S. Clay Sparkman I’ve been doing this for 25 years, and I must say, we’ve seen good times and some bad. I’ve been involved in several thousand private money loans. Certainly, I’ve experienced a full cross section of the private money lender perspective. One might wonder, how can a long-term private money lender expect to […]
Posts Tagged ‘trust deed loans’
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 […]
Private money – whole loans vs fractional share loans
Thursday, November 29th, 2018S. Clay Sparkman This issue nearly always comes up in early conversations with new potential investors. Working with private money investors, we are able to fund loans in two different ways. (1) Single loan/single investor – This is probably most common. It is quite simple. A potential investor evaluates a loan, and if she chooses […]
Getting started with private money investing
Thursday, October 25th, 2018Clay Sparkman I am frequently asked by private money investors: “… so how do we get started investing in private money loans?” You know, there is no simple answer to this question. I tell them that it is kind of like dating. If we are going to do this as an investor/broker team, then they need […]
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 […]
Two hicks from Oregon go to Malibu – a cautionary tale
Thursday, January 25th, 2018Clay Sparkman I first posted this Blog piece on 11.11.09 at this site. The runway was drenched in sunlight as our plane touched down that morning at LAX. It was a golden balmy day. We grabbed our bags and headed for the rental car kiosks. I don’t recall how it happened exactly, but the fellow […]
Five potentially useful indicators of the likely movement of value
Friday, August 11th, 2017Clay Sparkman Any good real estate 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 question when buying investment property (particularly short-term) is, “what is value likely to do in the next year or so?” If you sense […]
A book that we must read
Thursday, January 19th, 2017Clay Sparkman This book strikes me as a must read for anyone in the lending business. I have not read it yet, but I intend to get started now. Have any of you read it, and if so, what was your take away? Here The Unbanking of America: How the New Middle Class Survives Lisa […]
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 […]
Private money for maijuana grow and sell operations
Thursday, December 29th, 2016Clay 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 […]
