It’s been a while since we have discussed seasoning on this blog and it’s about time to talk about the changes that have taken place in the ...

Mortgage rates have been news for some time now. Coverage about mortgages has recently turned toward news of a potential rate decrease. This...

Wintertime is usually a slow time for the residential real estate market. Cold temperatures and budgets that are recuperating from the holid...

Stephon Martin It is an interesting time in real estate—we stand on the precipice of the ending of a national foreclosure moratorium, intere...

2020 has been a life-changing year for everyone, literally everyone. From the global pandemic, to the fluctuating economy, not to mention th...

I try my best on this blog to focus on the issues effecting the real estate market and offer a perspective uninfluenced by political fac...

Default happens, hopefully not often, but it is a fact of lending. Upon default, however, a holder of a second mortgage must find an objec...

Real estate crowdfunding has been a hot topic for the past few years and continues to gain notoriety. Praised for its flexibility and lo...

The fight against property blight is a battle that has been waged for many decades. Some areas of the nation, have struggled with abandone...

I once had a conversation with a coworker in which I expressed my frustration regarding the siloed view of real estate that many real esta...

Welcome to another year at the Real Estate Think Tank. I enjoy writing about real estate and am thankful that I have this forum to share my...

Easements are a common occurrence in real estate, but what are they really? Essentially, an easement is the right to use a property gra...

Today's banks are unabashedly international businesses which thrive on providing services and taking advantage of opportunities through...

In his book Mortgage Wars , former CFO of Fannie Mae, Timothy Howard explains how Fannie's realization that mortgages behave like bonds...

At long last, the end of the series! Personal bankruptcy is usually filed by an individual for very different reasons than corporate ...

Let us continue the bankruptcy theme begun in my last post and discuss the effects of Special Purpose Entity (SPE) bankruptcies and thei...

Mortgage-backed securitization is an essential part of the mortgage secondary market, as it provides both liquidity and expanded sources of...

Early in my whole loan trading career, an investor once offered to fund a partnership that would purchase second position liens, also known...

Lender’s fees are a fact of life in real estate acquisitions. I was recently reading a chapter in a real estate handbook that outlined t...