Hands-On Lending
by Carole VanSickle Ellis
When Ben Fertig founded Constructive Capital in 2017, he brought more than 25 years of mortgage banking experience and an additional 15 years of leadership perspective on the residential investor loan market to bear in his new role. This led him to become what he describes as an “extremely hands-on” leader in his company, making sure to regularly touch “all of the company sales, business development, client relationship management, and even operational facets of the business including credit, secondary marketing, finance, and asset management.”
“It is part of my DNA as a senior leader and executive,” Fertig explained. “I trust my team, and I have also found staying involved is the best and most effective approach to dealing with changing market conditions.”
Because Constructive Capital, often referred to familiarly simply as “Constructive,” is dedicated to serving the borrowing needs of real estate investors operating in the highly dynamic third-party origination space serving a vast array of real estate investors with challenging and variegated portfolios, being able to make informed decisions about lending in difficult market conditions is a notable advantage, Fertig explained.
Tess Siwa, Constructive’s chief operating officer (COO), agreed. “My day-to-day focus is really digging into the details of what our clients need and how those needs can be met,” Siwa said, adding, “That definitely requires me to be extremely involved and hands-on.” Siwa cited the company’s escalatory call system, which is designed to catch client loan applications that are at risk of “falling out” of the approval process due to remediable issues in the application. For example, loans on assets that are relatively new in the investment space or that may be for larger amounts than Constructive programs typically permit may still achieve approval if the borrower’s profile is exceptionally strong or the value of the property or its ability to generate cash flow is such that the risk balances out.
For many large-scale lenders, these types of loans are simply automatically denied for not fitting into the “box” the lender has designated as acceptable. However, Siwa said, Constructive may evaluate all the contributing factors and determine that a loan is, in fact, an acceptable risk. That is where the hands-on approach comes in.
“We always want to streamline the efficiency of the process and, if possible, reach a positive outcome through the ecosystem very quickly,” Fertig said. Both Fertig and Siwa dedicate large swaths of their time to short, 30-minute, evaluative calls with clients in order to help expedite decisions on loans and keep applications moving forward.
Speeding Toward Positive Outcomes and “On-Demand” Closings
That dedication to achieving positive and fast outcomes for borrowers is what Fertig says has created such a strong relationship between Constructive Capital and its clients. “Between one-sixth and one-quarter of the loan pipeline needs escalatory attention at some point, and those loans count for 90% of the client relationship,” Fertig said. Keeping high-level leadership involved in the process ultimately helps expedite everyone’s application process, he added, because the ongoing contribution of data about approvals and denials considered with input from leaders with decades of experience in the industry has created a reservoir of information to which other team members and even the company’s proprietary AI agent may refer.
“Our AI agent is prompted by years’ worth of escalatory call transcripts and has executive-level knowledge and input from Tess [Siwa] and I, personally, on a loan-level basis, that we are able to place at the point of sale,” Fertig said. “Nobody else has this. They may be able to give their language model access to information from the internet, but our cumulative experience gives us the ability to double down with AI on things we do really well, like the escalatory process and getting loans approved.”
“Our methodology includes years’ worth of calls with senior credit leaders and executives,” Siwa added. “[So much so that] now, the agent can leverage that data without human intervention in a lot of cases.”
Siwa noted the ability to include Constructive’s AI agent in the approval process has created massively accelerated response times for applications.
“You can submit a loan application at Constructive without even typing anything just by dragging and dropping required documents to submit the loan into our AI engine,” she said.
This enables borrowers to lock in loan rates immediately even before appraisals and third-party reports are submitted in some cases.
Once the application is cleared and approved to close, “You can close in minutes if you want,” Fertig said. He continued, “Once a borrower executes their documents, we are looking to fund loans in less than a minute.”
This high speed is possible due to another Constructive bot designed to review all signatures, determine whether there are any exceptions on the signatures, missing pages, or missing initials, and then move the application on to funding.
