S. Clay Sparkman One thing that nearly all investors surely have on their minds right now is the possible economic impacts of climate change. Certainly, any progressive and significant trend toward global warming should concern anyone who invests either directly or indirectly in real estate markets. If you ask any climate change scientist what effect […]
Real estate market general
Hang Tight
Wednesday, November 6th, 2019Clay Sparkman As you all know, these have been difficult times for private money investors. Competition is up, rates are down, and solid opportunities are getting harder to find. The following article: Three Challenges Faced by Today’s Private Money Lenders and How to Weather Them, by Noah Brocious at Forbes, is a a very straightforward […]
Real estate values – what’s next?
Monday, February 4th, 2019S. Clay Sparkman It has been quite a challenge this past dozen years predicting the movement of real estate market values. Values spike. values crash, values spike again, and then … maybe get a little squishy. Also, note the strange happenings in the national political machinery. It might be perilous to ignore this entirely. For […]
Will Amazon’s HQ2 sink Seattle’s housing market?
Tuesday, November 13th, 2018S. Clay Sparkman Will Amazon’s HQ2 sink Seattle’s housing market? https://www.seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/will-amazons-hq2-sink-seattles-housing-market/ Probably not much, but it should pump up the markets in NYC and DC even furthur. Best, Clay – Clay (clay@privatemoneysource.com, 503-476-2909) Clay is Vice President of Fairfield Financial, a primary source for private money loans since 1964. Fairfield works with a broad range […]
The west coast is on fire
Tuesday, March 6th, 2018Clay Sparkman Between Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, LA, and San Diego, home prices are off the charts. We broker short-term loans to real estate investors, so if you wish to invest in trust deeds in these markets, consider contacting us. And check out these two recent articles: A Third of U.S. Homebuyers Are Bidding Sight […]
Resources for private money profesionals
Friday, January 6th, 2017Clay Sparkman I posted this article in 2011, and am sad to say that I haven’t come across much in the way of new resources since. I’m going to re-post, with a few small changes, and please let me know if you know of any useful resources available to private money professionals. These days–with uncertain […]
Several perspectives on private money and changes happening in the industry
Tuesday, May 24th, 2016Clay Sparkman With regard to forward thinking (that is, how is the industry changing?): I thought you might appreciate this article, Private Lending Sector Making Big Noise for Real Estate Investors, by Ben Stoodley: Here Certainly he is correct with regard to his interpretation of current trends, and one must wonder how far this might […]
Into the mainstream
Friday, May 13th, 2016Clay 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 […]
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 […]
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 […]