Non-performing mortgage investment means acquiring loans on which the borrower has stopped making payments, typically at a discount to the unpaid balance, and then working to resolve them. Banks, credit unions and servicers sell these loans to clear balance sheets and free capital; investors like First Lien Capital buy them and take over the resolution.

Resolution is where the value is created. Depending on the borrower and the property, that can mean a loan modification that keeps the family in the home, a repayment plan, a short sale or deed-in-lieu, or, when nothing else works, foreclosure and disposition of the real estate. Bill Bymel has spent more than two decades in this market and built the First Lien companies around a simple idea: the best outcomes for the investor are usually the ones that also work for the borrower.