How Investors Are Earning 10% Returns With Private Lending | Bruno Raschio

What did you just say?

First podcast back in studio for 2026.

Dynamic duo. It's always me and Manny or it's always a switch. But now we're the OG's here. The the dynamic duo.

Say, bro. You know,

we're here to talk about finances. Is this going to be fun?

Starting 2026, you should.

We got to get our our bread up, right?

You got to get the bread up. You got to get make sure you have the everything in line.

You want to introduce this gentleman?

Go for it.

So, this is uh Mr. Bruno. How do you say the last name? Rashio.

Rashio. And that's italiano.

Yeah. Not said like not said like that, but it should be rasio or

I don't know my family from back home. So, but yeah, I think I think it's something like that.

All right. All right.

Yes.

Welcomebody.

We don't know you. Tell us a little about yourself.

So, uh own a private credit firm out of Miami. Uh the business has changed 10 times, you know,

but today for the last maybe 15 years, we find ourselves in private credit. Been an incredible run. Uh Miami's become almost in it's becoming the New York, you know,

right? Yeah, I know. It's crazy.

So, we do a lot of transactions where we finance individuals that are not bankable for uh yachts, we do trucks, we do construction equipment, we do real estate, we'll do anything that holds its value. We can recover, liquidate, and back to step one.

And the name of the company is East Harbor Financial.

That's correct.

Did it start in New York?

No, I don't know.

So, why the name?

Well, I think one of my friends uh came up with the name, but why why New York? It's East Harbor, like an eastern harbor. Yeah. Like and then financial. I mean

I feel like in New York there's a lot of harbors. Do we have harbors here or?

Yeah. Of course we do.

We do. Yeah. Harbor.

I I know. I know what you're saying.

You know what I'm saying? Like you know movies.

It sounds like old money. That's probably like East Harbor Financial.

How did you end up in finance? A little personal information about yourself to get started here.

So I've always liked you know dealing with numbers. Uh my dad is kind of like hands-on, you know, used to have truck dealerships. Uh 2006 the story starts. The economy goes to crap.

I remember. Um, nobody's financing. You know, we're in the business of of having truck dealerships. So, a lot of people want to buy our product, but the banks are just not lending, you know. So, what do we do? We start selling on credit, which is just a short way to do for selling on installments. Credit, you know,

you're talking about like big semi-truckss,

semi-truck, dump trucks, grapples, vacuum tanks, all kinds of stuff. Really,

we're talking off camera before uh that you like the heavy equipment and the big uh the big like dozers and stuff like that, I guess. Right. I used to go to auctions, man, like my dad for years. Uh, travel around, you know, around the world, South America, just see how these things operate.

They're fun to operate. We, my dad used to ride dirt bikes, so we would, every so often he'd put us on a machine and start, you know,

start excavating the turf and stuff like that.

They were expensive back then, but I guess now they're three or four times because expensive.

Um, yeah,

especially the heavy equipment.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't for whatever reason, you know, cars haven't gone up as much, but heavy equipment. Uh I think the production lines are just they're not as uh as expanded or

I don't know the prices are significant.

Apartments would last much longer too. No. So

they do they do last

longer. So

and they also grind a lot too.

Um so tell tell us you started with your dad in the beginning. This is how the the whole company started right.

The company starts in 95. I'm 38 now. I've probably been 20 years. So I would say I take over like in 2013.

Wow. relatively young dude. He's pretty So

27. Yeah.

So he taught you the the whole the whole nuts and bolts about it or was there schooling? I know we talked off camera as well that

No, no. My dad's not a big fan of school. At 17, he told me just drop out. Come work for me.

No way.

That's what I did. I started in the marketing department, sales. No, from Peru.

Uh and just started me from the ground, man. Like just, you know, first I was in the marketing department, then I was in sales, then I started becoming kind of the general manager.

And at some point I said, I want to do my own thing. You know, I'm an entrepreneur. I I don't want to be, you know, second in command, you know. No

So, he tell me, he's like, I've been working since I was 13 years old. Like, I want to get out and I know you want to get in.

You're 27. Like, all right, let's do this. Transferred all the stock to me.

Uh, and just retired.

Wow. That's proud dad moment for sure.

Yeah.

All right. But give me I want to understand exactly what the company does. I know you guys lend out credit and you give financial services, but is there a specific niche that you focus on or you see a lot of people coming through or

Yeah. So, the the niche, it's really uh equipment or or assets that hold their value. We can recover them. Uh we can remarket them quickly, take our money back, and back to step one. So, I'll tell you what qualifies. For example, a car qualifies because it's got a second resale market, right?

What doesn't qualify? It's tough to do art because I can finance art, but number one, I can't recover it. You know, I'm not going to break into someone's house. Um it's hard to uh I don't know what the value is because art it's like depending on what day you'll go to an auction and

um

yeah the market changes

the markets change there's not a lot of buyers sometimes for a certain I mean there's some things that that everybody wants but most art

it's kind of like very selective on who it would sell to

and how about real estate assets

real everybody's buying it holds its value it uh there's a million buyers it depends on what type of real estate too you know because if we're doing residential everybody wants a house if you're doing vacant land, you know, in um Ohio, maybe that's like you're not going to find so many buyers. If there's not a lot of development going on, the economy is kind of soft, then you're going to have a hard time. That's why we want to go more conservative on the loan to values.

But you go more than into the construction type of industry.

