When underwriting commercial loans, commercial lenders need to be very careful about properties that are leased out for far more than their fair market value. A story will make this clear. GrandpaJack was a brilliant man. He was also a darned fool. Forty-five years ago, he spotted the fact that Silicon Valley on the San […]
First a correction. A few days ago, I wrote a blog article about how deflation is sweeping the world. In that article, I mentioned that deposit rates in Germany are slightly positive. I am pretty sure that this statement was wrong. Listening to Bloomberg today, I just discovered that the yield on ten-yield German bunds […]
Another Great Recession might be on point. The mainstream business media picked up the same theme on Thursday and Friday, as the Dow lost ground. There will be some severe economic consequences from the coronavirus. Even if COVID-19 never gets out of control in the U.S., hundreds of thousands of small businesses in China are […]
Now that I have mentioned it, you will start to hear the term, Modern Monetary Theory, all of time. The commentators use it a lot on Bloomberg, CNBC, and Fox Business. The financial commentators will often just use the acronym, “MMT”. According to Wikipedia, Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) is a macroeconomic framework that says monetarily […]
Having a money sense is critical to becoming successful in life. When an entrepreneur chooses to get to the next level, it is imperative that he takes into cognisance such things that can mar his progress in business. Among the things that can make or mar a business is taking loans. People take loans to […]
Working capital loans can be used to help companies pay for their operational costs. The net capital is also defined as the difference between a business’s current assets and liabilities. It’s the amount of money the company has currently as its disposal to pay for daily and immediate expenses. If you are having trouble meeting […]
In negotiating an income property loan, the size of loan the borrower can obtain is usually more of a sticking point than the rate or the loan fee. Since income property loan sizes are generally limited by the debt service coverage ratio (i.e., cash flow), rather than the loan-to-value ratio, the operating expense figure that […]
Wrap your head around the concept that every business owner in the entire country needs cash right now. His bank is definitely not going to loan it to him. Banks today are terrified. Here is exactly how to find some small commercial real estate loans during this Coronavirus Crisis. I want to emphasis the word, “small” […]
Are any of you guys savvy stock pickers? If so, you might want to consider shorting those companies which provide services to the construction industry. For example, those companies that manufacture, deliver, and/or set up huge construction cranes are likely to face some tough years ahead. Why? There may be very little new commercial construction […]
George Smith Partners recently released a tombstone about a commercial loan closing that used a financial term of which I had never heard: “George Smith Partners arranged $23,750,000 in bridge financing for the refinance of a 229-key, full-service hotel located in Downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota… The Property, built in 1986, underwent a PIP in 2017.” What […]
A great many residential lenders make revolving lines of credit (home equity loans) on owner-occupied homes; so it it natural for lots of commercial loan brokers to ask if their investor clients can get a a line of credit, secured by an apartment building or an office building. As a general rule, the answer is, […]
Last week I wrote a blog about how historically aggressive private money commercial bridge lenders are getting. This month George Smith Partners, the big commercial mortgage banking company (the original founder started George Smith & Company decades before I founded Blackburne & Sons forty years ago) released a newsletter, FinFacts, containing the following tombstone: “George […]
When a bank makes a commercial construction loan, it is certainly not going to take all of the risk. A bank will usually require that the developer cover at least 20% to 30% of the total project cost – land cost, hard costs, soft costs, and a contingency reserve equal to 5% of the hard […]
Nearly a decade ago, there was a foreclosure crisis. Realtors were buying old houses and flipping them. Now, the strategy is to buy new and rent out. This new asset class that is taking the private equity market by storm. It started in Arizona, spread to the Sunbelt, and is now spreading across the country. […]
I have a great training article about commercial loans for you today. How do conduits price their commercial loans? After all, commercial lenders cannot buy a forward commitment from Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, like a residential mortgage banker; yet most commercial loans today are fixed rate loans. How on earth do the commercial loan […]
A company named JCR Capital sent me an email flyer several months ago advertising their equity capital for value-add real estate investments. Value-add commercial real estate investments typically target properties that have in-place cash flow, but they seek to increase that cash flow over time by making improvements to, or repositioning, the property. In other […]
Prices and interest rates across the entire world are declining. This could be wonderful news for those of us in the commercial loan business. Before I explain, I want to bring you up to date on a blog article that I wrote last week postulating that a world war with China and Russia may be […]
The ten largest economies include (1) the United States; (2) China; (3) Japan; (4) Germany; (5) United Kingdom; (6) India; (7) France; (8) Italy; (9) Brazil; and (10) Canada. I was personally surprised to see that the economies of both Brazil and Canada made the top ten. Most of these economies are shrinking in population, […]
