Operating as a real estate investor from the late 1990’s to 2014, Joel Kraut managed to purchase, renovate, and sell more than 100 houses in the Tri-State area, including the Philadelphia markets of Northern Liberties, Fishtown, Point Breeze, Newbold, etc. As an active investor, Joel Kraut scaled his portfolio to include 144 buildings home to over 1,000 tenants – nearly all of which were acquired within a three year span. Unlike most investors, Joel self-managed his entire portfolio, an experience that now informs much of the internal valuation methodology employed by BrrrrLoans. Throughout the early 2000’s, Joel Kraut built 185 single-family “McMansions” and 61 townhouses throughout the Tri-State area while serving as a partner in a mid-size, New Jersey based general contracting and remodeling company. Given his comprehensive background in completing extensive renovation and construction projects covering everything from fire restoration and vanilla home extensions to ground up construction of vertical condominium buildings and multi-millions dollar homes, Joel Kraut’s track record affords BrrrrLoans the ability to continuously improve its business model and practices by concurrently drawing upon the perspective of a borrower, contractor, and fund manager.
In the wake of the 2006 financial crisis, Joel initiated the liquidation of his real estate portfolio and turned his attention towards private lending. In his capacity as a one-man operation, Joel Kraut participated in the origination, underwriting, and funding of well over 1,000 loans secured by collateral throughout the Tri-State area. In doing so, Joel developed a reputation as the 360 degree solution to privately funding just about every type of property for every type of borrower.
As the Co-Founder and Managing Director of BrrrrLoans, Joel thrives on the day-to-day passion of every Brrrrloan fanatic he encounters.
Joel is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University with a Bachelor’s degree in marketing and a minor in economics. He has an endowed scholarship at the University in his name. Additionally, he was a past proprietary options trader and a member in good standing of six exchanges.
In addition, Joel is the author of the book "7 Steps to Financial Freedom" (available on Amazon).