We do construction equipment because that's our background. We used to sell trucks and construction equipment. So, John Deers, Caterpillars, you know, that sort of thing.

And right now, what are you seeing? Have you seen anything change lately of people asking money for or what do you

Yeah. I kind of want to understand like the calls you're getting, brother. I'm getting this call. I'm getting this call. Like give me

So postco the the environment exploded. Uh and each industry is different, you know. So for what you know, residential, obviously prices, especially here in Miami just blew up. You know,

a lot of customers coming from outside, don't have, you know, an LLC here in Florida. They're kind of new to town, so the banks are not lending that much. That's where we come in. Private credit. And it's not just us that's done incredibly well. you're looking at I mean private credit has probably tripled in the last five six years you know

uh with very large firms we're kind of a boutique you know we we do specific assets u like trucks construction you know yachts

um but we've seen a lot of influx of of very wealthy individuals come by so an example the the yachts the yachts that we used to do pre-COVID were 300 to $700,000 now with all this new money coming in all these wealthy people

800 to2 million dollar yachts is probably the norm Now,

you know that, you know, we had a yacht company that was coming in recently um and they're telling me they're really cracking down on um the whole charters and and that's had like an impact on people buying more yachts and stuff like in the community

because they buy them for services.

They were buying them for services. They were selling them out. It was actually brick boat charters, these people that that came by. And he told me that that whole industry has completely shifted uh

and there's a risk involved too by taking people on the boat and the water's always dangerous. To Eddie's question, what new clients are you seeing now in reference to a couple years ago, maybe five years ago?

Um,

the difference, the biggest difference, obviously money and stuff, but

new money, especially to again the boating world is here in Miami.

So 98% of our deals, South Florida between West Palm, Fort Lauder, and Miami is is probably the biggest hub for boats in the world.

So 98% of our boats are here now. Real estate we do nationwide, trucks are nationwide, construction nationwide. But are you going direct to consumer or are you going through the the brokers?

Our clients are brokers.

They're brokers

and we love it that way because they filter out everything. They've got their clients that are their A credit, their B credit, C credit. When they don't find a a box where the bank will fill, correct, that's what we come in and then we set the terms. We say we want X amount down, X amount rate.

So your goal then is to make more connections with brokers at these locations. So then they can send you more approval applications.

Yeah. And business has been like before I used to look for brokers. Nowadays, people they look for me, you know.

Yeah, of course.

Just because there's so much demand for credit right now. It's a good time, you know. It's like, think of like, you know, 0304 for real estate. Like, I mean, you're selling money.

Yeah.

You know, Yeah.

You know, there's nothing better than that.

Is it easier here in Miami than in other states? Cuz you said you did work on a nation on a national scale.

So, our deals come No, no, we've always always been here in Miami since 1995, but uh our deals come from throughout the United States.

No, I think I think there's just a lot more deals in New York and California, which are large states. uh rather than, you know, Ohio or Kentucky, you know.

Yeah.

All right. But let's say I'm going to you uh I I go through my broker, I'm trying to get a boat. Um what what interest rates are we hitting people with here? Like what are you seeing?

So, good question.

It depends on the market. Uh the short answer is uh if there's no market, then we create a market. So, an example uh

a guy from New York wants to come down and buy a $5 million yacht, right? Goes to his bank, his bank declines. He's the broker shopping around finds no one. comes to us and says, "Hey, he's got no option. He pays either cash or he finances it with you." So, now we we come to the point where we're going to make the market, right? So, we'll ask him for between 30 40% down

and then basic on the risk profile. You know, some guys uh we have all kinds of clients, you know, none of them are not bankable. You know, people think like like bad credit. It they're it's not that. It's it could be that they're it's a first-time buyer for a yacht.

Yeah.

Uh they own a a company, you know, where where they're not a W2, so their income is not steady. you know, when one year they make 2 million, the next year they broke even, the next year they lost half a million. So, the banks don't want to see that, you know, they want to see every year you can make your payments, you're in a double W2,

you know, every two weeks you get the same check. You know,

uh what we do is we we look at this client, you know, where does he make his money? What's his industry? Does he report? You know, a lot of entrepreneurs report very low. Banks want to report high, but the entrepreneurs don't the the business owners don't want to pay taxes. So, they'll do everything possible to reduce their tax bill. Therefore, they're screwing themselves with the banks because they they don't like to see that you broke even, you know.

Yeah. But they but but they're in in your point of view with a bank statement loan, you you accept those type of loans?

Yeah. Absolutely.

Yeah. You're said Yeah. That's

even even without bank statements.

Yeah.

Cuz we're in in essence, we're an assetbased lender. Got it.

So, an example, if I see a million dollar house here in Coral Gables and a guy says, "I won't give you credit. I won't give you anything." Well, I won't even give you my name. I need to run OFAC, you know, for just make sure I'm compliant, you know. But I say, "I don't need anything. Half down, you're in."

Really? Damn.

What's the worst that could happen?

Yeah. You take the property back.

The guy defaults.

I'm in it maybe for 500 plus another 100 in in costs, interest. You know, our property price is going to run from a million down to 600,000 in in the matter of a year. That's like a catastrophe.

You're like a good friend to have, bro.

Yeah, he's pretty good. He's pretty good. Leading to your question, uh, guy makes first million. He's a Miami entrepreneur. What's the most common mistake you kind of see them making when it comes to either trying to finance or build their business? Something that they do wrong constantly you see?

