Cortney Newmans With Asteris Lending

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studio in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio. Brought to you by Kennesaw State University’s Executive MBA program, the accelerated degree program for working professionals looking to advance their career and enhance their leadership skills. And now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, CSU’s executive MBA program. Without them, we wouldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have Cortney Newmans, who is with Asteris Lending. Welcome.

Cortney Newmans: Thank you. Thank you. I really appreciate it. Thank you for having me today.

Lee Kantor: Well, before we get too far into things, tell us about austerity lending. Who do you serve? And what are you guys doing over there?

Cortney Newmans: Yeah. Uh, stairs was founded in July of 2024. I was formerly working in the space. So we look to fund real estate investors, builders and developers throughout the country. And our goal and initiatives provide capital that has ease of use and has the best customer service to that product base, to a business purpose. Uh, originators, as far as looking for liquidity within the market to serve housing needs throughout the US. And for my company. We was founded here in Atlanta, Georgia. We launched in May of this year, and we’re serving those that client base. And we also have a satellite office in Greenville, South Carolina as well.

Lee Kantor: So what’s your backstory? How’d you get involved in this line of work?

Cortney Newmans: That was a great story. So in 2012, I formerly worked for a company called Lehman Capital, which was also founded, uh, here in Atlanta and was later, uh, Headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina. I was a third employee with that company, and we spent a good while serving the same community of real estate investors and builders throughout the United States. In that capacity, I led our sales channel over there at level one. Help grow it. For me, being a third employee to about 300 employees in 2021, we were acquired by a mortgage REIT called MFA, and I love working with them. They’re a great partner. And in 2024, I got the entrepreneurial bug. So I actually left the company in 2024 and went out to raise money to do multifamily. And then I got the bug for lending again. Again. And so with me getting the bug for lending again, I hired my investment bank of Nomura out of New York, and we went on the road show to raise capital. And in December of 2024, we settled on a partner who was a global asset management firm who backs us, who has over multi billions of dollars of money behind them to actually put into this space and actually make it successful for us to be a successful company.

Lee Kantor: So then, is your role just looking for opportunity? People who need money that want to do work in real estate?

Cortney Newmans: Yeah. So I wouldn’t say it as broad as that because we’re looking at real estate has so many facets. When we narrow it down, the community we serve is people who are building housing. And the 1 to 4 units. So they’re looking to build neighborhoods throughout metro Atlanta or across the southeast, across the United States. So that’s who we’re serving. And we’re also serving that mom and pop investor who is looking to grow their running portfolio, where they’re buying one rental house or ten rental houses and growing their portfolio over time. That’s our target audience and that’s what we’re looking to serve.

Lee Kantor: So the people who are kind of flipping houses.

Cortney Newmans: Yep. We serve those people as well. As far as people that are flipping houses, developing their land to build houses as well.

Lee Kantor: So how do you even go about finding people like that? Aren’t they kind of entrepreneurial? They seem difficult to locate.

Cortney Newmans: That is that is very true. So we have a lot of, uh, data sets and, uh, a lot of things that we use behind the scenes to be able to crawl the internet, crawl the public records looking for these clients, but also with my extensive background and being in this space for the last 14 years. Uh, relationships. Relationships are key. Once you serve one investor, they probably know 5 or 6. So relationships is what’s driven our business to be successful and going to different conferences where we’re learning about what’s going on in the industry. Learning where housing inventory starts or at learning. What about the rising costs, learning about population growth and what areas are people serving? So we we do a combination of direct marketing to these real estate investors, but also tapping into our internal network, which helps us be able to grant gain business that way.

Lee Kantor: So, um, you know, we hear all these kind of horror stories about the real estate market right now with interest rates being so high. Has this impacted your business as well?

Cortney Newmans: Yes, it definitely impacts our business. And I think from an underwriting perspective, we have to be very careful when we’re looking at a deal. We have to make sure first the operator can financially support that deal and they know what they’re doing, but also understanding that market and say, hey, if this house is going to sell for what you think it’s going to sell for and or, or is it going to rent for what you’re going to rent for? And also giving them the financial capability where we’re not overextending them, but we know we can lend them money to be able to get through their business plan, but also be successful in the end when it comes to it. So I think it’s a two pronged approach of communication from their operator, who’s looking at the opportunity, and us from a lender mitigating that risk and looking at the opportunity to serve them.

Lee Kantor: Now in the markets around the country. How is it lanta in the metro Atlanta area doing? Is this a good market to be in relative to other markets around the US?

