Pooled Mortgage Funds vs Direct Mortgage Funds
Pooled Mortgage Funds or Trusts
A Pooled Mortgage investment is where multiple investors all contribute funds to a Trust and the decision on which loans to fund rests with the Mortgage Manager. This is a great example of a passive investment as the Mortgage Manager looks after all aspects of conducting due diligence and managing the loan while the investor just invests their money and then collects distributions on a monthly, quarterly or yearly basis. It is incredibly important that you select a skilled and experienced Mortgage Manager who will make smart investment decisions.
The main benefit to investing in a pooled trust is increased diversification. Pooled schemes spread risk and offer investors a larger diversified pool of borrowers, locations and security properties that is not available with Direct Mortgages.
At Active Property Group, our Pooled Mortgage Fund is open to all investors and the minimum investment amount is $10,000 (Retail investors) or $25,000 (Sophisticated/Wholesale investors).
Direct Mortgage or Contributory Funds
A Direct Mortgage or Direct Investment is where a loan is provided by a single lender to a single borrower. The Mortgage Manager finds the borrower and matches them with an investor who has an appetite for the kind of investment on offer. This way the investor gets to decide exactly what kind of security, LVR, return and loan term they are happy to offer their money for. This type of matching service has been around forever, but has recently been popularised with a new buzz word called ‘peer-to-peer’ lending.
Another version of a Direct Mortgage is when a small number of investors’ funds are used to finance a loan. For example, let’s say a borrower needs to borrow $500,000 for six months to establish a new café in a bustling part of town. The Mortgage Manager may use $300,000 from Investor A and $200,000 from Investor B to fund the loan opportunity, this is sometimes referred to as syndicating. Then once the borrower repays the loan the funds are returned to the investor as well as their share of the interest rate paid by the borrower.
The key thing to understand with Direct Mortgages is that the investor/s makes the final decision to lend the money not the Mortgage Manager. Investors will need to peruse the due diligence prepared by the Mortgage Manager before making an informed decision about the loan opportunity.
At Active Property Group, our Direct Mortgage Fund is open to Wholesale or Sophisticated investors and the minimum investment amount is $250,000, however we do have the discretion to lower this to $100,000 for first time investors or in order to make up the funds for a loan.