Yeah, it depends on what kind of business, you know, honestly guys, but are you I think the question he's leading into is it like are you part are you doing wealth management as well too or you're just doing

No, no, we don't do wealth management. Uh we we we play only with our capital. We have some investors, you know, we we we choose select investors that we want to

that we want to have in the in the portfolio. Um but no just just our money.

So let's say we have because we do uh we have investors out there that want to be a part of this and kind of be part of your your circle and like kind of get these opportunities. Are you accepting new people? Is it invite only? Is it

Well, what what changed the game uh is recently with the big beautiful bill.

Uh basically successful entrepreneurs what they want is to pay low taxes. So, with the Big Beautiful Bill, what what happens is when they invest with us, we set them up with an LLP where they're the owners of the LP. We're just the operator. So, they take their money, they put it in the LP, we buy a million-doll construction machine or a yacht or something, depreciated down to zero, and then we can pass that tax credit uh to the individual for a through a K1.

So, in essence, they're not only making a return on their money, but now they have a tax credit for a million dollars. So if they made a million dollar passive income on their business, they would pay zero as opposed to paying what? What's the tax rate? 35 38%.

So $350,000 in savings plus you make a 10% return with us today. So you're talking about significant uh

So you need smart people around you, bro. You know

how much bread you got to make to to get a financial advisor or or have somebody come in? At what point or how much you think?

Oh, it depends. But but you know what?

Like you got a big deal. Financial advisors generally don't think outside the box

because they they all have very similar uh it's like a bank. They all have like boxes, you know, of where they want to put their

their people in. And they'll they'll recommend the 401k, the Roth IRAs, you know, like uh things things that you're going to be able to save, but you're going to save uh you know, 10 15 20,000. The the the people that I'm talking about, the entrepreneurs, you know, if it's not half a million dollars, don't tell me that I'm going to be able to put a, you know, a child credit for their school for$7,000 a year. you know, that's what they spend on on on, you know, on lunch. Yeah. Exactly. So,

you know, we're really looking for a higher tier client, you know.

Yeah. Yeah.

I'm not sure if you know about this or how how much you can speak to it, but um recently in the news, Trump said that he was going to cap interest rates at 10%. You know, I'm I'm not that's not my world. I'm not in the finance world,

but I'm interested in understanding maybe your point of view. I have been reading about it. Some people are saying now they're not going to approve like people with low credit scores for credit cards. Do you have any input on that? Any any advice? Any Yeah, just thoughts, general thoughts on

Yeah, I mean, he he's getting awfully close to the uh you know, where the government's telling private businesses how to operate,

but he has a lot of pressure. I mean, he's inherited this uh this uh environment, you know, where there's high inflation, people are are are up to their necks in debt. They they they want to that's why the whole push for lower oil prices, you know, lower energy prices. Uh we we we want to get back we want to get back to where it was, you know, affordable. You know, you can have the American dream of buying your own home, which prices are are through the roof today, specifically here in Miami.

Uh but I I I think he's trying to do a good thing. It's just like, you know, is he pushing way beyond what he should be?

But I I I think he cares. It's a good idea. It's just there's going to be a lot of winners and a lot of losers, you know.

Yeah. Well, he did that and um it was the now he's trying to cap pricing on the medical side, too. Trying to cap prices on them. He's trying to cap prices on the military uh these guys Rathon and stuff on how much money they can make.

Uh which is a little bit socialism, you know, but I see what you're saying, you know, like the prices of oil goes down, the price of everything pretty much goes down.

Yeah.

Well, those things exist, you know. Uh it's just those are the most common. And if he wasn't tweeting it or or saying it on his social media as much as he does, uh those things have always gone on, you know.

That's what they were saying to that.

What do you think about his transparency? How just he's like blatantly honest.

Yeah. I mean, you know,

I've seen your social media page. You're pretty on board with

Oh, yeah. Picture owner.

Well, you know, look, I I I like the guy and and it's not the guy. I just think a lot of the policies that he's putting into place make sense. And and it's not even that I I I love the guy. it's that I hated what was right, you know, what he was running against.

Uh but but for the most part, yeah, we're aligned pretty well.

Um do I like the way that he says things and how he ruffles feathers and he said we're going to Venezuela for the oil. Like you probably don't want to say that,

but there's a downside and there's an upside. the upside is you know exactly what he's doing, you know, so nobody's going to accuse him of like, oh, we don't know, like, you know, you know,

and and so I I admire him because he's got balls, you know, and now people when he says he's going to do something, they're like, he's serious, you know, not like like other

I think as a leader, not to get to continue to dive into politics, but I think as a leader of a country like this and technically the free world, yeah,

you need to have a big a backbone, man. you need to like just hey this is what this is what we're going to do and this is where we're going you know cuz you got so many outside influences coming in that you know you want to have like a clear path to things and that's really what I enjoy about him the most man he just says what he's going to do and he does it and then he doesn't care about where the chips lie man

figure it out after man um

we're pretty good at social media obviously more than I am um

and you get influenced a lot by social media you know what I'm saying and you always see those things about you can make money by watching YouTube you can make money by this you can make money by that. What's true about some social media stuff and what's like the biggest lie when you say they're making money that you've seen?

You know, you know, I watch a lot of YouTube and that's where I've I've learned a lot of stuff. But I've noticed that it's very it's a it's very wide, but it's only so deep.

