Built by Investors, for Investors

Coastal Real Estate Funding was founded by David Diaz and Roger Lehman — two professionals who spent their careers on opposite sides of the same industry. David built and renovated thousands of homes across Florida while managing institutional portfolios. Roger structured and financed real estate deals from Wall Street trading desks and capital markets platforms. They saw the same problem from different angles: private lending was too slow, too opaque, and run by people who had never swung a hammer or walked a job site. They started Coastal to fix that.

To deliver fast, transparent private lending built on institutional discipline and operator-level understanding. We exist to give real estate investors a capital partner who actually understands their business — not just the spreadsheets, but the properties, the timelines, and the risks that matter on the ground.

Most private lenders come from either finance or operations. We come from both. Our team has underwritten more than $2 billion in structured real estate debt, managed institutional portfolios of 36,000+ units, and personally completed over 1,200 renovations. That dual perspective means we underwrite deals the way an investor evaluates them — looking at the property, the market, the exit strategy, and the borrower's ability to execute. The result: faster decisions, better terms, and a lending partner who speaks your language.

Florida is where we live, invest, and build. We know the submarkets, the contractors, the permit timelines, and the neighborhood dynamics that national lenders miss. Our geographic focus means we can evaluate properties and markets with firsthand knowledge — not just data. That local expertise translates into faster underwriting, more accurate valuations, and better outcomes for borrowers.