The MBA does a great job in planning sessions, and in selecting a location where lenders and their mortgage bankers can meet. The convention takes place at the beginning of the year, so that the lenders can articulate their goals, which allows immediate feedback from the mortgage bankers; and gives the mortgage bankers direction in… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Market Trends
Subscribe to Market Trends RSS Feed2012 MBA-CREF Convention Starts: Top Topics Span Good Times, Tough Times & Technology
Posted in Good Times for Lenders, Market Trends, Technology (including Green Buildings)Yesterday (Sunday) was the first day of the 2012 MBA-CREF Convention. The theme or tag-line is “Where Market Makers Meet.” The formal sessions start today, which cover content planned by the various councils comprising the MBA. Some times the “off the record” content is just as interesting as the planned presentations. (Or maybe they just… Continue Reading
“Good” News in CRE Finance in ’12? Not Really (& Real Uptick for CMBS Requires a 3-step)
Posted in Market Trends, Technology (including Green Buildings)Rick Jones at Crunched Credit has a thoughtful piece where he offers a hopeful picture for commercial real estate debt markets in 2012. I can’t go there. On several basic points he’s overly optimistic (his view in bold). My view is this: Unemployment (6-7%): for the next 3-4 years, the new normal is +8% –… Continue Reading
Lessons Learned: More Tips on Topics to be Included in Loan Documents (& Modifications)
Posted in Market Trends, Training, Workout IssuesPeriodically I touch on topics that could be, or should be, covered in loan documents – either when the loan is initially closed and funded, or when the terms of the loan are revisited during an extension or a restructure (collection of blog posts on "lessons learned" [it is a long list]). Here are… Continue Reading
Financial Reform (Dodd-Frank Act) Watch: Outlook for 2012 and beyond? Tepid
Posted in Market Trends(Continuing my "change is our friend" focus as we start 2012 . . . ) At the fall meeting of the American College of Mortgage Attorneys, Maureen Young‘s overview of financial services reform under Dodd-Frank contained an insightful outlook for 2012 and beyond. Capital is KING: greater capital and liquidity standards. Well-capitalized banks will eat troubled banks. My comment… Continue Reading
Year End Grab Bag: Change & 3+ Years of TT4L Point to . . . Change
Posted in Market Trends, TrainingA friend once comforted and challenged me with these words: "Change is our FRIEND." The words of wisdom were offered up to me as I wrapped up a 90 minute program for first, second and third grade kids . 140 of them were sitting in chairs, looking at me and waiting for Mom or Dad to… Continue Reading
More Trouble: Will Record Online Sale Numbers Transform Sticks & Bricks Retailing in 2012? I say “yes”
Posted in Market Trends, Technology (including Green Buildings), Training, Workout Issues2012 should be the year when online sales broadly impacts "how" retailers view and use their "physical" stores. This will impact both the owners AND the lenders. Record online sales point to the need (RIGHT NOW) to take a different approach in reviewing and approving retail leases – which for lenders with shopping center and… Continue Reading
Facebook’s Impact on Commercial Real Estate: Connected Apartment Community + Lender Remedies = Misery??
Posted in Market Trends, Technology (including Green Buildings)This is a wonderful time of the year. And maybe I simply need to move on, to stop beating the drum about lenders needing to come to the technology party, and to drop this thought: Social media tools, like Facebook, will make a foreclosing lender miserable, unless the lender understands the tools and thoughtfully takes… Continue Reading
Wisemen Cometh – with 2012 (& beyond) predictions (Tough? Good? Tepid?)
Posted in Market TrendsThis is the time of year when the Wisemen come. While in law school, I was a teaching assistant for a very popular Economics professor at UT Austin. One of his favorite sayings was this: "thousands of years ago, the wisemen looked to the stars for guidance; today, economists are the magi of the modern… Continue Reading
Special Purpose Vehicle (SPE): Comment in Recent US Supreme Court Case Encourages Bankruptcy Risk
Posted in Good Times for Lenders, Market Trends, Single Purpose Entity, Workout IssuesRecently, Professor Joshua P. Fershee posted a very interesting observation on the Business Law Prof Blog. Professor Fershee comments on a legal concept called the "single enterprise" theory, and on references to this concept by the US Supreme Court in a decision published by it this past summer (Goodyear Dunlop Tires Operations, S.A. v…. Continue Reading
Defaulted Hotel (California) Loans: Nice Story in Bloomberg; Here are some practical tips
Posted in Market Trends, Remedies, Tough Times for Lenders, Workout IssuesNadja Brandt and Kara Wetzel with Bloomberg have a nice piece on the scope of and challenges in dealing with defaulted hotel loans in CMBS pools. It is a good read. And it has been picked up or syndicated in other news media. As I’ve noted before, with a hotel or motel securing the loan,… Continue Reading
Collection Plate: Is your smart phone a discovery treasure chest? Spyware by your phone provider?