So, if you really want to become a professional and learn,

uh,

do the courses work? Do the online courses work? That do you know? I mean, you've taken some of them.

Listen, I've done that when I was younger. I kind of fell into I fell into the whole thing. And I think there's an age for everything, you know. Uh I think in retrospect and 2020, you know, hindsight's 2020, you kind of think like, oh, that's stupid. But you don't know the mindset they're in, you know. And and most people that go into those things are younger people who are the maybe they don't have a mentor. They're kind of just trying to grab at something and pick on something and trying to like, you know, get into the world and they don't know how, you know.

I think people like us, we're so connected that you take it for granted. You know, how many people really help you? when you have someone in a room watching videos, bro, you know, living in efficiency, you know, grinding 13 hours a day at a McDonald's or whatever, they're just grabbing anything they can. So, you know, it I I there are a lot of like predatorial, you know, courses and situations out there where it's just like a money grab. But I think there are some that depending on the level where you are in your in your journey, uh I think they could do help for you, you know? I think they could do help for you. I think it's a good start, but if that's all you're going to do, it's not going to work. So,

it's all talk, man. You know, at one point there's got to hit.

I think at one point you got to get out there.

We have a lot of uh finance podcast, lawyers, all topics that we cover.

What What's different about East Harbor? What What separates you from other financial companies or I know you got yourself a little podcast, too.

Yeah.

And we'll talk about that shortly. But what what kind of separates you from the rest? So it's basically the way that we make decisions and speed as well. So a lot of the times a client will come to us that's almost bankable basically like they're there on closing day with a bank and then they find out something you know like uh everything's perfect. We just need your wife to sign for the wife won't sign. Deal's dead. He's got a non-refundable deposit. So what does he do? He calls me and he says I have 5 days to close. There's no lender in in the country that's going to approve me. like I just need a bridge loan for 90 days until I can figure this whole thing out, you know, with his wife or whatever. And that's what gives us the deal

really.

Yeah. And that's just one example. There's 30 examples. Like I told you, there's guys that have bad credit. There's guys that that uh don't report income. They're in uh industries that are are are, you know, blocked like cannabis, you know,

uh entertainment industry for some things, you know, gambling. Uh but we see all kinds of stuff, you know. Listen, I want to get some Have you ever had do you have any stories of a situation where you actually had to get your asset back? Can you talk about those or can you give me some of those? Like take me back. How you feeling? What's the process? And

who collects,

you know, you know?

Yeah.

Do we sing?

What was the situation?

So the funner part of the story is when we were in 07 like I said doing these uh we're getting started

forclosure world.

So we we were starting out and we were just we didn't know how to underwrite you know we were like just take it man. we trust you, you know, we trusted everybody, you know, just give us a good down payment, we're happy.

And when people didn't pay, what did we do? Since we were starting our small company, you know, we started doing the repossessions ourselves.

So, uh, my brother, my brother, my, you know, and and my dad and maybe one of our workers would

some primos would show up, you know, and and picking up a a dump truck, you know, for 80 grand in Halia in Opaaka. And you can't do this in midday, you know. Sometimes you had to do it when they come back from work at 6:00 and you don't want to be there when at 6:00 7. You probably want to be there like 10, you know.

So, so it started like uh we're going to pick up these assets at at a a strange time, you know, midnight.

So, it it almost seemed like it was

the with the headband covering your eyes or

It almost seemed like it was like like a heist, you know, like we're prepared for the heist.

Yeah. You don't want to get, you know, you don't want to get shot or something.

Super uh

so so so guide me. So, what are you guys thinking? You're planning this. You're saying, "Hey, we're going to we're going to go repossess this truck today." You know?

Yeah.

Is dad coming along with you on the trim or

No. No. [laughter] Well, this this again, this is when we started. We did that for like two or three years. We we there was some, you know, kind of dangerous situations where the guy caught us out like in the coming like basically stealing his truck like what he thinks is stealing his truck out of his house.

People pull a gun on you. They'll pull a bat on you. Like what are you doing? And we said we're never doing this again. So now we just leave it to the guys that are in the repossession business.

Um

that's not a good business to be. Yeah, it's a it's a it's a business dirty business cuz you're dealing with hot heads.

Oh my god.

Especially in your case where you're most likely taking that one person's uh income source, you know, if they're driving a truck or something along those lines.

Yeah. Yeah. And it's very unfortunate obviously, but by then, you know, we've we've made the calls, it's been a couple months, we start with the lies, you know, uh the clients are like, "No, no, the the truck broke down. I'm not it's not working." And then we're like, "We're seeing the truck run on I 95, you know, 80 miles an hour." So it's like you have compassion and you want to help them out, but some of these guys just don't want to help themselves, you know. So it's like

and the losses, how do you take a loss? You

know, historically, we almost never take a loss because of the equity that we have. So an example, as I mentioned on the house, for the million-dollar house, if you have half down, it's hard to lose money, you know, when you recover it. Same thing on the trucks, $100,000 truck, customer puts $35,000 down, fails to make two or three payments, 90 days. He's he's gotten, you know, he starts with the lies. The truck's not going to sell from a 100,000 90 days later. It's going to sell for less than 65. So,

but you've never had a situation where they just disappear with the truck.

No, no, they all disappear, but for the most part, they're tracked. Uh,

but you can pull a trucker off. No.

