SellerFi was conceived by Robert Strain to solve a problem that typically affects foreign buyers who cannot qualify to get bank financing for the purchase of a property outside their country of residence. Given the recent turmoil in the housing markets around the globe and with interest rates fluctuating and compressing credit markets, SellerFi provides an alternative means for financing the purchase of real estate.
Thailand as well as other Asian countries has always been a challenging property market for investors given restrictions on land ownership, regulations surrounding company ownerships and the lack of financing available for foreigners willing to invest. Over the years, investors have found creative ways to own properties, however getting loans from local banks or from home country banks have to date been elusive. The same has been experienced globally. For example, Canadians wanting to purchase retirement or holiday homes in Florida cannot obtain financing from US banks or Canadian banks and typically their only option is to obtain a second mortgage on an existing property to purchase their new dream property.
SellerFi is attempting to solve this problem through the use of Seller Financing. This is not a new phenomenon and has been used in limited transactions throughout the world, but not on a global scale. Under the Seller Financing scenario, the buyer of a property would pay the seller a large up front payment and a seller financing arrangement would be established between the buyer and seller for the remainder of the outstanding amount over time at an agreed interest rate. The following example can better illustrate this:
For these transactions, the Seller acts as the bank and receives a large portion of the purchase price upon signing and a steady, fixed income stream of payments of $15,211 over 3 years.
Upon final payment by Buyer, the title deed (Chanote) and house book and other relevant documents are turned over to the buyer and the transaction is completed through appropriate government agencies.
We are in the process of establishing the SellerFi company and are diligently working on building our robust digital platform and continually testing and enhancing it. We are positioning the company for global coverage in the near future, however Samui is our initial test market with Phuket, Krabi, Hua Hin and Pattaya to shortly follow. Other countries we have evaluated are prime retirement or holiday destinations including, but not limited to, Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Costa Rica, Mexico, US, Canada, Croatia, Spain and Portugal. Our findings indicate that these markets also could benefit from Seller Financing.
Currently, due to significant investment incentives, we are intending to set up SellerFi in Thailand and are working on a company set up based upon our digital footprint. However, we are also working to establish companies and offices globally as we penetrate new markets. However, the company location will have no impact to Buyers and Sellers as the transaction between the 2 parties is not reliant on where SellerFi headquarters or offices reside.
The SellerFi business concept and digital platform was founded by Robert Strain - currently residing in Koh Samui. Directors in the company are Michael Blonsky and Hermann Wegmueller.
Robert Strain is a retired financial management professional with a 30+ years background in US and International Finance, Accounting and Treasury Operations including mergers and acquisitions, IPO's and new stock/debt issues, project financing, credit facility negotiations, debt compliance, cash/portfolio management, domestic/international taxes, international and government compliance. His experience has spanned the oil/gas, mining, shipping and high tech industries. His most recent position prior tohis retirement in 2013 was as Finance Director of Asia, Middle East, India, Africa and Australia for a global shipping company. In this role he established and oversaw the operations of 80+new companies serving as a director for the majority of them. He also was responsible for raising USD2 billion in capital for new and wholly owned companies throughout the world. In Koh Samui he has developed a villa resort near Lamai (Baan Saitara) and an ultra-luxury resort in Taling Ngam (Five Islands Estate).
Michael Blonsky is a veteran technologist who has 30+ years of operations, business development, software sales, software architecture, software development and consulting experience with firms like VMware, Grant Thornton and Accenture. Currently, Michael is the Broker / Owner at Change Real Estate (based in Las Vegas with offices in Koh Samui and Hua Hin Thailand). In addition to running the day-to-day activities associated with Change Real Estate, Michael is working on the technology stack for SellerFi the premium platform to bring buyers and sellers together to enable, secure, and manage seller financing for real estate sales. Prior to Change Real Estate, Michael was the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at the Family Independence Initiative. Prior to FII, Michael was consulting with a number of companies (both startups and established businesses) to provide strategic and technical consulting (including designing and developing iOS apps using Objective-C, web apps written in Python for Google App Engine, and web apps / sites using standard LAMP frameworks and WordPress). Michael is a veteran of several Silicon Valley software companies and startups. His experience includes directing the efforts around building out the Virtual Appliances initiative for VMware (NASDAQ: VMW). By developing a successful ISV outreach program, Michael helped define a new category of software solutions. Prior to the time in Las Vegas and in the San Francisco Bay Area, Michael spent 8 years in technology consulting with firms like Accenture and Grant Thornton. Michael holds a M.S. in Business and Technology from Johns Hopkins University.
Hermann Wegmueller is a seasoned Tourism and Contractor/Negotiation expert in all major market in Southeast Asia. He was instrumental in promoting new and upcoming destinations for major European and international wholesalers. He has a wide network in Southeast Asia as well as in all major source markets around the world. Furthermore, he has more than 35 years of experience in negotiating supplier rates and hotel- as well as real estate related products in general. He speaks 6 languages, including Thai and Indonesian. His expertise includes traditional ways of promoting real estate as well as new technology segments such as bedbanks and OTA's.