Clay 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 […]
Posts Tagged ‘hard money brokering’
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, […]
Small Is Beautiful
Friday, February 10th, 2012Clay Sparkman Generally speaking we are quite willing to consider small loans. We realize that we will never get rich doing small loans, but we also remember what got us where we are. The large loans can be quite fickle, coming and going as they please, but the small loans seem to be there when […]
What's Going On Out There?
Friday, February 3rd, 2012Clay Sparkman With the decline of real estate prices and concern about the global economy, there is a lot of speculation regarding the timeline of this recession. In conversations with brokers, investors, and developers throughout the country, the topic often turns to one common question: what’s going on out there? I’ve heard what the experts […]
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 […]
Private money – getting from point A to point D
Wednesday, December 28th, 2011Clay Sparkman In the spirit of learning by example, I’d like to take the opportunity to describe an interesting scenario that we put together. They say that when it rains, it pours. Well, for our borrower it had been pouring for a long time. A long run of bad luck had left him in a […]
Private Money – 5 DONT's and 5 DOs
Tuesday, December 20th, 2011Clay 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. […]
Private Money Loan Simulator
Wednesday, December 14th, 2011Clay Sparkman I firmly believe that the best way to learn about anything complex is by doing. The second best way is by example. If I could provide you with a private money loan simulator I would, but I haven’t figured out how to do that yet (though I assure you, we haven’t given up […]