Yeah, you can. But there's other ways to to do it, you know. There's there's individuals that are repo agents that they can track where where they've been, you know, and it depends on the asset. That's why sometimes we like real estate because it doesn't go anywhere, you know.

Uh, exactly. yachts like

h how how how is your portfolio like split you know like you know 40% yacht 60% of heavy machinery

it's changed over time uh postcoid uh today for example it's probably 40% real estate

40%

about 30% in yachts maybe 25 30% maybe another 20 25% in trucks and I'd say only about 5% in construction

and what's the more or less the range of of the loans you're you're providing Uh what do you mean in what sense?

Like I said like you know you know usually you're seeing half a million to a million.

So the average uh our average transaction says when we started in trucks used to be maybe loans for 50 60,000. This was maybe 15 years ago.

Today average transaction size is probably in that 4 to 500,000.

400,000. That's because of the properties

because the real estate and the yachts property.

So what's your target clientele that you want and which one you don't want?

So you mentioned uh you know yachts and charters, right? We hate charters and I'll tell you why and it'll make perfect sense. We we're an asset based

Let me ask that. That's a good question. What do you think about lending out money for people to buy yachts and then they're going to go charter them out?

No. No. I I don't mind. I I would prefer that they don't, but it it's kind of like lending to a guy that's running a car and he's using it every day. He's renting it. Yeah. The candidates that are going in there are not exactly taking good care of the car like like they're revving the hell out of the engine. specifically if you're in a sports car or something like that, they're going to they're going to try to show off with it. So, in the yachts, the same thing. Like most wealthy uh yacht owners, they don't go out every day or every other day on their boat, you know, maybe they go out two times a month, three times a month. So, there's very little wear and tear. So, the boats they they they're conserved, you know,

and they're well kept.

Uh they're wellkept. Uh they're it's their baby, you know, they they they they're worried about the details.

When you have a guy that wants to buy a yacht, he he's incentivated to rent that thing out every day. He'll rent it four hours in the morning. He'll rent it at midday and and if he can do a night charter, he'll do it, you know.

And the candidates that are going on the boat are like, we're going to be on this thing one time. We don't care what happens. It's like, let's live it up, you know,

throw up in the cabin and spill wine in the wood there.

So, they're drinking, they're smoking, they're doing drug. Who knows, you know, what they're doing.

This is our boat, you know? So, it's not getting conserved. It's it's getting depreciated like like hell, you know?

Yeah.

So, we don't want to do that. And if we do it, we're going to shorten the term and we're going to find a candidate that has a lot of experience. we could see the, you know, how they're treating their other boats. So,

but how are you verifying this? Cuz when someone's applying for the loan, you don't know if they're going to charge it out or not.

Well, we we ask them to disclose. Most people will disclose it. Uh and if they don't disclose it, I mean, it's not hard to to know. Okay, well, where do you make your money? You know, like, and if he doesn't have a good story, like, okay, you're a construction company. What's the website?

You know, like ultimately they're like, no, no, it's a it's a charter company. It's, you know, what's the website of your business? You know, your tax return. It's hard to hide. It's very difficult. Have you filtered some of those bad clients out?

Like do you kind of like pretty good at that already?

Uh yeah, I think we've gotten around uh we've learned a lot, you know, in the last 15 years, but ultimately what it comes down to are are the the down payment, for example, that's one thing. If a guy's willing to give you 50% down on an asset, you know,

he's not going to

around. you know, he he'd have to and even if he gets dumb with us and he starts, you know, getting laid on the pavement or not picking up our phone calls, like it's not hard for him to, you know, you pick up the asset, he'll come with the money the next day.

Right. Right. I got you. What does the ideal client look like in like five years?

Wait, wait, wait, wait. Before I want to see,

what is you talked about a little bit earlier, what are the terms looking like? You know, so let's say I get my yacht, you know, I got a half a million dollar loan. What type of how are you terming that out? You know, is it like

So, uh, a bank will will take risks that we think are insane. They'll they'll lend on a brand new yacht and give you 20-year mortgage, right? If the yacht is 20 years old, they'll give you a 20-year mortgage on a 20- year old boat.

Wow.

So, you know, today it's what, 2006? They they'll still do up to a 2006 and give you 20 years. We think that's crazy. We only go 5 years old.

So, I was told that the reason why that is because usually the the yachts themselves don't really change as much over time. You know, it's the same type of style, etc. That's what that's why I was told that yachts or boats in in general are always going to have like home style loans.

Yeah. The the the system is set up that way. There's also a big reason banks like lending to guys in the marine business because generally they're wealthy so they can get other services out of them, you know.

Sure.

Uh wealth management, they they have a lot of cash on hand.

But but I don't know, it's not my business. What I can tell you is we like to do very late uh model assets. So it depends on the size. you know, we have 35 ft fishing boats and then we have 100 uh foot yachts. We're not going to treat them both the same. They depreciate differently. Some brands are like, uh, you know, they hold their their uh their value very well. And then there's other brands that like, you know, like you don't want to have a Saturn, you know, uh or Alfa Romeo. I don't know if anyone here has an Alfa Romeo on the podcast or whatever, but

man, that sucks. Ala, I thought they look like such nice cars.

They're nice cars, but but you know, on resale value, there's there's not a lot of European cars, for example. They also depreciate fast. I want to have assets that hold their value. They they're very marketable. If if I pull them from a client, I have 10 guys that want to buy them from me right away.

