All Forum Posts by: Corey Dutton

UK startup, LendInvest, is an online marketplace for mortgages in the United Kingdom. This company has a launched a peer to peer lending platform where is matches borrowers with lenders seeking yield. LendInvest was founded by former partners in Montello Capital Partners, one of the top real estate lenders in London. All of the loans presented on its lending platform are secured by real property located in the U.K. In April, the company boasted it has successfully funded over £50m in loans via its lending platform.

Posted by Corey Curwick Dutton

A local auditorium is rented and filled with a crowd of dreamers. A speaker, well versed in selling the dream of real estate riches, energizes the crowd and sparks their hopes. From there, the crowd enters the local real estate market determined to find the perfect real estate deal. This is how the local bidding wars begin and is the typical story of the Southern California real estate market. Asking prices are bid up to a point where they are well above retail, and competition for properties with any equity is fierce. Many other sub markets in the U.S. are also seeing low inventory levels and high competition. Is this happening in your local real estate market? Please share.

Posted by Corey Curwick Dutton

Brian Caplen published an article in The Banker called, ‘Why Generation Y Do Not ‘Like’ Banks.’ Brian Caplen asserts that Generation Y, ages 18 to 34, “expect their bank to be on top of all of the latest tech developments.” This is certainly true. Generation Y’ers are using non-bank services and payment solutions like PayPal.com and Xoom.com versus using traditional bank accounts, and most expect to access their bank accounts via their mobile devices. However, I don’t completely agree with the author’s assumption in the article that Generation Y’ers want to access their bank accounts via social media. Traditional banks will have to gain a strong grasp of social media in their marketing along with mobile. But I think the real point is that a tremendous opportunity exists to create a market within the market with regarding to Generation Y and “banking.” The financial technology sector will eventually produce a winner that will capture the Generation Y’ers. For traditional banks that can’t evolve and capture them, well, we all know what their eventual fate will be. Read the entire article on The Banker at the link below. Traditional banks are certainly posed with a tremendous challenge and opportunity with the younger generation. How do you think they will fare?

(Source: The Banker: http://www.thebanker.com/Editor-s-Blog/Why-Generation-Y-do-not-like-banks)

Posted by Corey Curwick Dutton

The Economist featured a fascinating and well researched article in May’s print edition called, “Shadow Banking in China: Battling the Darkness.” This piece outlines how non-bank lending has grown in China in recent years, hinting that a credit bubble has been mounting for quite some time.

Ten years ago, all lending in China was via a network of state-owned banks that were under strict regulations. In recent years “shadow banks” have emerged to provide credit in the form of trusts, leasing companies, money-market funds, and others. Because so many investors have entered the shadow banking industry seeking yield, competition has increased to a point where interest rates have been pushed down from an average rate of 15% down to 10%.

Borrowers from shadow banks are companies in industries like real estate or steel where the government is seeing “overinvestment,” and likewise where state-owned banks have slowed lending or stopped lending altogether. As China’s economic growth has slowed, insiders are concerned that many of these shadow banking loans will have to be extended beyond their maturity dates, or go into default. This in turn may cause a “run” on the shadow banking sector as a whole and cause a wave of instability in the credit market in China. Read the entire article at the link below.

(Source: http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21601872-every-time-regulators-curb-one-form-non-bank-lending-another-begins)

Posted by Corey Curwick Dutton

National Real Estate Investor posted an article recently called, “8 Alternative Property Types for Today’s Real Estate Investor.” This was a well-written article by Elaine Misonzhnik and highlights some interesting property types including:

1.Farms: As the demand for organically grown food continues to grow, this is right on. But to this I would add the growing demand for both commercial space as well as agricultural property in States that may follow suit to Colorado.

2.Data Centers: To this I would ask, how hard is it to follow the trend for data center space, e.g. where companies are buying?

3.Billboards: Classified as real property and on track to becoming REITs, billboards may be something for real estate investors to look at again.

Check out the entire article and the other 5 property types highlighted in this article on National Real Estate Investor.

(Source: http://nreionline.com/: http://nreionline.com/finance-investment/8-alternative-property-types-today-s-real-estate-investor#slide-1-field_images-954431)

Posted by Corey Curwick Dutton

New regulations on payday lending companies in Britain has resulted in a stagnation or slow down in the payday lending industry there, according to numbers from the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority). After strict rules per imposed in April of this year by the FCA, approximately 100 of Britain’s top 210 have stop offering payday loans. That’s a huge decline.

