Mark Levin is an unruffled anomaly in a sea of sharks. The founder and principal of commercial lending and acquisition firm Hirshmark Capital, Levin operates with a philosophy that could have been lifted from a Big Lebowski script.
âYou canât live your life getting upset at every single thing thatâs happened,â he said.
âI donât take anything seriously. I donât get offended. I donât take anything to heart. Constantly, every single day, problems arise. People lie and do bad things. If youâre going to take that seriously, youâll be upset half the time.â
Levinâs achievements continue to pile up in spite of, or perhaps due to, his laid-back ways.
He started in real estate in 2000, with a few small properties that he bought and renovated. When the financial crisis arrived in 2008, he changed his strategy, buying loans from banks.
âAs it went on, we saw the opportunity to continue that business by lending because there were fewer opportunities to buy loans from banks. There were so many of these transactions happening, and banks were starting to tighten up a little bit in terms of their criteria for lending,â Levin said.
Before establishing Hirshmark, Levin had already closed over 100 deals for commercial properties around New York City.
Hirshmark, on the other hand, is responsible for $300 million in transactions since 2010, which has boosted its visibility as a player in the commercial space. It also has ownership interest in 30 properties around New York City. Levin attributed this growth to sticking with a target market.
âWeâre trying to build a presence as one of the go-to people if youâre looking for a loan on a property, if youâre looking for short-term bridge financing. We want to be the go-to person in that range of basically $1 million to $15 million,â he said.
âWeâre very familiar with owning and lending on those kinds of assets. Itâs also why we stay within the New York metro area. I would say that 80 percent of our business is in Brooklyn. Weâre also bunched up in those areas that are gentrifying: Crown Heights, Prospect Heights, Williamsburg, Bushwick. A lot of our deals tend to be there because that market is very liquid and we understand it very well.â
According to Levin, Hirshmarkâs competitive advantage lies in efficiency. Deals are decided in the time it takes to watch a short movie.
âWhat we try to bring to the market is that weâre very efficient and quick. So if somebody brings us a deal, we donât even do appraisals or anything of that sort. We already feel comfortable lending on the property. Literally, within an hour, we already have a âyesâ or ânoâ on something that weâre trying to give a loan on,â he said.
âWhereas, some of our competitors, they need to do appraisals and all this red tape with applications just getting to know the property ten different ways. Somebody brings us a deal, we know that area so well that we could say yes or no very quickly. Speed and understanding of the local market is what differentiates us from our competitors.â
This pitch has become more attractive as Hirshmarkâs biggest competitors grow skittish because of risk.
âI think that banks are getting really picky, especially when it comes to construction loans,â he said.
âPeople a few months ago were like, âYou know what, I donât want to borrow from you at nine percent because I can get it at five percent from a bank.â Then they come back to us a few months later and they say, âYou know what, those banks dropped off, they donât want to do the deal anymore.â Iâm noticing that banks are getting a little bit skittish, especially when it comes to construction. So those borrowers have to rely more on us,â Levin said.
Hirshmark has been sticking to its formula with its recent deals.
Last August, the company provided a $3.2 million bridge loan for a retail/ mixed-use portfolio in Flatbush and Bedford-Stuyvesant. The company also bought 552 Central Avenue, a three-story building in Bushwick, for $1.4 million.
According to Levin, this strategy wonât change anytime soon. âWe just feel like we understand it really well. We understand the assets and thatâs what weâre going to be comfortable doing. If itâs tangible to us, thatâs what weâre going to do.â
Laid back Levin takes the loan business in stride : Real Estate Weekly