Loan Guarantee Risk Assessment for Professional Athletes

in Foreclosure, Real Estate Consulting, Real Estate Debt Workout, Real Estate Development, Real Estate Loans

Pro Athletes: Know when an investment loan risk can change your life – or ruin it.

Take as a for instance: A third year NFL player who’s had a few stand out years nearing a new contract, and is expecting a salary jump equal to his impact. He’s confident in his game, he’s also now confident mixing with businessmen, owners and managers. Opportunities come his way regularly and more are expected with the new contract. He’ll see options for real estate investment with varying degrees of risk. Friendships and emotion may come into play in his decisions. After all the loan risks have even been spelled out to him, he’s confident – and no one gets into an investment expecting failure. But if the deal goes into default and he hasn’t protected himself, he could lose a whole lot more than his initial investment. Confidence in his game came from years of practice and hard work but bringing that confidence to investing without preparation could affect him for years to come.

I’m often called for help with defaulted loan negotiations by high net worth clients who have made investments involving a personal loan guarantee that has them in a perilous financial situation. Often their problem could have been avoided altogether through basic investment analysis combined with prudent asset protection planning.

Sometimes they don’t even know the difference between a straight cash investment, where their risk involves their original investment capital only vs an “at risk” investment, which involves the investor becoming liable for the entire project’s debt by signing on as the guarantor of a bank loan to the project. Read more →


Bank consultant announces sellout of St Augustine real estate project

in Cincinnati Real Estate Consulting, Cincinnati Real Estate Development, Cincinnati Real Estate Development News, Florida Real Estate News, Jackonville Real Estate News, Press Releases, Real Estate Consulting, Real Estate Debt Workout, Real Estate Development, Real Estate Receiver

Cranewoods Development announces that it has completed the liquidation of a planned residential waterfront community on the shores of the St Augustine Inlet in Northeast Florida. “Properties are selling and inventory is being absorbed,” says consultant.

November 8th 2010 – St Augustine, FL   Bank and Real Estate development consultant Cranewoods Development announces that it has managed the final property closing of a planned multi-phase waterfront community in St Augustine Florida consisting of a future multi and single-family development that included a 3500sf West Indies style luxury home.

The St Augustine market had been hit particularly hard by the real estate downturn, ultimately creating intriguing opportunities for investors and homebuyers willing to step in and buy while prices are depressed.

“Properties are selling and inventory is being absorbed. Those are the indicators that prices are recovering. Now it’s a question of how fast,” stated Andrew Howe, President of Cranewoods Development. “This project had terrific value just sitting there, our job was to let people know about it in a way they understood.”

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Cranewoods featured in Engineering News Record (ENR)

in Cincinnati Real Estate Development, Construction Management, Florida Real Estate, Jacksonville Real Estate, Real Estate Consulting, Real Estate Debt Workout, Real Estate Development, Real Estate Loans, Real Estate Market News, Real Estate Receiver

In the November 3rd 2010 edition of the Engineering News Record (ENR), Andrew Howe of Cranewoods Development is spotlighted in an article called “Consensus Is Reached: Nowhere To Go but Up” for his take on how real estate developers have dealt with the economic crisis and how they see a way forward in an environment of tighter credit and slower growth.

ENR is the leading news magazine for engineers in the construction industry in America and they rightly point out, “For developers able to roll with the recession’s punches, some new activity in markets this fall has owners and lenders finally mustering some optimism and cautiously returning to the fray.”

The article points out that Cranewoods rolled with the punches by realizing their expertise in construction and real estate development financing was needed by troubled investors, lenders and borrowers. Cranewoods began consulting long before the world’s economic troubles but their unique knowledge was in greater demand when so many projects and loans had to adjust to the changing economic conditions.

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Incentives to Avoid Foreclosure

in Foreclosure, Real Estate Debt Workout, Real Estate Loans, Real Estate Market News

The Federal Government recently announced new incentives for homeowners underwater with their current mortgage to work with their bank on a “short sale.”  The new rules give timelines and parameters that offer confidence to lenders who have too often been stuck in an undefined and time consuming processes.  The Obama Administration’s aim is to lessen the credit ruining aspects of a foreclosure and give homeowners and lenders a start at moving forward with the least pain.

Lenders lose about 40 percent of a property’s value on a foreclosure vs. about 19 percent on a short sale, according to industry estimates.

The program also offers $3000 in moving costs to the homeowner and some mortgage support if the owner moves into HUD approved housing. Read more about it here.


Receivers and Receivership

in Cincinnati Real Estate Consulting, Cincinnati Real Estate Development, Cincinnati Real Estate Development News, Florida Real Estate Development News, Foreclosure, Jacksonville Real Estate, Real Estate Debt Workout, Real Estate Loans, Real Estate Receiver

Here’s a good resource if your real estate development or investment runs into some trouble and you or your lender think you may need a court appointed receiver.

A court appoints a receiver only after both sides of the litigation are given an apportunity to give input upon the specific receiver and the goals of the receivership. In real estate, those goals could be as diverse as selling the property to completing construction to financial analysis and auditing.

The Court and Receiver

The litigants counsel define the skill set needed in a receiver for their particular property and identify an agreed upon receiver. But once the court accepts their choice, the receiver is an extension of the neutral court.

“Parties with an interest in the receivership should treat the receiver as an arm of the court and should not seek ex-parte communications with or special treatment by the receiver.”

What to look for in a receiver

“A receiver should be chosen on the basis of background, expertise, neutrality, availability, compensation rate and temperament, and not because of perceived alliances and relationships.”

What you need to know
If you think your situation may require a receiver, go read the clear yet short article and learn more about the process and what you may need to look for. Your familiarity will aid you and your counsel in choosing the right path and goals of the receivership in your specific situation. PDF on Court Appointed Receiver here.


The Tax Loss Carry Back and what it means to Real Estate Investors and Buyers

in Cincinnati Real Estate Development, Florida Real Estate Development, Jacksonville Real Estate, Real Estate Debt Workout, Real Estate Market News, Real Estate Taxes

The Tax Loss Carry Back attached to the Unemployment Benefits Bill recently passed by congress and signed by the president has gotten little press but it may have great impact. First off, it will have the intended influence on stabilizing the Commercial Real Estate (CRE) market by helping potentially tens of thousands of mid level businesses – hit hard with the large drop in consumer spending over the last two years – by giving them much needed funds to stay in business and in their current leased or owned locations. Secondly, it will effect developers and builders, who fall into the previous categories, by giving them the funds necessary to survive and begin building again.

“According to National Association of Home Builders President Jerry Howard, “This injection of capital will enable a lot of our members, a significant number of small and medium sized builders that have been hanging on by their fingernails, to keep their doors open, and hopefully with this increased stimulus and demand from the tax credit, to be able to get back on their feet and get the country moving forward again.”” Source.

What does that mean for Real Estate buyers and investors? Morning Star gives a hint:

“Many builders are flush with cash and have already cleaned out their inventory of “C” and “D” locations. Most builders aren’t going to let loose of their precious “A” and “B” locations at a time when several in the industry have moved back into land acquisition mode and quality land is actually scarce in several markets. With survival not in question for the vast majority of public builders, many will opt to keep their land rather than sell it at fire-sale prices for tax purposes.”

The extremely low prices currently being seen in Real Estate won’t last long when new units are being designed to deal with with the growing pent up demand and the new demand created by the extension of the first-time home buyers credit and the added home-owners credit also recently passed by congress and signed by President Obama.