Got

get our money, we're on to the next deal.

Got you. So, and which is why you don't like to go direct to consumer.

It's not that we don't like to go direct to consumer. The issue with going direct to consumer is that uh a lot of guys will come to us thinking that they're going to get a bank rate. And um we like brokers to explain to clients, listen, your your your bank are not interested. Your B lenders have said no. The C lenders, you know, and and so now they're prepped, you know, that they they know they're going to have to give a big down payment. They know their rates going to be higher than they're going to get from their bank. So we don't have to waste our time.

So rate are we looking at like more or less average?

Um I would say it depends on the asset, you know. So real estate is historically a very safe it's probably the safest asset you can lend on. rates in the in the private loans are generally today between 11 and 14 15.

I mean that's not bad. No.

Yeah. I mean, but if you go to a bank, you probably get a seven, you know. So,

but but they're bridge loans. So, so no one's for a third 20 year. Yeah. It's meant to bridge it and then, you know, you

What are some of the dumb moves you've seen some people with big money make that you're like, "Oh, I wouldn't do that."

Um, you know, I see a lot of people living outside their means. So, so I have guys until you make it, baby.

You know, no, and they're not faking it. It's just that, you know, you make a h 100,000, you spend 100,000. You make half a million, you spend half a million. I see I see guys that make $3 million and they spend $3 million and they're always like, they're not bad decisions, but it's like, you better hope that you never stop making money because now the the cards crumble, you know,

no backup any any fun stories. You don't have to mention names. Anything you've seen that's crazy.

But wait, wait, that's the difference between a finance guy and like other people, you know, other people make the money. They're always like, "Hey, we're going to keep making money. We're going to keep money." So, you're spending it. A finance guy is going to be, "Hey, relax. Don't screw that." You know, like

let's We're looking for long-term stability. You know, the other guy is just like living it up and just, you know, moving on.

With us, they they do need to have they they can't be living paycheck to paycheck or or even no matter what they make

because we require a big down payment. So, an example, if a guy's buying a $2 million yacht and he's not the greatest client, we're going to ask him for six, seven, $800,000 down. A guy that's saved that kind of money in his bank account to some extent is not living dayto-day, you know.

Yeah.

Uh

safe to say,

but you might you might ask him, "What's your net worth?" And he might say 5 million and it's basically his house, his yacht, and a car.

Yeah. Yeah.

So it's like, well, what about other investments, you know, like it's basically just all your toys. Uh

so it's it's a lifestyle decision, you know. What's a smart way of making an investment or something that you would say that's going to hit or it's highly highly profitable if it goes right that you could you know maybe recommend or

depends again depends on the riskreward profile you want to have

Bruno put the money

to me I mean look in essence we're we're an investment firm so we can today we can decide to put our money in the stock market we can decide to buy real estate we can decide to offer private credit we've gone the private credit route uh because we like the riskreward. Every deal that we make a decision on, we decide uh you know, how much do we like this deal? We can control it, you know. So, if I invest in a stock, I don't control anything. I just buy the stock. If it goes up, I'm happy. If it goes down, I'm unhappy. But I there there's millions of buyers right next to me that are are waiting around just like me.

Same boat. Yeah.

U same thing with real estate. You know, what I like about the private credit is that I control how much equity I want to take, how much I can lend on the property, you know, or on the asset.

Okay. what rate I'm going to charge. If I think it's risky, I can increase the rate. If I think it's very low risk, I can reduce the rate and the down payment, the terms,

uh, you know, I can decide if I want to do a fiveyear loan on a boat or if I want to do a two-year or if I want to do an eight-year, you know.

Yeah.

So, I control a lot, you know.

Yeah. Because you're the one giving the loot.

Correct.

So,

I was told that uh one of our one of our questions from the public here is that you have investment opportunities.

Yeah.

Are those open to the public? Uh, is it something that we can talk about? And what is the investment service? And I I hear you can get 10% annual returns.

Yeah, today it's pretty high in today's market. Rates are coming down. You know, before you can get what 5% by just putting your money in the bank.

Today that's probably at a what? A three.

Um we do have investment opportunities for for select investors. You need to be a high net worth individual.

Um

how much do I got to give you to get into that?

You usually uh I'd say it it starts in like most banks in the 250,000

a quart million. Uh we'd like to be in the half a million that but but that's the minimum.

Um and we want individuals that are long-term minded, you know. So we have a lot of guys that are like, I have some money uh and I'm looking for a property. I can give it to you for six months. And I say this is not this isn't money. I'm going to throw in some like uh stock, you know, and and I'm going to hope for the best and and give you the money. So when we when we have, you know, this is our money. We put it out there. There's transactions that we do that are, you know, five, six year transactions, you know, so we're going to get our money back in five, six years. Not all of it and at the six year, but we're going to get it at year one, year two.

Um, so, so we want individuals that at least can can invest for, let's say, two years.

That's a bare minimum, you know.

Okay. And, um, I had a question regarding credit. Um, obviously it's important. What's like the lowest credit score you've ever seen?

Which you work with that's low as I know. You know, it's probably like a 409.

No way.

But but let me tell you something. There I we we barely even look at the credit score. Well, I I don't want I probably don't want to say it on camera, but don't lie, bro. Don't lie.

No, listen. We We do look at the credit scores, but they don't always reflect. Yeah.

