Meet Ben Kirschner, Managing Partner at HOA Loan Services, a father-and-son advisory that helps homeowner and condo associations across the country secure financing for major capital projects. The firm was founded in 2016 by Ben’s father, Larry, a longtime commercial banker and HOA board member, and has since closed more than $350 million in loans and placed over 300 HOA loans nationwide. Ben joined the business at the outset and took on a larger role starting in 2020, building out its marketing, technology, and sales operations.
oakpool began working with Ben and the team at HOA Loan Services to help the firm generate high-quality leads and reach more communities nationwide.
We sat down with Ben to talk about working on both sides of the HOA lending table, why trust is the hardest thing to market in specialty finance, and what it means to run a business where the fee only comes through if the client wins.
You took a company built on your father’s banking and HOA board experience and became the one building out its marketing, tech, and sales. How did you end up being the one to take that on?
Stepping into this role was a natural transition. Early in my career, I sold complex software and capital equipment. I learned from exceptional mentors and saw firsthand how the best companies performed at the highest level. That experience taught me that real success comes down to genuine curiosity about a client’s needs, disciplined organization, a short memory, and relentless follow-up. When my father, Larry, and I partnered to expand HOA Loan Services, our backgrounds complemented each other. Larry brings deep senior-level banking expertise, HOA board experience, and an intuitive grasp of how lenders think and operate. To grow, the business needed the marketing, technology, and sales infrastructure to match, and that’s where my background fit. I added a tech-driven approach, rigorous follow-up, and the sales discipline I built in software and equipment sales. Together, we’re constantly working to improve every part of our clients’ experience.
What did the marketing, tech, and sales side of the business look like when you joined, and what made you decide it needed real investment?
When I joined, we had some of the framework in place but no plan for how to execute it. We also had some technology, but a lot of what we were doing lived in a spreadsheet, a Word doc, or on a piece of paper we’d already misplaced. Marketing and sales were mostly relationship- and referral-driven, which worked, but it wasn’t repeatable. My first job was to learn the business and how our process was supposed to work. Once I understood that, it was clear we were leaving opportunities on the table because we didn’t have the systems to track, follow up, and scale. That’s what made the investment an easy decision. From there, I evaluated what technology was serving us and what we were missing, and the technology- and process-driven investments we’ve made have helped grow the business 800% since 2019.
For most boards, this is the only loan they’ll ever take out. What’s the one thing you wish every board understood before they’re staring down a major capital project?
Preparation and packaging matter. If you don’t have a strategy and you just start applying for loans with any bank that you can find, you are setting yourself up for failure.
You’re asking a volunteer board to hand you the biggest financial decision their community may ever make, and your fee only comes through if that works out for them. How does that shape the way you think about marketing, compared to how a typical lender approaches it?
It means two things for a client.
- First, we’re working for and with them, not against them. The most common misconception is that we’re somehow in competition with the community. If we can’t help you find a great loan or we aren’t providing value, we’ll tell you that. But we can only help if you let us in and think of us as part of your team.
- Second, a bank sells you one loan: theirs. They have sales and business development officers, underwriters, closing teams, lawyers, and all of them work for the lender, not your community. That’s where we’re different. We work for you, and our success is tied to yours.
That shapes our marketing completely. A typical lender markets a product. We’re marketing trust, so our focus is on educating boards, being transparent about how we get paid, and making a complicated process easy to understand. Volunteer board members don’t need a sales pitch; they need someone who will pick up when they call and give them honest answers.
What separates a lender or advisor that’s genuinely earning trust online from one that’s just running ads at people?
Larry and I talk about this all the time. With AI and today’s technology, more and more of what people interact with is automated: chatbots, robocalls, auto-replies. But for us, it always comes back to relationships and trust. Ads can get someone’s attention, but trust is earned by what happens after they reach out. We don’t just funnel people through an automated follow-up. We call every lead, we make ourselves available on nights and weekends, and we treat trust as the most important part of every client relationship. That’s the difference: one is trying to capture a lead, the other is trying to earn a client.
As more boards and management companies start researching financing options online instead of waiting for a referral, how does that change what a firm like yours needs to show up with?
With new technology and a renewed focus from lawmakers, the climate around HOAs and HOA lending is changing rapidly. It used to be that clients would call us without really understanding the product they were asking for. Now it’s much more competitive. Clients call and may already have a lender in mind, or a list of detailed questions they want answered. That means a firm like ours has to show up with real expertise before the first call happens: clear, accurate information that helps boards understand their options. There’s so much misinformation out there, and that’s where our experience can shine. Our job has shifted from just placing a loan with a bank to holding our clients’ hands from start to finish. That means preparing boards to answer questions from their communities, running detailed financing models, and helping boards zero in on project goals and timelines, all while leveraging our industry experience and relationships to find the best loan terms we can.
Where have you seen oakpool make the biggest difference in how HOA Loan Services shows up digitally?
For years, we hopped from agency to agency without a real plan, just throwing an ad budget together and hoping for the best. oakpool changed how we approach digital marketing as a company. We meet regularly and use data-driven analytics and dashboards to see what’s working and what isn’t. It’s truly a partnership, and we’re on pace to more than triple our loan volume from last year. Beyond that, their knowledge of AI search has made a huge difference for us, giving us another tool and another opportunity to expand our footprint.
If another lender or advisor in the specialty finance space asked what it’s like working with oakpool, what would you tell them?
I’d tell them this is truly a different kind of marketing company. They take the time to learn and educate themselves so their strategy is tailored to your business. That’s where the rubber meets the road. Our product is so niche and specific that a deep understanding of it is the only way a partnership like this works. oakpool was the first firm to take that to heart and really get to know our model, our business, and our clients, and that has been key to our success together. You have a direct line to their team; you bring your ideas, and they bring theirs. It’s truly collaborative, and that’s what makes it work.
oakpool is proud to partner with HOA Loan Services, helping the firm build out its digital presence as it grows to reach boards and communities across the country. Learn more about HOA Loan Services at hoaloanservices.com, or follow Ben on LinkedIn for his latest insights on association financing.
