Clay Sparkman I thought that this recent article in The National Real Estate Investor would be worth sharing with the private money investors in this group. It certainly rings true with those of us at Fairfield, as we have had to work with our investors to adapt our programs and strategies to a changing market […]
Analysis
Three potentially useful indicators of the likely movement of property values
Monday, April 25th, 2016Clay Sparkman Any good private money investor should be attempting to assess whether property values are rising, falling, or holding in the area of his/her latest potential investment. After all, the core issue when assessing investment risk is LTV, and if the “V” part of “LTV” falls during the time of your investment, your investment […]
25 questions you must ask
Friday, January 22nd, 2016Clay Sparkman I originally published this article in September of 2009 on this blog. I’m going to make a list today of twenty-five important questions that I believe an investor must ask prior to funding any private money loan transaction. I’m not going to elaborate much on each particular item here, but will drill down […]
The cost of hard money
Friday, October 23rd, 2015Clay Sparkman After 50 years in the hard money business (as a family operation) and 20+ years personally, you’d think we’d know what to expect. But let’s face it, no one really knows what to expect in the complex globally based financial world. For my first 15 or so years working in the hard money […]
Fix and flip big
Wednesday, August 21st, 2013Clay Sparkman This is interesting. I had wondered why we have not seen as many REO type fix and flip property loans as I had expected. I was informed by an individual quite recently that they had read an article about two very large entities that were going to the banks and buying all of […]
We may be done wandering through the forest
Thursday, June 27th, 2013Clay Sparkman I got this upbeat article as a special alert on my smart phone this week. It seems that finally the real estate market it pulling the rest of the economy forward, instead of the other way around. I would say that it’s official. Hallelujah! Housing, regional factory data show economy’s stamina http://us.news-republic.com/Web/ArticleWeb.aspx?regionid=1&articleid=10246360 On […]
Private money investors: Mind the gap
Wednesday, May 8th, 2013Clay Sparkman It is our opinion and the opinion of many others that banks, though they’ve bounced back in certain areas, have not picked up the slack when it comes to funding rehab, construction, and development loans. I have been on about this before, so I won’t go into great detail here. I think that […]
How to read an appraisal
Friday, March 29th, 2013Clay Sparkman This article was originally published, on The Private Money Broker Blog. on 8/9/10. Some two and a half hears later, I feel it is worthy to be modified slightly and published again. Whatever you do in the real estate business, I highly recommend that you give this post a good read. The most […]
The infinte universe of private money
Wednesday, March 13th, 2013Clay Sparkman Our private money lending programs tend to be fairly rigid with regard to LTV requirements but quite forgiving with regard to other issues. One of the nice things about private money is that it allows for creative problem solving. I have put many transactions together, that initially didn’t appear to be doable, simply […]
Investing in real estate (either directly or indirectly) in 2013: three articles you should read
Friday, February 1st, 2013Clay Sparkman On occasion, I try to publish links to articles that are relevant, useful, and interesting. Here are three articles which give useful perspective on the matter of investing in real estate in 2012—each from a different perspective. A money.cnn article on how to find real estate opportunities in 2013: http://money.cnn.com/2012/12/01/real_estate/housing-outlook-2013.moneymag/index.html Dailyresearchhunter.com on global […]
