Private lending built for real estate entrepreneurs

5.0

Based on 17 reviews

What our relationships are saying:

“John and Ian are First Class… Closed a construction loan on time without a hitch. They follow up and follow through.”

— Paul-William Scoggins

“I can’t recommend them highly enough. Truly exceptional professionals who care about their clients’ success.”

— Ryan Styles

“Their expertise has been invaluable… It’s rare to find a lender more invested in your success than just the transaction.”

— Jenny Hardin

“These fellows are more like your partners and advisors than just lenders. They take the time to really listen.”

— Dahlia Frydman

Built on better deals.

Protection

We protect investor principal first, structured for survival, not optimism.

The right leverage. Clear exits. Real downside analysis.

If a deal only works in a good market, we do not do it.

Truth

We tell the full story, including what can go wrong.

No spin. No urgency pressure. No hiding risk behind yield.

We would say the same thing if we were lending our own last dollar.

Alignment

We only partner where incentives and values match long term.

Borrowers must have equity and realism. Lenders must understand risk.

If incentives diverge, we walk.

Our Sonoma County Roots

John H. Downey Jr. and Ian Tavelli

John H. Downey Jr., two-time Santa Rosa mayor

Downey Tire Center, Fourth Street, Santa Rosa

John H. Downey Jr. on Santa Rosa City Council

Mayacamas Lending opened in July 2025, but its roots run three generations deep in Sonoma County.

Ian’s grandfather and mentor, John H. Downey Jr., arrived in Santa Rosa in 1950 after serving as a merchant marine in World War II. He ran Downey Tire Co. on Fourth Street for decades, served on the City Council through the 1969 earthquake, was elected twice as Mayor of Santa Rosa, and co-founded National Bank of the Redwoods, a business bank built for the local entrepreneur.

John was also a keen poker player. In 2009, he bought Ian into the World Series of Poker Main Event in Las Vegas. They both played. Ian, then 21, finished 17th and turned his grandfather’s $10,000 investment into just over half a million dollars. The lesson was not about cards. It was that skill, preparation, and courage are rewarded. Ian invested his share of the winnings, earned a degree in Global Business Finance from Arizona State University, and put both to work.

Ian built his career in Santa Rosa across both sides of debt, serving as Assistant Vice President at North Valley Bank and Relationship Manager at Tri Counties Bank. He then co-founded Tavelli Co. Inc. with his father Robert Tavelli, a family-owned collection agency that remains active today, before serving as Director of Lending at Altus Capital Group, where he underwrote and managed a portfolio of private bridge loans. That foundation in credit, collections, and community banking informs everything Mayacamas Lending does.

Ian partnered with Brad Wilkinson and John Hensley to launch Mayacamas Lending, named for the mountain range that divides Sonoma and Napa Counties. The company sits a few miles from where Downey Tire once stood and where National Bank of the Redwoods once operated. The proximity is not a coincidence. Neither is the approach.

Mayacamas Lending was built on the belief that good lending is protective by nature, honest by default, and only valuable when borrower and lender are truly aligned.

What We Finance

Commercial Bridge

For purchasing or refinancing commercial real estate

Fix & Flip

For purchasing and renovating properties

Long-Term Rental

For purchasing or refinancing rental properties

Multi-Family

For purchasing or refinancing multi-unit housing

New Construction

For ground-up residential construction

Rental Portfolio

For expanding or refinancing rental portfolios

Commercial Bridge

Sonoma, California

Featured Project

Loan Amount: $700,000

Some buildings belong to a town before they belong to anyone. The Depot Hotel has stood on First Street West in Sonoma California for more than a century, a designated historic landmark and, for generations of Sonoma families, the room where the anniversaries and the long Sunday lunches happened. When the property came available at $1,940,000, a local group stepped forward to buy it and carry it into its next chapter. They brought serious equity of their own and needed one more piece to close, from a lender who understood the asset and would not stall over the words historic and restaurant in the same sentence. Mayacamas funded $700,000 in house with capital from one of our local lenders. What we are most glad about is being part of the vision. This one matters to Sonoma, and we are looking forward to the day the new owners open the doors.

