I Have To Link To It
A snappy, snarky title eludes me for this story. This guy had a Scottsdale mortgage business where he syndicated loans and raised capital through private individuals. Loans soured and before his little empire collapsed he offed himself. The Wall Street Journal hints that this is a indicative of wider trouble in the commercial lending market. Not knowing anything about this company except what I just read, I bet that when the loans are examined it will show poor loan decisions and possibly affiliated dealings, or at least dealings with associates. More an instance of one guy thinking he was smarter than the market than widespread commercial loan troubles. And I bet that many of the soured loans were residential construction loans, not existing commercial property loans. This is not to say that trouble in the commercial mortgage market is not coming. As long as banks are not lending, even good borrowers with solid properties that need to rollover their loans are going to have trouble.