verdes Estates and Rolling Hills despite a price gap of several million dollars, so automated valuation tools misprice the Peninsula routinely. Rolling Hills compounds it — fewer than a dozen active listings at any time and roughly 60% cash sales, which leaves almost nothing to appraise against.
Downtown, East Village, UTC, North Park and Little Italy — commercial, mixed-use and maturing CRE rather than residential. Mixed-use assets get declined routinely because they don't fit a single loan category, and downtown office availability above 25% makes conventional underwriting impossible mid-repositioning. The 2026–2027 maturity wall is the recurring one: banks refinance at reduced proceeds, and the equity gap has to come from somewhere.
Spec homes, entitled land and multifamily across the Peninsula, South Bay and East Bay — the development side rather than the finished estate. Value sits in work not yet done: a custom spec home has almost no comp set, a near-complete multifamily needs completion and lease-up assumptions, and entitled land is routinely worth far more than the developer's basis with nothing standard to appraise against. Matured construction loans and capital calls set the clock.
The fifty priciest ZIP codes in the country — thirty of them in California, the rest spread from the Hamptons and Greenwich to Aspen, Medina and Sea Island. The same pattern holds across all of them: off-market transactions dominate, so public pricing data thins out and comparables get hard to establish, and ownership through LLCs, trusts and offshore structures doesn't match what a W-2 underwrite expects to see. Board and architectural review add their own windows after close — Fisher Island runs 60 to 90 days.
Estates, trophy commercial, hospitality and ground-up development — California-weighted but national, and across acquisitions, refinances and 1031 exchanges. What makes these assets hard to finance isn't price, it's that the value sits in things an appraisal struggles to hold: views, architectural significance, coastal access, provenance. True comparable sales are rare, pricing is subjective, and an appraiser unfamiliar with the ultra-luxury tier becomes the bottleneck.
Montecito, Hope Ranch, Padaro Lane, Carpinteria and the Santa Ynez Valley. Hope Ranch is the tightest: 773 homes and roughly thirty trades a year, which leaves almost nothing to appraise against. Beachfront prices on frontage rather than square footage, and Santa Ynez ranches carry land, water and vineyard value no residential comparison will pick up.
Pebble Beach, Carmel-by-the-Sea, Carmel Valley, the Santa Lucia Preserve and Carmel Highlands. Only five homes sit on the 18th hole at Pebble Beach, and one set the county record at $45 million. Carmel has never used street numbers, so an appraiser can't even pull the property by address, and on the Preserve, value sits in land, water and building envelopes.
Loan parameters
Loan size | $1,000,000 to $50,000,000+ |
Purpose | Business-purpose only |
Property types | High-value residential held for investment, commercial, mixed-use, land, ground-up construction |
Position | First and second trust deeds |
Underwriting basis | Asset, equity position and exit, rather than income documentation |
Borrower structures | Individual, LLC, partnership, trust, foreign national |
Pre-approval | Typically 12 to 24 hours |
Funding timeline | Typically 7 to 21 days |
Territory | California statewide. Select other states considered, subject to state requirements |
Pricing | Quoted per transaction based on asset, position, term and exit |
Who this is built for, and who it isn't
A good fit
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A buyer who needs to close before a sale, a liquidity event or a refinance completes
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Significant equity, complicated or non-traditional income documentation
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Property held in an entity or trust
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A conventional application already declined on documentation rather than on the asset
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A transaction where speed is worth more than the lowest available pricing
Not a fit
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Owner-occupied consumer mortgages. Those follow a different regulatory path and are handled separately
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Loans under $1,000,000
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Transactions with no identified exit
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Anyone whose primary requirement is the lowest rate available
For agents, brokers and advisors
Most of these transactions arrive through someone else: the listing agent, the buyer's mortgage broker, the CPA, the 1031 intermediary, the family office. If you're holding a file your usual lender has declined, the useful question is not who has the best rate. It's whether the deal can be structured at all, and on what timeline.
That answer takes one call and does not require a package. Property, position, rough value, the borrower's situation, and what the exit looks like is enough to get a straight yes or no.
Kevin has been licensed in California since 1998 and has worked on this type of transaction for more than 25 years.