Clay Sparkman When evaluating loan requests, this is the fundamental question: what exactly do you want me to do for you? It is impossible to count the number of times that I have receive loan packets or proposals that didn’t include a loan summary or any clear description of the request. The process of evaluating […]
Fundamentals
Private Money FAQ
Monday, January 7th, 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, by way of example. Private money is often misunderstood. Many industry professionals know very little about […]
Private Money – The Rules of Physics May Not Apply
Wednesday, December 12th, 2012This article was published in The Scotsman Guide as “2 Private-Money Myths: Debunked” back around the time when the sub-prime market was just beginning to collapse. I thought it might be of interest to some of you on this blog, and so I’m posting a slightly different version here. — Clay Sparkman I would like […]
More time left for you
Thursday, April 19th, 2012Clay Sparkman As I’m sure most of you will agree, it takes more contacts to get a loan done these days. Lenders are more selective and an increased number of borrowers are turning to hard money. More borrowers are talking to brokers, and then brokers have to talk to more lenders to find funding. The […]
Make your borrower's projects and submissions More robust
Monday, March 26th, 2012Clay Sparkman In the current climate, it’s getting harder than ever to impress potential lenders with your client’s loan scenarios. It may be that times have changed permanently and that it will be years before lenders return to their pre-2007 comfort level. Until then I thought I would make some suggestions to help you to […]
A Note on Relationships
Thursday, February 23rd, 2012Clay Sparkman I’d like to take this opportunity to highlight a loan that we were able to get into escrow 1 week from the time the borrower submitted his scenario. This is not something we can do every time, but very possible for a proven borrower that knows the dance. I’ll refer to this borrower […]
To Pre-Approve or Not to Pre-Approve
Friday, February 17th, 2012Clay Sparkman We’ve been getting a lot of requests for pre-approval letters lately. Many of our loan requests are for rehab loans, and it can be difficult to submit offers without an approval or proof of funds letter. Unfortunately most of our clients don’t have an extra 200K sitting around for the proof of funds, […]
Calculating LTVs for rehab, development, and construction loans
Friday, January 20th, 2012Clay Sparkman We thought a quick primer on LTV calculation for projects involving construction would be of use to most of those who utilize or broker private money. You really need to use two LTVs. We use a Front End LTV (F-LTV) as well as an After Repair Value (ARV) or Final LTV (LTV), when […]
Hard money – it doesn't have to be so hard
Thursday, January 12th, 2012Clay Sparkman In my 18 years of working with loan brokers on private money transactions, one of the most significant difficulties I have encountered has been simply making our process understood—in other words, explaining the sort of information, the timelines, and the expectations that are suitable and necessary to a private money transaction. It seems […]
Everything you wanted to know about private money but were afraid to ask
Friday, January 6th, 2012Clay Sparkman Private money is often misunderstood. Many industry professionals know very little about it, and fallacies and misconceptions tend to dominate the collective wisdom. As you know, as a subscriber to this list, I have made it my mission to try to educate professionals regarding the realities of private money. In this capacity, I […]
