Commercial lenders are suffering in this economy as well – just not as publicly it appears. Last month one of the most prolific Hard Money Lenders on the Commercial Real Estate side of the house killed himself. A Hard Money Lender lends money to real estate investors for very short time frames at astronomically high interest rates – and some investors hyperventilate at the chance to borrow. It looks like he got overexposed to the…
The Deal Done Died
Yep. After all the drama. All the back and forth. All the ups and downs. My first apartment deal is DEAD. Call it doctor: time of death Thursday July 10, 5pm eastern. The cause of death is what’s ridiculous. Again, to recap (please indulge me if you’ve seen this before) Mr Seller and I agreed to terms last April 15th. He produced all of the required due diligence documents up front, except for his 2007 Tax Returns…
Off-Topic Friday: Captain Picard v Captain Kirk
I have thought for a long time that Star Trek is a metaphor for life. Especially for work and business. But as much as I try to explain it to my wife, I still usually get the blank stare (you know the one I’m talking about), even though I converted her into a STNG fan when we were courting way back in grad school in 1990. (She doesn’t like or get Monty Python either) I…
When It Happens to Them It’s a Recession – When It Happens to You It’s a Depression
GREAT. I wrote a blog post a couple of days ago about Indymac shutting down it’s lending operations. Something about a Pig Through a Snake. Perhaps you read it – about capitalization issues taking down another lender – blah blah blah blah. It was mildly interesting but not earth shattering because, hey, it didn’t affect me! Then late yesterday afternoon I finally received a call back from my intrepid commercial mortgage broker. I had called…
I’m Fuzzy On the Whole Good/Bad Thing.
Be careful what you believe. The home sales numbers for June are out – and Hooray! Sales of homes were UP last month in the metro area over June last year! And not just UP – but up almost 12%! Let’s throw a parade a celebrate the bottom of the real estate market here in Metro Detroit!! The days of Mai-Tais and Yahtzee are back! Not so fast. Sure the numbers are up in the…
A Pig Through a Snake
The carnage and destruction of the mortgage industry continues – with no end in sight. Just days after Countrywide became part of Bank of America on July 1, Indymac Bancorp, the 11th largest producer of US home mortgages, suspended their lending operations yesterday and immediately stopped accepting any new retail or wholesale mortgage applications.  The company posted the first annual loss in it’s 23-year history last year, and it’s stock price, having been as…