Uh so, an example, like

let's say Donald Trump has a 700 FICO and I have a 700 FICO. We're not the same character, you know. That's a good point.

Like, it doesn't tell you income. Uh the credit score doesn't tell you net worth. It doesn't tell you industry. It doesn't tell you risk, you know? It doesn't tell you cash flow. All it tells you is that the credit agency have decided that this client uh have done two things. Either he has delinquent payments, he's had charge offs or repossessions, uh or he's maxed out. So I I've seen some things where like uh a very wealthy individual will have almost nothing on his credit card on his credit report. But the things that he has, he has like a $50,000 credit card and it's maxed out at 50. When the credit reporting agencies see that, they're like, "This guy's maxing out his credit card at $50,000. He's on the brink of bankruptcy, you know, so they they he's a 550.

Yeah. So, it's not fair to judge people just by that.

No. Anyone that's making a decision just on credit doesn't understand

because the banks usually are operate along those lines.

The banks will decline you if you're under a certain credit score because again, the banks don't make decisions on what they think. They make decisions on what the regulators ask them to do. So, they're not lending their money like I am. They're lending your money.

Yeah. That's good.

So, if I lend my money and I get burned, Bruno gets burned. Yeah.

If they lend their money and they get burned, you guys will get burned. Then the taxpayer has to go in there and, you know, bail them out like they did in 0708.

So they're like, you have to stick to the guidelines. 650 minimum, 700 minimum. I don't care if the guy's worth 100 million or if he's worth a nickel, you know.

So, so they have to deal with those kind of regulations.

Bruno, we got a lot of guys out there that have money. You know, I'm not sure if they have the type of money that you're looking for, but investment opportunities. I heard you give 10% returns. Give us the details.

Yeah. So, so we are offering a 10% yield as of today. Uh the big beautiful bill has really changed a lot for us because not only can we offer them a 10% yield collateralized, you know, uh with a 1.4 collateral coverage, which basically means that for every dollar that they have invested with it, we have 1.4 of collateral. Uh but now with the big beautiful bill, they can get a tax credit for all the money that they give us because we're buying assets that are that we can depreciate. We set them up with an LLP if they have a significant amount of money which is our minimum is 250 but we'd like to be in the 500 range for this product. Uh which is basically we set them up with an LLP where they're the owners. They put the money in the in the LLP. We buy the assets through the LP which they own. We depreciate it. We pass it down to them through a K1 uh and they get the tax credit. So not only are they making a 10% yield on their money, but now they're also getting a tax deferral for any passive income that they have, which creates a a huge incentive, you know. Wow, that's amazing. I have another one for you. Everybody knows that the property values here in Miami have skyrocketed. Okay. Right.

Um most banks won't even approve a house in Pinerest probably at a million dollars like a typical format. No, that you would you'd want to go in.

Um you have options for people like that, you know, that maybe don't have the best credit score. They want to come in as a bank statement loan. Uh can you tell us a little about the process with you? if I am buying a house, uh how would you know just tell me a little bit how that works with you

and what type of approvals or what type of um profile would you accept if someone's out there that that hasn't been qualified by a bank and they're kind of like trying to buy, you know, more expensive home,

right? So, [clears throat] if clients are if they think they're bankable, we generally just want to, you know, if we get a an inquir like that, we'll just send them out and say, "We're not the best option for you. you need to apply with this bank or you need to go to this, you know, private credit guy that is kind of deals in that space.

What we like to do are opportunities where there's not many options that they have.

Uh we like to get in and we like to get out. So the the the process is very simple. We have a questionnaire that we ask them to fill out. You know, you know, what's the address, what's the property worth, what's the debt on it, tell us your credit, what's your net worth, 17 other questions, you know. Uh with that, I can give a decision two hours.

And then you what? Do you fund the the deal?

No, I wouldn't get funded into our but we'd have a a decision of saying here here's a pre-approval on what we think we could do if if everything you've said checks out. But we do the opposite of what banks do. Banks vet everything and then approve you. We give a pre-approval based on what you've given us. If you accept, then we vet everything.

Gotcha.

Uh and the reason why we do that is because because private credit rates are much higher and our down payments are much higher. Most people that we give a pre-approval to sometimes will decline it and decide not to move forward. So, we we prefer that we we know they're on board before we do the vetting. The banks, they do the vetting. Whenever they give an approval, they have the lowest rates in the business and the lowest down payments. So, they're their closing ratio is like in the 90s. Everything they approve basically closes.

What when you have a situation like that, what type of percent uh of money are you allowing them? Is it 20% of the loan, 40% of the loan

for what?

Like, let's say I want to buy a million dollar home. I have uh a4 million in the bank. Is that something that like if I give you the $250,000, would you make up the other 750 or

Yeah. Yeah. So an exact Yeah. So that's a 75% LTV. We generally be in the 60 to 70% LTV where they have to put three to 400,000 down, but it depends. Like I said, some some individuals are very wealthy and I'm not worried about them putting less down because I know that they have way other like way more other assets.

Uh some guys I know that are like that's it, that's all you got, you know? So I know that if things go bad, they're not going to have money to pay me. That's where I want to come in strong with a down payment because I know I might have a a tough situation.

The goal is then when you buy a house, refinance it and then pay you back.

