Hustle And Hard Money

Fernando Corona at a recent Originator Connect Conference in Las Vegas, speaking with NMP staff writer Katie Jensen.

Corona admits that, at 26 years old, he was “in a good position,” but ultimately felt unfulfilled.  

“I didn't like that my job limited my earning potential,” he explained. “I thought that if I transitioned to a sales job, I might just end up in the same situation.”

Corona hit a crossroads when he was told he was being considered to lead a new division of the company. With the expectation he’d grow the division to $20 million in five years, Corona requested a bonus structure — but was denied. “I didn’t like that,” he stated emphatically. So he quit.

“I basically made a pact with myself … ‘Do you think you could figure out a way to make more money than you could here?’”

Corona threw himself at the challenge, which led him down a five year path involving multiple failed startups and $400,000 of debt that’s still being repaid. 

“I had a good belief in myself,” Corona said. “But maybe it was a little — what's the word? Naive?”

Fast-forward to today and we find Corona leading a 12-person team at his company, Remote Lender. Now a mortgage broker specializing in DSCR and hard money loans, Corona has generated nearly half a million dollars in revenue and netted almost a quarter of a million in profit — all within six months of operation. One can’t help but wonder, how did he get so far, so fast? The answer, as it so often is with success stories: failure, resilience, and perseverance.

Trial and Error

To sip cocktails on a beach in Mexico and simultaneously run a multimillion-dollar business, Corona knew he’d have to either automate or delegate all the labor involved. Fortunately, he developed this skill when he founded his first company, Remote Helper, in 2019. The international outsourcing business connected small U.S. business owners with affordable labor from countries such as Venezuela, Nicaragua, Kenya, the Philippines, and India. 

“From the Philippines, you can probably get an administrative assistant for $3 an hour,” he explained.

Hard-won wisdom was all Corona gained from his first venture, though. Within six months, the business generated just $300 in revenue, depleted his savings and caused him to rack up $20,000 in credit card debt. “Any confidence I had was shattered,” Corona recalled. “That was my first true taste of failure.”

Undeterred, Corona decided to develop multiple income streams to safeguard his investments. As a marketing consultant for AFC Consulting, Corona would advise companies on lead generation strategy using LinkedIn. Smiling, he recalled how he’d take Zoom meetings with “CEOs of financial advisory firms that had billions of assets under management” not from a corner office, but from his childhood bedroom.

On top of that, he launched a dropshipping business and entirely outsourced the labor to generate passive income. Drawing from his experience recruiting international workers, he trained virtual assistants in the Philippines to manage the operations. He also began recruiting for hedge funds and investing in cryptocurrency. By 2021, Corona had purchased two rental properties that also produced steady cash flow. 

“I achieved a passive income of $10,000 per month without doing a ton of work,” he said. “I was sitting on top of the world, thinking I'm the coolest kid on the block. Then, in 2022, four of the five income streams — everything but real estate — collapsed.”

Corona found himself faced with a series of setbacks: the hedge fund went under, causing him to lose about $400,000 of his and investors’ money that he’s still paying back today. His cryptocurrency investment crashed; Amazon and Walmart shut down his dropshipping stores; and LinkedIn cracked down on his lead generation strategy, forcing him to leave his marketing consulting job. 

“The majority of the income I had created in those two and a half years just washed away,” Corona lamented. “I think it stemmed [from] trying to take shortcuts … and so I didn't really think about sustainability. I just thought [about] how do I make this $10,000 as quickly as possible?”

The only enduring investments Corona had made, thus far, were his two rental properties. With them — and his other greatest asset, his unwavering faith in himself — Corona began to forge a new path forward. 

The Investor-Savvy Broker

Although his father, Gustavo Corona, had been a mortgage broker for over 30 years, Corona’s decision to pursue a career in the mortgage industry was gradual and done on his own terms. 

While Gustavo never pressured his son to follow in his footsteps, he couldn’t help but share advice once he entered the industry. “When we talk shop, I always mention to him that we are here to provide a service and find solutions for those in need,” Gustavo said. “If we provide service with integrity and honesty, business will come to us.”

