Portfolio Lending dumb question

[Jamie Spitale]

I have what might seem like a dumb question to most but I am a little confused and having a discussion about this with my my business partner.  A little back ground, we both have owned businesses and now want to venture together into real estate.  I am brqnd new and he has some family history in rentals.

1) What is a portfolio lender exactly?  

(I have a basic understanding of what they do as far as not selling the loan on the secondary market.)

2)When I think portfolio I think of being similar to the wall street. Mutual funds stocks etc.  I buy part of your company and hope to make a return.  My question is do portfolio lenders do the same?  They give you lets say 100k to buy 4 properties and you give them 10% back on their money every year and you never pay the house off.  it just stays in the portfolio until you sell the house etc. Can you pay off these type of lenders?  Can you pay them off early to save on interest?

I am sure I am over thinking this but I like to know what I am doing before I do it.  We are in the research stage and have quite a bit of money to invest and looking for different ways to make it happen.