Stella Han: Stop Being a Loan Servicer for Your Own Deals

Stella Han is the founder and CEO of Fractional, a platform that lets real estate operators legally raise capital from both accredited and unaccredited investors without setting up a fund or a syndication. Her investment club model runs about $3,500 and can be live in a day, against roughly $30,000 in securities attorney fees and a month of paperwork for a traditional fund. Recorded live at the Collective Genius Q2 event in Oceanside, this conversation breaks down exactly where the club model fits for operators who have outgrown deal by deal private money but are not ready to run a fund as its own business. If you are managing a different lender on every flip and wondering whether a debt fund is the answer, this is the episode that shows you a third option.   Timeline Summary [0:23] – Leon Barnes opens from the Collective Genius Q2 event in Oceanside, California [1:23] – What Fractional does, letting operators raise from accredited and unaccredited investors legally [2:05] – Who this is actually for, and why a fund is the wrong first move for most operators [2:43] – The operator with a different private lender on every deal becomes an accidental loan servicer [3:41] – The wall people hit, attorney fees, months of paperwork, and a network they legally can't touch [4:19] – How the introduction to Fractional came through one of CG's own lenders [5:21] – Leon's Cookie Monster analogy, why a fund becomes its own business you have to feed [6:31] – Why a fund forces you to shut out roughly half your network and stop marketing [7:07] – The club isn't a security under the SEC, so you can market it publicly [7:49] – One club can fund multiple projects, so it scales without a new raise each time [8:13] – Automated tax documents, K-1s, and distributions handled instead of hiring an admin [9:27] – The debt club, building your own bank at 10% annualized and recycling capital for years [10:28] – Typical raises run $250K to $5 million, with the CG room clustering at the higher end [13:14] – Club members vote to approve deals, and why that transparency drives investor retention [13:59] – A CG member's $700K debt club, RV park clubs, and a group rolling up candy stores [16:01] – Where to find Stella and why she prefers one on one conversations on structure   5 Key Takeaways A Fund Is Its Own Business — Setting one up is the easy part. Somebody has to raise for it continuously, and if you're already running a fix and flip operation at volume, that's a second full time job you didn't budget for. Unaccredited Doesn't Mean Broke — Stella sees unaccredited investors bringing $25K to $125K each. A fund structure legally cuts most of your friends, family, and followers out of the deal, which is where a lot of the available capital actually sits. The Club Isn't a Security — Because members vote to approve deals, the structure sits outside SEC securities rules. That means you can post about it, talk about it publicly, and raise from anyone who believes in you. Build a Bank Instead of Chasing Deals — Rather than returning capital every six months and starting over, form a club, borrow at around 10% annualized, and recycle the same money across projects for two to three years. Voting Is a Retention Feature — Bringing deals back for member approval sounds like friction, but it gives investors real visibility into the process. Operators using it are seeing investors come back with bigger checks on the next deal.   Links & Resources Fractional — https://www.fractional.app Follow Stella Han on Instagram — https://instagram.com/hellastellah Collective Genius Community — https://explorecg.com   Enjoyed This Episode? If you've ever priced out a debt fund and walked away when you saw the attorney invoice, the club model is worth twenty minutes of your attention. Send this to the operator you know who's juggling six private lenders and quietly turning into a loan servicer. Follow the show, leave a rating and review, and head to https://explorecg.com if you want to be in the room where conversations like this one happen.