Cortney Newmans: I would say it’s medium to roll right now. Our home prices are definitely have top sided there, but also we still have a lot of population growth when I’m looking at different markets around the country. Um, I can give you some of the top markets. Uh, you’re looking at Austin that still has a lot of growth there. You’re looking at Houston, you’re looking at Charleston, South Carolina. And then also Midwest with their job growth with Saint Louis and then, uh, Cincinnati, Ohio and Cleveland, Ohio, because that people can’t afford ability for that market. When I first came into the business, I remember we could buy a house in Atlanta for 70 to $100,000. And now the median home price is in the high 400 years. So that just tells you the affordability factor that’s that’s happening there, which causes that, uh, strain on inventory for people to actually be able to do this business.

Lee Kantor: Is it because there’s just not enough new inventory that everybody is just buying and selling the same old house?

Cortney Newmans: I don’t know where we actually see. I think we’re in a buyer’s market right now. So I think people are locked in on their rates, and they just don’t have the opportunity to afford that step or product in what they’re looking for. So if you’re locked in at a 2 to 2 and a half to 3.5% rate, and you’re telling me to go out and find another property where I have to increase my monthly payment on a PMI schedule, $2,000? A lot of people are not going to be able to afford it. So I think we’re gridlocked when it comes to the interest rates and how they are right now. So if we get some relief there, I think we’ll see some movement in the market. But it’s definitely a buyer’s market in which we’re seeing right now.

Lee Kantor: Now, are you seeing any kind of, um, appetite for those kind of smaller mini homes or I think they call them tiny homes where they’re building neighborhoods with, you know, super small, but almost, um, kind of pre-built homes.

Cortney Newmans: Yes. We’ve seen an appetite for that now. And they’re usually I think you have it segmented in two ways. You’re looking at it from a tiny home perspective, but also from a micro unit perspective. I think what people are looking at from that side, where is affordability, is what can I get out of this product? And I think it is going to vary from neighborhood to neighborhood. From county to county. Or what they will allow. When it comes to that type of neighborhood. But also, what is your demand for the client based based upon the area that end when it comes to see? I do see it as a trend that is growing lately, because it’s serving the need of affordable housing. Because you have less materials you have to do, it’s less labor time, and then you also shorten the time frame when you have to build it. But also with our municipalities, a lot of people have to get on board to be able to allow people to build those type communities to serve the affordability need.

Lee Kantor: So the municipalities might be not as open to it as maybe a builder might be or a developer.

Cortney Newmans: That is correct, because we have a lot of zoning and land use regulations when you go from municipality to municipality. So depending on what your county is going to allow, getting something like that approved can take anywhere up to a year to two years. And just selling that vision to your center council and also to the neighborhood, because they weigh in on what’s getting built into their into their community. So if this is something that they want, they don’t want, then you’re going to have a hard time getting that that zoning for that land pass for that.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, I it’s kind of it’s a tricky situation because I think the thing that I always confuses me about affordable housing, like affordable housing, is it affordable just because rent’s cheap. But if it’s affordable, because rent’s cheap, then they never build any wealth or equity in the property because they’re just renting it. But these tiny houses let them own it, and then they’re going to have a sellable asset that hopefully will appreciate.

Cortney Newmans: Yeah. And that is key there. And I think it’s a balancing it’s a balancing act because people don’t want uh, the, the things in their neighborhood to come down. But I also I think what we have to look at and what we have to have from government use is how can I make this easy to use for people to build houses? Because it takes a lot of time. It takes anywhere for someone to develop. It can take them anywhere from 12 to 24 months just to get the land use permitted. Then you have another 12 to 18 months to just build on that property. So if you’re looking at a particular project where you’re taking it from dirt all the way through construction, that could be a 3 to 5 year timeframe. And so I think if we can work together with these municipalities and different government associations that come down in that timeframe of getting stuff approved on the front end, I think it’ll help us solve the shortage of housing that we need and get more supply out there on the market so it can drive down the prices and get back to a stable, I would say, somewhat stable market that we saw in 2018, 2019.

Lee Kantor: Right. Because if you’re asking a developer to, you know, put money aside and pay interest, you know, at what, 6% ish? Um, that’s a big ask.

Cortney Newmans: And I wish it was at 6%. You’re seeing people when you’re doing developments. That’s that’s double digit interest that you’re paying on that type of money to do developments. And so you’re asking someone to take that risk for, for, for a four year timeline. And so that’s why you just don’t see as much out there as we have the same rising interest rates where you’re in the 7%, where people are buying these houses, you just don’t have the demand for housing. So if you don’t see the demand on the back end, you can’t take that risk on the front end as a developer.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. So you got your work cut out for you?

Cortney Newmans: Yeah, I.

Lee Kantor: Do.

Cortney Newmans: Have our work cut out for us, but because the fundamentals are there and we do see that you’re going to need homes in the future, we do feel like we can be successful. So we want to ride that that wave on the market up. So when we do get an opportunity or break in the market, whether man does go goes up, we want to be able to serve those developers and how our home builders as well.