Posted in Market Trends, Technology (including Green Buildings)The tech community is in an uproar with talk (really on-line chatter and twitter) about "Carrier IQ." The term is new to me, and until last week, the public was not aware of it either. It is a tool described on the maker’s home page (company webstie) as – Many in the tech community call… Continue Reading
MERS Update – Legal (MERS surges), Political (it’s stick), Transparency (kudos to MERS)
Posted in Market Trends, Technology (including Green Buildings)I’ve been following the MERS saga for several years now (prior postings for background). My bottom line: we need a Federal solution. This one-state-at-a-time approach is a painful process – and it will negatively impact the iquidity needed in our mortgage finance markets If you’re just now dropping in on this topic, MERS is an… Continue Reading
Navigating Distressed Co-Lender Loans: Just Another (Dysfunctional) Modern (Finance) Family?
Posted in Market Trends, Tough Times for Lenders, Workout IssuesEarlier, I offered up some advice that in a workout, you really can’t take it personally. If that didn’t work for you, then here’s another approach that should resonate (I can’t get it out of my head): if you’re in a loan with other lenders, the co-lender structure probably has some real, real, real dysfunctional aspects to it … Continue Reading
Who Are Those Guys? New Use of Adverse Possession
Posted in Market Trends, Tough Times for Lenders, Workout IssuesPerhaps you’ve noticed this legal phrase cropping up on the national evening news, or in your local paper: adverse possession. Generally, most states have laws which allow a person to obtain legal title to real property based upon taking physical possession of it over a specified period of time, and doing so in a manner… Continue Reading
2011 World Series: Rangers v. Cardinals game #3 – Big Records Go Beyond Tough as Pujols Plays it Again & Again
Posted in Market Trends, Tough Times for LendersWhat world was I in this past Friday, when I blogged "Games are close but differences are huge"? With a final score of 16-7 (Cardinals over my Texas my stRangers [Rangers but strange]), the game was NOT close and the differences are HUGE. (Pictures) I witnessed a record tying and making day by Albert Pujols… Continue Reading
2011 World Series: Rangers v. Cardinals – Games are Close but Differences are Huge
Posted in Market Trends, Tough Times for LendersIf you’re watching the 2011 World Series (and if you’re not, you’re missing some great baseball), you need to step back from the personal distress caused by the one-run differences in the first two games, and focus on the incredible differences between the two teams and their cities. The St. Louis Cardinals have been to… Continue Reading
CMBS 2.0: What Is It Looking Like? Cash Management & New Recourse Events
Posted in Good Times for Lenders, Market TrendsAndrews & Kurth has a nice "high level" piece on the CMBS market – covering challenges and changes in CMBS since the market crash. And periodically (perhaps too frequently!), I’ve offered up my broader insights on these same subjects (search TT4L using the terms "CMBS" or "2.0"). However, it is important to get very, very… Continue Reading
CMBS Update: Rating Agency Reform & Another Wells Letter
Posted in Good Times for Lenders, Market TrendsFor those of us looking for a healthy return of the CMBS market as a needed source of liquidity to the commercial real estate market, here are several recent events of interest: Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Standard & Poors (S&P) received notice from the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) that it is… Continue Reading
Foreclosure Myths: There Should Be No Mystery About Foreclosing CMBS Or Agency Loans (Here are a few tips)
Posted in Market Trends, Remedies, Tough Times for LendersTommy Bastian has a great presentation on the "myths and reality" of foreclosing in Texas. He addresses several very important and unique attributes surrounding the foreclosure of securitized real estate loans. It is a very popular topic of readers of TT4L. Indeed, Courtney Bristow’s article is a top 5 download on the topic (published here almost… Continue Reading
Aesop’s Fable Update: CMBS Loan Production Slow; CMBS Special Servicing Fast
Posted in Good Times for Lenders, Market TrendsAesop’s fable of "The Tortoise and the Hare" makes for good bed time reading with the kids. It is a great lesson in consistency for the kids. "Slowly does it every time" said the smiling tortoise to the hare at the finish line. However, it is a painful picture in the work place, where the… Continue Reading
Why No (little) Mention of UCC Foreclosures In Dispute?
Posted in Market Trends, Remedies, Tough Times for Lenders, TrainingQuestion: so, what is the deal with so little (OK, almost zero) mention of law suits, disputes and muck-rucking involving UCC (personal property) foreclosures and commercial loans? Answer: because a UCC foreclosure sale can be, depending upon the facts, just . . . a bad place for a lender to be. Bad. If Your Collateral is Personal… Continue Reading
A/B Note Structure Is Tough: More Points For Your Due Diligence List
Posted in Market Trends, Tough Times for Lenders, Training, Workout IssuesMore on my focus on A/B Note structures (earlier posting), covering key structural points that surface during a workout involving both an A note and a B note: What is the credit support impact of the B note holders rights? Huge. If the intercreditor agreement (covering the relative rights of the A note holder and the… Continue Reading
A/B Note Structure Is Tough: Put These Questions On Your Due Diligence List
Posted in Market Trends, Tough Times for Lenders, Training, Workout IssuesThe A/B note structure grabbed considerable attention in 2009 when the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) issued it’s "Guidance on Prudent Commercial Real Estate Loan Workouts." Recently, the A/B note structure is making a come back in new loan origination. Here are a few basic questions that will help you understand some of the… Continue Reading