Clay Sparkman
Good article in the Los Angeles Times:
Lending money to pot businesses is a high-risk move: ‘This is not for the faint of heart’
A few years back, this was starting to look like a pretty good place to consider investing your private money. Several things were favorable: (1) The general trend nationwide was clearly toward legalization of marijuana for recreational use (as well as medical use), and (2) Obama had sent clear signals that he wasn’t going to be shuttering state legal grow and/or sell operations.
Today, I wouldn’t even consider making such a loan, and so I wouldn’t even consider offering it to my investors.
So many things are up in the air as we wait for the president-elect to take office. His signals have not been clear and consistent with regard to what he plans to do in many realms of public policy, and this area is certainly no different.
My advice: Don’t even consider it! Not until we are a year or two into the first Trump term and have a better idea of what to expect. In the meantime, it would be far too risky.
Caveat: I guess if someone wants to offer you a 20% LTV position, you might want to consider it. Short of that, just say “no.”
Please weigh in if you have any additional thoughts regarding this matter. We would appreciate your input.
— Clay (clay@privatemoneysource.com)
Clay is Vice President of Fairfield Financial, a primary source for private money loans since 1964. Fairfield works with a broad range of private money investors, in a broker capacity, finding, underwriting, presenting, closing, servicing, and when necessary, assisting in the workout of difficult loans.
Tags: hard money investing, hard money lending, hard money loans, investing, private money investing, private money lending, private money loans, real estate investing, trust deed investing, trust deed lending, trust deed loans, Washington