This speed plays a crucial role in helping investors retain momentum on deals. “If you have an on-demand closing with funding in 15 seconds, it is difficult to disrupt that process,” Fertig said proudly, adding, “Not to mention we can handle so much more loan volume, even on the last day of the calendar month.” Historically, lenders have struggled to keep up toward the end of the month, when loan applications tend to spiral upward. “It changes the game for us when we are reviewing these packages in 15 seconds instead of 15 or 20 minutes,” Fertig said.
A Product of Proactive Research & Development
Since its inception, Constructive Capital has dedicated valuable time and resources to developing the best technology and supportive infrastructure, including AI agents and associated bots, to serve clients and the employees working with them.
“We have developed bots and agents to support all elements of loan processing and even entity review,” Fertig said. The idea, he explained, is to combine the intense, hands-on practices at Constructive with the accelerative advantages provided by incorporating cutting-edge technology into lending protocols.
The latest evolution in this area is a “scheduling bot,” which monitors an application from the time a file is ready to close and reaches out proactively to secure a placeholder for closing,” Fertig explained. “The challenge at the end of the month is always finding a placeholder with title agents,” he said. “By doing this, we are getting [clients] to closing faster, and this complements our ability to conduct on-demand closings. We are sending out everything they need to prep the files on their side, and then all they have to do is put the closing on the calendar once the loan is secured.”
“No matter how many times you try to change the end-of-the-month rush, it never works,” Siwa said, recalling how the company tried paying premium commissions for loans that closed earlier in the month. “The industry tried to change people for 30 years, and so we finally just said, ‘Fine, we will figure it out,’ and now borrowers with qualified loans might be able to close in just seconds,” she concluded.
“These are exciting times because things that we never thought were possible are now possible, and they are coming at you so fast,” Fertig said. He continued, “You need to be able to grab it and take advantage, and our being embedded in the business enables us to see the immediate benefit of these new tools. That enables us to be the best lender possible.”
Siwa noted another advantage of the AI-agent infrastructure at Constructive revolves around the relative lack of “pain” associated with transitioning business to the company once a client decides to do so. “We use our technology to take things that used to take 20 minutes [per application] down to a minute or even a matter of seconds,” she said. “That saved time means everything for businesses trying to scale or even just operate more efficiently.
Making a Point of Keeping Their Promises
While some of Constructive’s processes seem, at first, too good to be true to many borrowers, Fertig said it is a point of both personal and corporate pride that the company always keeps its promises. This extends from doing the utmost to getting loans approved to following through on commitments even in the face of force majeure, a term in contract law that frees parties from legal duties when unexpected, uncontrollable, and extreme events stop a party from fulfilling on a promise.
When Constructive Capital first opened its doors in 2017, no one had any idea that less than three years later, the young lender would be facing an unprecedented stumbling block in the form of a global pandemic. The early years of the COVID pandemic were rife with examples of this, from massive online platforms backing out of contracts en masse to global lenders reluctantly notifying borrowers that loan approvals would be revoked until the markets settled down and regulations on the new home-buying and -selling processes were clarified.
Although Constructive, like all of its peers in the industry, did have loans that could not be funded, the young company worked hard to pay out on losses, spending more than half a million dollars to compensate brokers for loans that would have been made in “normal” circumstances and return earnest money to borrowers for purchases that did not close. Constructive even paid out on a broker contest the company had hosted in March 2020, making sure the hard work early in the month was not negated by national shutdowns just a few weeks later.
“At the time, we did not know if we would have a business when we were done with those payouts from the pandemic, but it eventually paid huge dividends when the market came back with a vengeance in 2021,” Fertig said. “We knew even if it meant we went out of business, we had to prioritize our relationships and the success of our clients. When things got started again, our clients remembered that.”
Growing as a Company, a Culture & a Team
As the industry continues to evolve, Both Fertig and Siwa say they expect more changes in lending technology and its ongoing consumer impact on the real estate market as a whole.
