Clay Sparkman I would say that as much as 75% of our loans are initiated by third-party loan brokers. We rely heavily on our wholesale broker relationships and dearly value the strong working relationships that we have. As much as we love our relationships with brokers, it is an ongoing challenge to develop new relationships. […]
Fundamentals
Submitting private money loans
Wednesday, December 7th, 2011Clay Sparkman One of the challenges for individuals and professionals pursuing a private money option is figuring out what information to provide for a specific loan request (and in what format). Because the questions and issues are quite different for private money, and certainly different within the private money context depending on the type of […]
Free Lunch
Thursday, November 3rd, 2011Clay Sparkman Do you believe that there is really no such thing as a free lunch? We at Fairfield feel that we have something that comes pretty close. Just for being in the right place at the right time, mortgage professionals can earn a pretty handsome little fee. Think about referring loans to us, when […]
Kick some A in your CMA
Wednesday, May 18th, 2011Clay Sparkman One thing that Fairfield does a little differently is allow our borrowers to supply their own valuation analysis in lieu of a formal appraisal. Our acceptance of a value estimate really comes down to the comps, and we really don’t care who provides them so long as they are appropriate, we can follow […]
Resources – show me the good stuff!
Tuesday, March 29th, 2011Clay Sparkman I have long searched for resources that might be useful to those who wish to learn more about private money and hard money loans, and in the process I have become increasingly convinced that our particular niche field is somewhat of an intellectual/informational wasteland. Every time I stumble upon an article or site […]
How to broker private money loans when real estate markets are uncertain
Sunday, March 6th, 2011Clay Sparkman We’ve been through nearly 3 ½ rough years in the real estate market—and projections seem to indicate that we will finally see clear up-turn in the second half of this year, but no one really knows for sure. We have managed to survive this down-time (all who are still present please take a […]
How to communicate your deals
Monday, February 28th, 2011S. Clay Sparkman and Richard Sundvall There are certain key pieces of information that we need to know when we’re sizing up a deal. Having this information when you contact us can speed up the process considerably. Also, if you have these pieces in hand you can talk about your deal more clearly and present […]
The private money lending business: likes and gripes (part III)
Friday, February 4th, 2011Clay Sparkman I finished Part II with a brief mention of something I quite like about the trust deed system: that is, the option (generally available) to foreclose judicially. Before moving on, I’d like to offer you a crude little decision tree which shows how investors might go about making the decision whether to foreclose […]
The private money lending business: likes and gripes (part II)
Thursday, January 13th, 2011Clay Sparkman In Part I, I began a discussion of my gripes and likes regarding the private money lending business and various industry related matters, items, and issues. I allowed myself to amble a bit far afield and concluded by mentioning a book about the legal profession which I personally found to be informing and […]
The private money lending business: likes and gripes (part I)
Wednesday, January 5th, 2011Clay Sparkman Awhile back I published a 3-part post on my Private Money Investor blog regarding my personal likes and gripes as a purveyor in of private money. This has been my sole job for the past 20 years. Who wouldn’t want to go rant and rave publicly about their job? I guess I could […]
