Clay Sparkman I first wrote and published this piece in its original form in September of 2009. I am of the firm belief that the key to success (defined as: having fun and maximizing your return, two closely correlated phenomena), is rigorous and comprehensive vetting of the loan proposal. If you do this right, the […]
Underwriting
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 […]
Rehab loan offering in Oregon
Thursday, October 3rd, 2013S. Clay Sparkman We’ve had a lot of nice solid little loans come in lately. As you know, we have a tradition of, from time to time, presenting one of the loans that we have placed or are in the process of placing, so that blog readers can see (a) the types of loans that […]
Finding qualified commercial private money borrowers
Monday, April 22nd, 2013Clay Sparkman This item was originally posted on this site on 4/30/10. I had a sense that it might be relevant once again, and so I have rewritten it slightly and am posting here again. I hope you find it useful. Most private money investors choose to work with brokers. However it is a decision […]
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 […]
Private Money FAQ
Wednesday, January 9th, 2013Clay Sparkman I try to update and publish this FAQ every once in awhile, as it is a handy guide to better understanding the market for private money loans in general–and more particularly, how we operate here at FFS. It is written more with brokers and borrowers in mind, but the information here should be […]
Sample loan prospectus
Tuesday, October 2nd, 2012Clay Sparkman I’m not sure how many of you have made loans with us before, so I thought I would post a prospectus for a loan that we placed recently. The prospectus which is shown here is the high level presentation, or executive summary of the loan. Having read the prospectus you should have a […]
Everything you wanted to know about private money but were afraid to ask
Thursday, January 12th, 2012Clay Sparkman (Note: I posted the following on my broker blog recently. It is oriented to toward brokers, but at the same time, I think it would be quite useful to those trying to get a handle on investing in private money loans and trying to better understand the process.) Private money is often misunderstood. […]
