TR-HNR-November-2019

FEATURED ARTICLE: Beth O'Brien

C oreVest CEO Beth O’Brien maintains a belief that like- ly isn’t popular among other chief executives. “You actually want to encourage dissent,” she said. “You don't want to encourage people to not do some- thing if they're supposed to do it. But you certainly want to empower people to challenge you.” Such conviction is part of O’Brien’s broader philosophy to elevate each team member of CoreVest, a rapidly growing finance company for resi- dential real estate investors based in Irvine, Calif. From stimulating productive defiance and embracing failures to emboldening employees to find and use their voice, O’Brien’s approach may be unconventional, but the results speak for themselves. Founded in 2014 by O’Brien, CoreVest is a leading private lender for residential real estate investors throughout the U.S., offering portfolio and single-property loans for rent- al properties as well as short-term credit lines and bridge financing. Re- cently, the company of 100 employees surpassed a significant milestone in closing over $6 billion in loans and fi- nancing over 40,000 investment units. What’s helped CoreVest hit such meaningful achievements is its breadth of experience, O’Brien said.

Beth O’Brien’s Favorite Tech Tools

With clients and offices around the United States, CoreVest CEO Beth O’Brien’s work and communication is often executed amid travel. That’s why the executive relies on powerful yet flexible technology to help her perform at her best. Here are a few of O’Brien’s favorite tools.

The iPad As the leader of a 100-person team, O’Brien recognized that her role has evolved from that of a producer of data to one that is consuming it when meeting with clients and making decisions. That’s why she opts for a portable tech tool for her travel-laden schedule: the tablet. “I'm so attached to my iPad that when I once locked it in a car, the CFO said, ‘Did you leave your arm, too? Because I thought it was surgically embedded,’” O’Brien laughed. “Everything we do is cloud-based

and mobile, so I can access everything I do for work on my iPad, which is really nice. … The tablet is not great for creation, but it's awesome for consumption. You can read on it better than a phone, and you can manipulate it. It's all the things I need, which is really consumption of data.”

Social media To stay abreast on real estate market news, O’Brien finds that social media platforms are quite useful. In addition to LinkedIn and Twitter, O’Brien particularly likes Instagram to stay informed. “I'm going to go to the airport soon and I'm going to be in the back of a car, on the phone, checking Instagram and sending emails,” she said. “It helps me feel attached to what else is happening in the market. I get a lot of information from it.”

For example, among CoreVest’s three C-suite executives, there’s more than a collective 80 years of industry experience in real estate and finance. “One of the things that sets CoreVest apart from some of its competitors is our deep understanding of the market,” O’Brien said. “Because we understand the market so well and have so many people who work in our company who were equity investors and have been in this particular market for many years, our ability to customize what the investor needs, our ability to close in a reasonable period of time, and our customer service sets us apart from others. We understand their business well enough to work with them on the busi- ness pieces alone.” O’Brien herself has 30 years of experience in nearly every aspect of the mortgage industry, as both a principal and an

Web-based platform CoreVest’s responsive, web-based platform has been invaluable for O’Brien. It enables her to not only use the same data the company uses but allows her to access it however she needs amid her busy travel schedule. “The way we set up our company data and tools —

advisor and has managed more than $15 billion in trans- actions. O’Brien previously was executive vice president at Auction.com, where she ran residential capital markets, and previously was the president of AuctionFinance.com, where she ran the financing strategy for the platform. Such a diverse background provided O’Brien not only a well-rounded perspective on the finance and real estate industry but also cultivated compassion and under- standing for a business’s needs. “Having a really diverse background and a non-linear career has been super helpful in having the empathy necessary for all the different departments but also an acumen and ability to multitask on a lot of different top- ics,” she said. “Being CEO is actually making a lot of de-

cisions all day long that aren’t always that sophisticated. Sometimes it's the heavy strategic stuff, but sometimes, it's working with other departments.” CoreVest has also grown thanks in part to its sig- nificant expansion of loan offerings over the last year, helping to serve a diverse and growing client base that employs varied real estate strategies. In spring 2019, CoreVest introduced its Build-to-Rent Complete, which provides a comprehensive financing solution for inves- tors that build and hold portfolios of new rental prop- erties. The company also rolled out additional bridge loan products for multifamily properties and a new 5/1 adjustable-rate mortgage loan to provide alterna- tives to finance individual rental properties.

even the way we fund loans — it's all web and cloud-based,” she said. “Being able to use even highly controlled applications in a mobile way has really enabled us and me to travel the way that we like to, to see

the assets we need to see and never feel like we’re not using the actual company systems.”

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