Fix & Flip

Fairfield, California

Featured Project

Loan Amount: $297,000

Three completed projects should buy a borrower better terms, and this one came to Mayacamas knowing it. The borrower is the contractor. They scope the work, they perform it, and they carry the schedule risk themselves rather than hiring it out and hoping. Three finished flips make that a record, not a claim. The property was a Fairfield home in need of renovation, and the plan was the same one that had already worked three times over. The right answer was not our own capital. Mayacamas brokered the file to a fix and flip lender who reads a completed project history as underwriting, and placed the borrower at 90 percent of purchase price with 100 percent of the renovation budget financed, a total loan of $297,000 on a twelve-month term. The borrower got the leverage their record had earned and kept the cash for the next one.

DSCR Long-term Rental

Lucerne, California

Featured Project

Loan Amount: $149,400

This borrower did not need a bridge loan. They needed a better rate. They came to Mayacamas with a bank quote in hand on a single family rental in Lucerne, and the pricing did not work. The property performed and the rents covered the debt. The borrower had done nothing wrong. The bank simply priced the loan the way banks price loans, and the borrower was left choosing between an expensive hold and no hold at all. Mayacamas took the file to the DSCR market and matched the borrower with a lender who underwrote the property's cash flow instead of the borrower's tax returns. The rate came back starting with a 6, fixed for thirty years. Same house, same rents, same borrower, priced correctly.

Fix & Flip

Santa Rosa, California

Featured Project

Loan Amount: $782,425

Most lenders pause at the words "first-time fix and flip." This borrower came to us with a different profile. A high-level corporate executive, she enrolled in a women's real estate investing program, completed her training, and made the decision to leave her job to put what she had learned to use. She brought us an off-market Santa Rosa property at $675,000, a fixer with good bones and a clear renovation scope. Mayacamas funded 85 percent of the purchase price and 100 percent of the renovation budget, for a total loan of $782,425 with a twelve-month term. What she lacked in repetition she made up for in preparation, and the deal underwrote on the strength of the plan as much as the property. She stepped into her first project with the capital to execute it properly and a lender invested in the outcome.

Commercial Bridge

Santa Rosa, California

Featured Project

Loan Amount: $250,000

A local bank came to us with a borrower they believed in and did not want to lose. The family had been farming in Sonoma County for over a hundred years, and their trucking operation had served the region through good seasons and bad ones. Rising fuel costs tied to geopolitical disruption and a contracting wine industry had compressed their margins during a slow stretch, and the business needed capital to restructure and get back to stable footing. The bank wanted to keep their first position intact and their relationship whole. Mayacamas lenders stepped in behind them with a $250,000 second position Deed of Trust, secured against a large industrial building with a combined loan-to-value across both positions under 35 percent, giving the borrower the bridge they needed without displacing the bank that had always been in their corner.

Commercial Bridge

Sonoma, California

Featured Project

Loan Amount: $100,000

Selling a business does not always mean walking away clean. This borrower had sold their business but retained ownership of the underlying real estate, a property on the Sonoma Plaza, and still carried a debt obligation that needed to be settled. The equity was there. What they needed was a lender willing to move quickly and structure the loan around the asset they held. Mayacamas Lending Inc. provided the capital secured by a first position deed of trust on the Sonoma Plaza property. The loan paid off the outstanding debt, resolved the obligation cleanly, and gave the borrower the clear footing they needed to move forward as a real estate owner without the weight of a lingering liability. The collateral was strong and the purpose was straightforward. That is exactly the kind of deal we are built for.

Ready to discuss your next deal?

Tell us about your project and our team will follow up soon.

Brad Wilkinson, Ian Tavelli, and John Hensley