“We have said before that firms would need to improve their operation or exit the market, and we are now seeing that happening,” said a spokesman for the FCA.

QuickLoans.co.uk, one of UK’s biggest payday lenders has already left the market, according to it’s recent announcement that it will stop offering payday loans because of the, “continuing, even increasing threats of political interference by the Governments.”

The same has been seen in the U.S. with federal government interference in lending under Dodd Frank with the creation of the CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau). But is government intervention the answer? Limiting the predatory lenders in the market by using blanket rules may protect consumers but it will also certain limit the overall availability of credit. Proponents of the FCA in Britain and the CFPB in the U.S., say these new financial regulations aimed at protecting consumers are long overdue and will end unnecessary abuses. Where do you stand on this issue? Is government intervention the answer?

(Source: Independent.co.uk: http://www.independent.co.uk/money/loans-credit/tougher-rules-turn-half-of-britains-210-payday-lenders-away-from-rapid-loans-9412937.html)

Posted by Corey Curwick Dutton

Mortgage Professionals America magazine online has been following the discrimination charges recently raised against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). In a recent article on MPAMag.com about the ongoing investigation of the CFPB that began in April of 2014, a former employee and whistleblower claimed that the CFPB has a culture of, “retaliation and intimidation that silences employees.” Critics of the CFPB claim that the CFPB has no accountability or oversight. But how will the regulation of the regulators actually shake out? Only time will tell.

(Source: MPAMag.com: http://www.mpamag.com/mortgage/two-more-cfpb-whistleblowers-to-be-subpoenaed-by-house-18622.aspx)

Posted by Corey Curwick Dutton

A recent article from Curbed.com about the “ghost towns” in Ireland, gave me a chilly reminder about the craziness of speculative real estate bubbles. The ghost towns in Ireland refer to the thousands of homes that were built during the real estate bubble, that have never been lived in or even completed. In fact, photographer Valérie Anex published a photo series titled, “Ghost Estates,” which documents the horror of the overbuilding that took place in Ireland prior to the crash. Some of the photos taken by Anex of these ghost towns can be viewed on Curbed.com. Take a few minutes today to look at some of the photos of these “ghost towns” in Ireland. For me, it was a grim and sad reminder about how speculation can lead to insanity.

(Source: Curbed.com: http://curbed.com/archives/2014/05/27/an-eerie-look-at-irelands-suburban-ghost-towns.php)

Posted by Corey Curwick Dutton

Secondary markets such as Houston, Denver, Nashville, and Austin, Texas are expected to see growth in rents in 2014, by more than 4%, according to a recent article in National Real Estate Investor Online. According to Brad Doremus as senior analyst with Reis this anticipated growth is largely related to the fact that many of the economies in these secondary markets are dependent on rapidly growing industries such as tech and energy. Because many bank lenders prefer to lend on Class A properties in top tier markets, bridge lenders will follow real estate investors into secondary markets this year to finance new acquisitions.

(Source: NREIOnline.com: http://nreionline.com/multifamily/secondary-markets-experience-accelerated-rent-growth-2014?NL=NREI-11&Issue=NREI-11_20140607_NREI-11_729&[email protected]&YM_MID=1470202&sfvc4enews=42&cl=article_3 )

Posted by Corey Curwick Dutton

We write on the topic of loan scams often and we always get a lot of responses from victims of these scams. People often ask, “Who do I report this to?” and unfortunately there is no straightforward or clear answer.

There are a ton of lending scams out there, the most common being the upfront fee scam. Under this scenario, a company poses as a legitimate lender and provides loan approvals to potential borrowers. Along with a loan approval is always an upfront fee. Not in all cases is this a loan scam, as most lenders do charge a commitment fee. This is where it gets tricky to find a reliable private money lender or commercial hard money lender.

Have you been the victim of a loan scam and would you like to report the person or the company to stole your time and money? Perhaps even if you’d like to share your story anonymously, we’d still love to hear it. There has to be a medium through which private lending sources could be validated and whereby potential borrowers could avoid falling victim to loan scams.

Please contact me privately or leave a comment below with your story. We are gathering information about the various types of loan scams that are out there, so please share your intel about some of these companies or groups that are perpetuating some type of loan scam. Help others to avoid falling victim to these scams by sharing your story whether publicly or privately. Again, please contact me privately or leave a comment below with your story. Thanks for helping others avoid falling victim to loan scams by sharing your story.