People on the Move · Finance · Real Estate Lending
Senior Vice President of Business Development and Nationwide Direct Private Lender
Joseph V. Scorese
Based in: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Firm: Built Lending
Experience: 20+ years in mortgage banking, private lending and non-QM lending
Education: B.S. in Accounting, minor in Economics, Rutgers University
Licenses: NMLS #391784. Licensed real estate agent in New Jersey and Pennsylvania
Teaching: Continuing education instructor, Temple University Real Estate Institute
Website: josephvscorese.com
A real estate investor with a strong rental portfolio can still be turned down for a bank mortgage. The properties make money, but depreciation and write-offs make the investor’s tax returns look thin. Joseph V. Scorese has spent much of his career on the other side of that problem: finding financing that looks at the property and the plan instead of the paycheck.
Scorese is Senior Vice President of Business Development at Built Lending and works as a nationwide direct private lender from Philadelphia. He has more than 20 years in lending, starting in traditional bank mortgages and moving into private and non-QM capital for real estate investors. He joined Built Lending in 2025.
What a Nationwide Direct Private Lender Does
In his current role, Scorese leads regional growth across non-QM and private lending programs. He structures investor transactions, including DSCR rental loans, construction loans and portfolio loans, and builds broker, correspondent and referral partnerships across the country. Part of the job is education: helping investors plan the capital behind a growing portfolio, not just close the next loan.
The loans he works with are built for investment property. A DSCR loan, for example, qualifies a rental mainly on whether its rent covers the mortgage payment, rather than on the borrower’s personal income. Fix-and-flip and construction loans release renovation or building funds in stages as work is completed. Each has its own rules, and much of Scorese’s work is matching the right one to the deal.
Two Decades From Bank Branches to Private Capital
Scorese began his career in 2001 as a senior loan officer at Continental Bank, offering a full range of FHA, VA, USDA and conventional mortgages. He held the same title at 3rd Federal Bank from 2009 to 2014, where his work expanded to bridge loans, home equity lines and non-conforming products.
From 2014 to 2021 he was Manager of Sales at Firstrust Bank, leading mortgage sales teams and overseeing processing, underwriting and closing. That period gave him a working knowledge of conventional, government and portfolio lending from the inside.
In 2021 he moved into private lending full time. He was a Business Development Manager at LendingOne, then National Sales Director at BRRRR Loans, where he oversaw underwriting review for investor clients and built lending partnerships nationwide. After a stint as Sales Manager at LendMarq, he joined Built Lending in 2025.
Why More Investors Are Looking Beyond Bank Mortgages
Traditional mortgage programs were designed around owner-occupied homes. As Scorese’s website puts it, getting an investment-property loan through a traditional lender “can sometimes be challenging because they are designed to finance primary residences, not investments.”
Private and non-QM lenders fill that gap with loans underwritten on the asset, the borrower’s experience and the exit plan. That flexibility comes with responsibility on the investor’s side. Writing on BiggerPockets in October 2026, Scorese argued that investors “need to be more disciplined with acquisition costs, renovation budgets, realistic ARVs, and financing strategies.” The same pressure on margins is showing up across the industry, as The Business Journal noted in its look at why execution is becoming the competitive advantage in construction and real estate.
Five Questions Investors Can Ask Before Choosing a Loan
Scorese’s teaching and podcast work keep coming back to the same idea: decide the plan first, then pick the loan. These questions are a practical place to start.
- What is the exit? Selling, holding as a rental and refinancing each point to a different loan.
- How long do I need the money? Short-term bridge and rehab loans carry maturity dates and extension fees.
- Does the rent cover the full payment? Lenders measure this as the debt service coverage ratio, and investors should also count management, vacancy and repairs.
- What is the total cost, not just the rate? Points, fees and prepayment penalties can outweigh a lower rate.
- What will the next loan require? If a refinance is the plan, check its seasoning and leverage rules before buying.
Teaching Agents and Investors
Scorese is a continuing education instructor at the Temple University Real Estate Institute, where he teaches Navigating the New Landscape: Asset-Based Lending for Real Estate Professionals. The course helps agents understand how investors finance properties so they can write stronger offers and keep deals on track.
He is also co-founder and co-host of the Creative BRRRR Strategies Podcast, which covers the buy, rehab, rent, refinance and repeat method with guests who share real deals and the numbers behind them. In a February 2026 interview on The Mike’d Up Show, he described what separates serious investors: “The real investor wants to know, how do you look at cash-on-cash return? How do you look at DSCR, and how that helps me make more money and scale my business.”
Scorese holds a B.S. in accounting with a minor in economics from Rutgers University. For more on how lenders, investors and business owners are managing capital, see The Business Journal’s finance coverage.
More profiles of executives and business owners are available in The Business Journal’s People on the Move section.
Joseph V. Scorese, NMLS #391784. This article is for informational purposes only and is not financial advice or an offer to lend. Loan programs and terms vary by lender, borrower and property.
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