The goal? Yeah. They could do a couple things. Uh they can they could refi with a bank. They can liquidate the asset by selling it. You know, some of these guys want to repair fix and flip or you know what I am this is out of my means. You know, I can't afford this kind of a thing. I just need somebody so I don't get foreclosed on or I'm in the foreclosure process. uh they fix up the house, they remarket it, but that takes that could take six months, a year, you know, depending on the

talk about that. Like, so if someone is in a foreclosure process right now and they they they need a loan to fix up the house and and sell it, you can help with that.

Yeah, absolutely. We we we recently had a guy in Pinerest that uh came to us because he couldn't find insurance for his property. Um he was remodeling and for whatever reason the insurance companies didn't want to do it. Got backed up. You know, the bank found out about it. Gave him, you know, you have 60 days to to remediate the situation. didn't do it. Put him in the foreclosure process and they're literally about to take his house. Wow.

So, he came to us and he said, "Uh, I have so much equity. You know, prices have gone up so much." This was a I think it was like a $3.7 million house. He owed $2 million on it. So, he said, "You know, would you guys be willing to finance the $2 million while I resolve this situation?" We said, "Yeah, how could we lose money, you know?"

Yeah.

So, we we we ended up buying the house from him. We're leasing it back to him. Yeah.

He's going to repair it. He's probably going to fix it up or or maybe decide to stay there. And it was a situation where he was in in the foreclosure process with his bank, you know. So,

I'm sure people are happy as hell when you go and

get that break fresh. Yeah. That's amazing, man.

The new life.

Usually, you see banks and stuff and people who lend you money like, you know, evil, you know, in this case, you're saving people.

Yeah. They want to come up on you. That's awesome.

And mo most of this whole thing started when, you know, as I mentioned in 2007, the banks weren't just lending. So, we've always seen it as we're giving people an opportunity. Most of the the people that we lend in the trucking business are actually immigrants where they come to the US. They they were let's say they were truckers in their in their country and they said I can work for somebody for 60 $70,000 but if I had my own truck I can make 100 120. The banks have declined. So it's like you know this is an option where even making a higher interest rate they could actually go out there and still make way more than they would driving for others. So it's always been a a way to make an opportunity for a guy. You know,

trucks are like that. Construction equipment are like that. Yachts not so much because nobody needs a yacht, you know, to, you know, nobody's like I want to say. Yeah. This is mostly it's mostly leisure. Yeah.

There are some guys that chart it, but very few.

And then real estate, you have the fix and flip guys that that do want the opportunity of like, I I found a great deal here. I want to buy it. And so, so most of them are just it's a positive.

Do you ever have friends that like, hey, I know you got some money, bro. Let me let me get 50 grand, bro. Just let me borrow some money.

Break me off, Bruno. [laughter] Uh yeah. Yeah. Some sometimes it comes up. Uh

it comes up.

It might come up after this paw. That's for sure. [laughter]

I love it.

All right. Are you done with your question?

Go for it, bro. Go for it.

All right, Bruno. Let me know your top three restaurants that Mr. Bruno likes. Starting with number three and finishing with number one.

And you got to tell us why you like it.

And why you like about it.

Um

number three.

Number three,

man. Being Peruvian the doc Dr.

Lemonito. We grew up we grew up going to Dr. Leon. What do I like at Dr. Leone?

Which one do you going to?

Uh the one here by FIU cuz it's close to my house.

Street one.

Um I've gone to the Miami Lakes one and I think that's it. Or maybe one other one. But I like the quality. What what what uh what dish do you like?

I always get the same the ceviche ceviche and maybe like a lom sal for my wife and we'll share. My wife likes the ai amaro it's called orah.

The most traditional dish of all time. Peruvian style. Number two.

Number two, brother.

Number two, again, another Peru place. They're probably all going to be Peru. Pisco Nazca.

Pisco Nazca.

It's uh And this place I like because it's two blocks from my office. It's a nice environment. I can take clients out there. They have the lunch special. They have the the summer. What is it? The

Is it the one here in the Gables?

No, no, no. The No Paska here in

They have one here in the Gables.

No, I think they have Kendall.

They have one in Kendo. They have one here in the G.

They used to. They used to.

Oh, they closed down. Oh, so you're in downtown Dorado. Downtown Dorado.

And the other one have is in Kendall.

Yeah.

At the at the Palms.

Yeah.

I like it.

I like it. Very good. Solid

weather's nice.

Solid.

All right, Bruno. And your number one spot that you like to go to?

The number one, I think, by far, man. This place is It just recently opened. Uh, See 105 here in Corable.

Dang.

Wow. He's been on the pod before,

which is like what, three blocks from here?

Yeah. Right there at the plaza.

Spectacular. Beautiful.

Okay. That that place has it all. The only thing it doesn't have is it's further from my from my office.

Yeah.

Which I I like to go out and eat usually for lunch. Uh but it's it's a little far. But quality is incredible.

The place is incredible. The environment is incredible.

Decorations are beautiful.

There's no there's no in

No, I don't think we got to open one of the

good thing is I used to have to drive to the beach to eat there.

Yeah. Lincoln Road.

They had one. They have one in downtown. That was like the original one, I believe.

Yeah.

Great spot. Great people, man. And and a A1 service. Yes. You know.

Yeah.

Oh no. Mr. Bruno, a real pleasure, brother. A pleasure, man.

Appreciate it. Now we got to be on your podcast later. Yeah. Thanks for having me on.

Thank you guys so much. Thank you, Bruno.