Lee Kantor: So you’re based here in the Atlanta area, but you’re doing work all over the country.

Cortney Newmans: That is correct. That is correct. Well, we’ll we’ll business purpose lender. So we we we serve real estate investors that have entrepreneur mindset where they’re building houses. We have clients that that build not only here in Georgia but beyond in Alabama and South Carolina. So they’re a regional builder, or you have someone that is doing a build to rent community that could be in Dallas, Texas, or also can be in Houston, Texas. So they’re just honed in on the state of Texas. So we have clients that have different, different strategies, and we’re just trying to match our financing up to meet those needs for them.

Lee Kantor: Right. So you have to build kind of connections and then network and all the markets you serve.

Cortney Newmans: That is correct. That is correct. And we have we’re hiring on good sales staff to be able to do that. I wish I could do it myself, but I’m only I’m not a one man man. And then our operational and underwriting, uh, we have an office in Greenville, South Carolina that serves there. And then our sales here and processing comes in in the Atlanta office.

Lee Kantor: So now that this is kind of your own show, now, is this the is this how you imagine it? Is this the vision you have for the organization?

Cortney Newmans: I think the vision has to get played out. We’re not emphasized right now, but what we are putting in place and what the operational standpoint to serve our clients we’re putting in place is, is what we envision for sure, for us to start. But I think we really have to put in the work and prove ourselves as a lender, which we’re definitely going to do. I have a competitive background, played football in high school and college, so I want to make sure we’re serving that side of the business to please them, but also please our institutional partners as well on the financing side.

Lee Kantor: So what’s the hardest part is, is it getting kind of that the backing, the financial backing so that you can make the loans? Or is it going out there and finding people that want to borrow the money they need to, you know, kind of make their dream come true?

Cortney Newmans: I would say that it’s going to be the latter. Um, I’m not going to say we didn’t go through a process of finding the backing to do it, but I’ve been in the industry for a while, and I knew what we needed to do, and we needed to know how to mitigate the risks on our side. So telling the story and convincing some institutional firms to come on. Has it was a challenge because of the rising interest rate market that we’re in? But we did get there. But I think the business has to be done. We have to be able to prove out our model that we can serve this client base. And so building those relationships with clients and, and show them that we can serve them and give them the money that’s needed to be able to get these loans done and do it in a proficient manner. That is the business model that we really got to operate and prove out. And I think that’s what we’re going to do over the next 3 to 5 years for sure.

Lee Kantor: So what do you need more of right now? Do you need more talent? You need to build your team. Do you need more clients? What do you need?

Cortney Newmans: A talented team that is the that are the two teams that are going to make a success. It’s going to be talent and team. So we’re we’re we’re hiring experienced originators throughout the country. And I think we’re getting some game traction. The game we’re there from hiring those originators. And then once those originators come in with their book of business, it’s just selling the story and then nurturing that client base to be able to get them into our process and building it over time. For us, we don’t want to be a company that’s looking for the next person that we have to serve on a monthly basis. We want to work with our clients. One year, two year, three years from now and have 90% of our client base be repeat business. So once they get into our ecosystem, we serve them and they don’t want to go anywhere else.

Lee Kantor: So what is kind of that ideal originator look like for you, or is it somebody that’s already established, or can it be a hungry person that’s just starting out?

Cortney Newmans: I think it could be, uh, be, uh, be in both sides. I, I came into the industry and I had no clue what real estate was or how to underwrite it, but I knew that I had a love for real estate. And I and my mentors back then, John Warner, John Thompson, who were former Marines, taught me the business. And then I was able to go out there and originate that type of business. So we we really would love to hire experienced originators who are looking to grow their book of business. And they have been in the RTL space, which is the residential, uh, transit transit loan space, for a while. But also, we’re not afraid to hire someone that has been in real estate that has some type of experience, but not necessarily in our direct space.

Lee Kantor: Well, congratulations on all the momentum. If somebody wants to learn more or connect with you or somebody on the team, what is the best way to do that?

Cortney Newmans: The best way to do is go to our website. Uh it is. Com and a lot of times, especially on the iPhone, it’s going to give you a, uh, a spell that does not go to what you’re looking for. So how you spell the stairs is a t e r I s once again, a s t e I s landing. Com. So that’s the best way to reach out to us. We have a contact us form there, and once you be able to reach out, we’ll have someone reach out to you within 24 hours for sure.

Lee Kantor: Good stuff man. Well congratulations again and thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Cortney Newmans: Man. No, I appreciate you for having me on. And I listen to you guys all the time, especially being here in Georgia and as much traffic as I have on the interstate. So I really appreciate the time and and being able to come on today.

Lee Kantor: Alright, this is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.