Mortgage Banker Spotlight: Michael Davis

Michael Davis attended the University of Southern California for his undergraduate studies, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Entrepreneurial Studies. Prior to joining PSRS in 2007, Mr. Davis worked for RE/Max Commercial in apartment brokerage before switching to a residential mortgage banking firm. Throughout his time at PSRS, Mr. Davis has been involved in nearly $1 billion in financing across the country, ranging from single-tenant buildings and small apartments to power centers and multi-property portfolios. In July 2015, Mike became a partner with the firm. He lives in Pacific Palisades with his wife, two daughters, and one son. In his spare time he enjoys golfing, traveling, and cheering on his favorite sports teams, including the world champion Golden State Warriors. Mr. Davis is affiliated with the ICSC, the ULI, and the USC Alumni Real Estate group.

Why did you join PSRS?

Five years before joining PSRS, I worked in real estate in apartment brokerage and then worked in residential finance. Thankfully, I got out of the residential finance business in 2006 right before everything melted down in 2007, but already knew that I wanted to make a shift from residential into commercial. I felt commercial was a lot more nuanced, sophisticated, and where I could add more value than working in a commoditized business like residential. I went on to discover PSRS through a friend and interviewed, leading to start my journey off as an analyst. I thought PSRS had an amazing platform with the amount of life companies they represented and offered really great wealth knowledge coming from the senior partners that were there when I joined at the time.

Where are most of your deals coming from?

Most of my deals at this point have come through clients that I have made over the last 12 years that I’ve worked here. So today I see many repeat clients and referrals which I value tremendously, but in the start I built my clientele through networking and cold-calling. Any time I met someone I always made sure they knew what I did and would see if there were any opportunities for us to work together. This allowed me to build my book of business into what it is today.

Who do you prefer to do business with?

I prefer to do business with people that are trustworthy, organized, and know what they are looking for. I enjoy what I do because I see it as less of a job and more of something that I have fun with because each deal that I work with is completely different. I am a generalist and enjoy working on all types of deal types and properties. I am open to working with many different types of borrowers, some who have been around for years and know exactly what they are doing, and others who are new to the business and I step to help them finance their first project.

What are examples of notable deals that you’ve done?

Two deals come to mind. One of them was a great learning experience that I worked on early in my career. I worked with one of our senior partners on closing a portfolio of 35 retail properties across six states that ranged from single-tenant fast-food franchises to grocery anchored shopping centers. Collectively, it was about a $110 million deal and I got the chance to fly around the county visiting these properties. I coordinated all the approvals, reports and created an underwriting model that combined all the properties together, providing me with a great learning experience on something with a very large scope. I was really thankful to have the opportunity to work on that deal.

More recently I  closed a $44 million construction loan with one of our life insurance companies on a student housing project in a really under-served student housing market by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). That was unique in that this life insurance company was able to step in and provide terms that none of the banks or other lenders might have been able to provide.

I enjoy working on every deal, from the strip center filled with Mom and Pop tenants, to an office building filled with publicly traded companies as I love the learning experiences that come with closing every loan.