Father And Son Lending Teams Work Together To Provide Decades Of Experience

By ERIN FLYNN JAY

This Father’s Day, father and son lending teams across the country will be celebrating their family bonds, success, and ability to work together as teams.

At Rock East Funding, Michael Haberman works alongside his father Alan, as well as his brothers, Howard and Richard.

“Because we are a family business, we treat all of our clients like family,” said Haberman. “We believe a good deal is one where everybody wins and makes money, not when only the lender makes money. If a deal doesn’t look like it’s good for the client, we won’t do it — and we’ll try to help them either find a solution or get out of the deal.”

Haberman said his father is one of the most experienced people in the business.

“Some call him the ‘Godfather of Hard Money,’” said Haberman. “Every day we get advice and guidance from our Dad on how to structure loans and how to protect everyone involved. Most importantly, he always reminds us to lend with transparency and integrity.”

Haberman said there are still many actors in the industry who don’t lend with the transparency and integrity that is central to their business.

“They also can’t lean on the decades of experience we have in the industry,” he said. “And the large lenders can’t be nimble the way we can to meet our clients’ needs. It’s all these reasons that 95% of our clients are repeat clients.”

Haberman acknowledged there are disagreements and at times tension in their working relationship. “But we are committed to keeping those in the business and not letting them seep into our personal family relationships,” said Haberman.

“Not always easy, but we do it. On the flip side, it forces us to speak with each other virtually every day so, all in all, we are closer than most — and we all know a lot about each other’s families because we are together all the time.”

David Chera, senior vice president at Express Capital Financing, has been working with his father Martin, and brother Max, since 2016.

“We each bring interesting points to the table,” said Chera in a phone interview. “We have different approaches.”

Chera said he has more of a “new school” way of thinking but the three get along well and are each always coming up with new ideas.

Working with family is rewarding, Chera said. He has learned much from his father, who has been in the business longer and has more experience with negotiating, for example.

There are ups and downs, Chera admits, but says there are more ups.

“We work with each other,” he said. “We create space when needed. We don’t bring up business all the time.”

Chera hopes to keep the business in the family, as he has a young son.

Both Rock East Funding and Express Capital Financing are located in the Greater New York City area.