Since Corona had experience working with different types of investors, as well as being a real estate investor himself, a private lending niche made sense. Plus, he discovered a nifty fact about DSCR loans that made it a lot easier to get his start as a newbie: In 35 states, originators can broker DSCR and hard money loans without needing an NMLS license. “You can broker DSCR loans and hard money loans with an LLC as long as you have an LLC and ask the lender if they have a business purpose channel for brokering loans without an NMLS license,” Corona explained.

Investors with an LLC can borrow money on behalf of their LLC but only for investment properties. Lenders such as Carrington Mortgage, Deephaven, Loanstream, and Velocity offer Business Purpose loans on their websites that don't require originators to be licensed in certain states.

In a lackluster housing market, many might think new originators should try every type of loan, especially conventional loans. However, Corona chose to focus on mastering a few loan products to gain a competitive edge. “Most of the people I networked with didn’t really know about DSCR or hard money loans,” he said. “But I was an investor myself before becoming a loan officer.”

As a brand new originator, Corona admits it can be tempting to do a few conventional loans on the side or try out new products, but he has larger goals to focus on.

“We're talking about millions — we’re not talking about tens of thousands. If I wanted to do conventional loans and [make] tens of thousands, we could do that today,” Corona said. “But that's not gonna get me to where the end goal or vision is, which is in the multimillions.”

While Corona employs a different strategy than his father, who offers a variety of loans, Gustavo believes in his son's potential. “His vision has always been to make the investor’s experience seamless and less stressful,” he said. “Despite all his successes and failures, I can proudly say he’s on the right track.”

In June 2023, just two months after finally receiving his federal NMLS license, Corona closed his first DSCR loan. Emboldened by that success, he launched Remote Lender in early 2024 and hired a few employees; production initially started with three to four loans but quickly accelerated. Within three months, Corona closed 60 loans, including 28 in one month. Remarkably, about 90% of the loans he’s closed are DSCR.

Although Corona felt confident stepping into the mortgage business, he admitted, “I did not think we would be where we are today in such a short period.”

Not So Naive After All

In hindsight, Corona recognizes that each of his failed business ventures contributed to his current success. His experience in lead generation as a marketing consultant gave him a solid foundation for generating business in the mortgage sector, inspiring his “one-to-many” principle.

Rather than trying to build trust with multiple prospective clients, he focuses on key figures in the investor community who already have established networks. “I was methodical about identifying who has an audience I can connect with,” he said. “If I know you’re an investor and you learn from a guy above you, [then] that guy is probably speaking to a couple hundred other people just like you. Instead of just building my relationship with you, I’ll explore your network.”

Corona also shared his appreciation for the repeat business in the investor market, which makes it possible to close 60 loans in three months with fewer leads and legwork. 

“What I like about DSCR loans is that I didn’t close loans for 60 different people. We had one borrower do nine loans with me, and another do four. Many are doing two purchases and two refinances. They use money from their refinances to fund additional purchases, which is the best part. I don’t need 20 clients to provide me with loans each month.”

Even his first company, where he hired remote employees for U.S.-based firms, proved vital. It gave him the confidence to recruit his offshore team. “There's no way I could afford U.S.-based labor as a small business owner,” he said.

The first person he hired for Remote Lender was Marie Brion, his senior processor from the Philippines. “I’ve never seen a mortgage company grow so quickly,” she noted. “Just two months after licensing, we hit our goal of closing three to four loans per month, then we ramped up to five or six, and eventually to 20 loans per month.”

Brion initially had more experience in the mortgage industry than Corona, having worked as a processor for U.S.-based companies before finding Remote Lender on a popular job search site, onlinejobs.com. “I closed 10 loans with her in a month within my first five months as a loan officer,” Corona said. With Brion’s help, Remote Lender generated nearly half a million in total revenue and almost a quarter of a million in profit in just eight months of operation.

Though Corona still has a way to go to achieve his dream of owning a multimillion-dollar business, the idea now feels far less naive than it did when he walked away from Omega Engineering. The goal is a lot closer now, and his resilience and perseverance in the face of failure is the how and the why. Call him a dreamer, a visionary, or a gambler, you can’t argue with results — Corona’s bet in himself is paying off.