“As far as integration of artificial intelligence goes, the biggest impact we expect to see immediately is on the distribution side,” Fertig said.
He expects mortgage bankers, even scaled ones, to focus increasingly on practices that “reduce costs by tangible basis points… [so] you will see digitization and technology-inclined capital come in and try to partner with scaled mortgage banking operations.” Fertig warned, “That will be formidable competition, and the proof will be in the operations. You still have to adhere to diligent mortgage banking, create a better user experience, and focus on the ability to be broadly beneficial.”
Through it all, Constructive will remain true to its principles, Fertig said, noting that doing so has not led the company astray so far.
“The real estate market is challenging, and real estate investors need as many options available as possible when it comes to financing,” he said. Fertig concluded, “We believe our model is best for the end user, the real estate investor, because then we remove limitations on a borrower’s ability to acquire property and become successful.”
SIDEBAR 1
By the Numbers
660 // Constructive Capital can work with borrowers with FICO scores of 660 and higher on rental property loans. “In some cases, we will go lower,” observed Ben Fertig, founder and president of the company.
80 // The company offers up to 80% loan-to-value (LTVs) on DSCR loans
95 // Constructive offers up to 95% LTV on residential transitional loans
30 // Constructive loans may have terms as long as 30 years with fixed rates
75 // Constructive offers up to 75% LTVs on cash-out refinances for DSCR loans
30 // Constructive Capital offers a 30-day rate lock
20 // 85% of Constructive loans have a turn time of 20 days or less.
10 // 35% of Constructive loans have a turn time of 10 days or less.
5 // Constructive Capital Processing Manager Kathleen Slack was named one of five “Progress in Lending Next Gen Leaders” across the entire mortgage & services vertical (2025)
SIDEBAR 2
3 Loan Programs that Provide Solutions
Constructive Capital founder and president Ben Fertig has always placed a premium on the relationship building that goes into the lending process. That is why Constructive prioritizes a personal touch when it comes to helping clients get their loans approved.
“In a residential investor business, generally between 15 and 20% of loans in the pipeline will need some sort of escalatory attention,” Fertig observed. With these loans, the goal is to figure out if the loan should be made and, ideally, then move it toward approval in an efficient manner. Typically, loans requiring escalatory attention may need a closer look at pricing, operations, or credit. “Those loans count for 90% of the client relationship, so we focus a lot of our time there,” Fertig said. This enables clients to trust that Constructive’s team will do its utmost to make a loan work.
To that end, Constructive Capital offers three business-purpose loan products for investors:
DSCR Capital for DSCR Rental
This loan program works with borrowers to provide Debt Service Coverage Ratio (DSCR) loans that qualify properties based on rental income. DSCR rental options are available for investors on single-family rentals (SFRs), 2-4 unit multifamily properties, condos, and 5-8 unit properties. Qualified clients may not be required to provide verification of income or employment status, and loan terms may be as long as 30 years. The maximum loan amount in this program is $2 million.
RTL/Fix-and-Flip Capital
These loan products are designed to be flexible and dynamic in order to provide solutions for investors purchasing distressed properties in need of upgrades in both the single- and multi-unit asset classes. Residential Transition Loans (RTLs) are shorter-term in nature, and Constructive offers terms as long as 18 months and up to 95% total-loan-to-cost (TLTC) and 100% rehab financing for qualified borrowers. The maximum loan amount per project is $2 million, and the product also includes options for ground-up construction loans.
Lines of Credit
For investors involved in a variety of projects, Constructive offers lines of credit up to 90% on projects with after-repair values (ARVs) up to 70%. Projects may contain between one and four units, and this product has a maximum line of credit exposure of $5 million.
“We are embedded in the business, and that has been a huge advantage for us because we have been able to pivot very quickly in the event of market changes,” Fertig said. “We are always looking at our products to identify pain points for investors and make tweaks to help them adjust.”
Learn more about Constructive Capital at ConstructiveLoans.com.
