Eric Scharaga
Founder, Damen Capital Fund
Private lender and direct land note buyer serving land investors nationwide. Featured on REtipster, Legends of Land, and Land Investing Online. LinkedIn →
The questions investors ask before they fund a first loan with us, answered plainly. Minimums, payments, documents, taxes, defaults, and how you get out.
We work with co-lenders who have $1,000,000 or more in liquid capital, are not running a competing lending business, and want to review and decide on each loan themselves. Individual positions are sized to the loan. A typical land loan runs $30,000 to $1,000,000, and a co-lender funds a portion of it alongside our own capital.
No. Co-lending means you are a named lender on the recorded deed of trust or mortgage, funding a specific loan with your own decision on that loan. There is no pooled vehicle, no units, and no manager holding your money. If you want a passive pooled investment, this is not it. Our explainers on co-lending, loan participations, and fractional notes cover the differences.
Yes, both are common. The IRA custodian or the trustee is the named lender on the loan documents and the payments go to that account. Your custodian will have its own paperwork and timing, so tell us early and we build the closing around it.
Our borrowers close in about 7 days from approval, so a co-lender's capital needs to be ready to wire inside that window. That is why liquid capital is a requirement and not a preference.
Borrowers pay interest only, monthly, by ACH to our in house servicing. We remit your share by ACH to the account you designate each month. No invoicing, no chasing the borrower, no spreadsheet on your end.
A promissory note and a recorded first lien deed of trust or mortgage with each lender named, plus a co-lending agreement that spells out shares, servicing, and what happens on default. Our closings run through a title company or closing attorney with a lender's title policy on every loan. We can walk through a full document set on a call.
Nothing out of pocket. The borrower pays the closing fee, servicing fee, and exit fee on every loan. Co-lenders receive their agreed interest on their funded portion; we are compensated through our own funded portion and the borrower paid fees.
First lien position on vacant land at 65% loan to value or less, a borrower with 20% or more of their own cash in the property, and our own capital in the same lien on every loan. We run our own valuation on every property; no borrower supplied appraisals. The same standards are published on our loan program page.
We foreclose on the first lien and handle the process. Most defaulted land loans resolve at the foreclosure sale because the loan was 65% of value on day one. When no bidder shows, we take title and sell the land outright, wholesale it to our investor network, or sell it with seller financing and create a note, which is our core business. Our state foreclosure timeline table shows how long that takes in each state.
Defaults are rare and we will talk about every one of them. We do not publish performance data on a public page, but we share loan count, dollar volume, default history, and resolved outcomes directly with qualified co-lenders before a first deal. Ask and we send it.
Every state except California, Arizona, Nevada, New York, New Jersey, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Vermont.
Loans are written for 2 years with a 5 month minimum interest, and most pay off early when the borrower resells or refinances. Plan on the full term and treat an early payoff as the upside.
There is no secondary market for a co-lending position, so the honest answer is not easily. In some cases we or another co-lender may be able to buy out a position, but there is no promise of that. Do not co-lend with money you may need inside two years.
Any deal, any reason, no explanation needed. You see the property, our valuation, the borrower's plan, and the terms on every loan before you decide. Passing on one deal does not affect whether you see the next.
Everything a co-lender needs to judge us is already public. The loan program shows the rates, fees, and LTV we hold borrowers to. The buying criteria and the glossary show how we think about land as collateral. The case studies are real loans with real numbers. And the co-lending page lays out the structure and the three requirements.
If those line up with what you are looking for, the next step is a call, not a wire. eric@damencapital.com or 302-526-0200.
Email eric@damencapital.com or call 302-526-0200. We walk through recent deals, the documents, and how a first arrangement works. No commitment until you fund a specific loan you chose.
Yes. Every deal comes with the property, our valuation work, the borrower's plan, and the terms, and we will send a sample document set before your first loan. You fund nothing until you have read what you are signing.
The co-lending page covers the three requirements, how deals are presented, servicing, and what happens on default.
Written answer within one business day. No fees, no obligation.
Private lender and direct land note buyer serving land investors nationwide. Featured on REtipster, Legends of Land, and Land Investing Online. LinkedIn →