Avamore Capital completes first Instagram loan

By Bridging Loan Directory 10th August 2017

Avamore Capital has announced the completion of its first deal originated directly via Instagram.

Field Housing’s Principal, Marwan Field, is a former investment banker and is also the founder of Byoot Capital, which is an FCA authorised crowdfunding platform. Additionally, Mr Field has featured several times on BBC’s “Homes Under the Hammer”. Mr Field contacted Avamore’s Co-Founder Michael Dean by way of a direct message on Instagram to obtain an indicative quote after the pair had followed each other’s Instagram accounts for a few months and within a few days terms were agreed for Avamore to refinance Mr Field’s property in Guildford.

Mr Dean commented:

“I’m not a marketing expert but I find the space fascinating. Having listened to Gary Vaynerchuk’s podcasts & Youtube videos, I personally have spent a lot of effort on social media outreach over the past year and now we are starting to see the impact. We have previously used Linkedin to good effect but it is even more exciting to have successfully used Instagram to originate deal flow. Real Estate and Instagram are such natural bedfellows – I can’t think of another social media platform that has as much potential, maybe with the exception of Facebook, but with InstaStories I think Instagram is a game changer”.

“We’re constantly experimenting with social media platforms to see how effectively they can drive our business although I can confirm that most Snapchatters are not quite old enough for development loans! I would encourage brokers to embrace social media even further than they already are as it represents an outstanding opportunity to drive leads, hopefully some of which will come to Avamore where suitable. Customers will still need good advice even if it has never been easier to talk directly to the lender, hopefully brokers will see the opportunity here.”

The loan to Field Housing Ltd was provided against a two-bedroom property in Guildford, Surrey. The borrower intends to develop the property in conjunction with a neighbouring site to deliver 3x four bedroom town houses with a GDV well in excess of £2m. Avamore has already offered the development finance. The initial advance is relatively modest but the full development facility should exceed £1.3m once fully drawn.

Despite some complications, which slightly delayed drawdown, Avamore and the customer worked through these to deliver a positive outcome for all parties. The funds that have been released from the unencumbered property will go towards the conversion of a public house in South Wales into a residential development scheme. Once the South Wales development is completed in circa 6 months, the customer will then refocus his attention to the development of the 3-unit scheme.

Nikolay Petkov, Co-Founder of Avamore Capital stated:

“We are delighted to have started our journey with the customer, Marwan. He’s a great character and very professional. In time we are also excited to explore JVing with Byoot Capital to provide customers with an integrated debt and equity product, as we have done with other crowdfunding platforms.”

Avamore was represented by David Powell of TWM Solicitors

Field Housing was represented by Ajay Pau of Gandecha & Pau