Introduction and observation
Welcome to the website for FlipFunds Southwest, a hard money lender to real estate investors undertaking flip/rehab projects. We make loans to investors on properties throughout Texas and we are looking to expand to the Colorado market. The pages of this site include a description of our flip-loan business, contact information, general descriptions of some of our recent loans, and some key considerations for evaluating a hard-money loan. If you are looking for a commercial loan on a rehab property in Texas, we hope you will contact us to see if we can help.
We also want this site to be informative for visitors interested in information relating to the rehab business–either specifically or broadly. In this vein, our links page connects to a number of recent articles about the rehab business in Texas, the housing market and the wider economic context.
Which brings us to today’s topic. A few days ago, the venerable New York Times published an article on the nationwide flipping business. The piece generally provides a good high-level summary of the risks and benefits in the business. It hits many of the same areas discussed in several of the articles listed on our links page.
The Big Fish
Our present discussion will focus on one trend noted in the article: the entry of larger finance companies into the market. A number of large private-equity and asset-management companies are becoming increasingly active in the market. And as the Times reports, Goldman Sachs recently bought flip-financier Genesis Capital.
It makes sense that Wall Street financial behemoths would find their way into any profitable financial endeavor. And it is not surprising to find in the middle of the fray Goldman, which Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi famously described as a “great Vampire Squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly plunging its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.” Hyperbole aside, scale arguably has its benefits. Some investors may see advantages in dealing with these giant companies given their large organizations and deep access to funds.
We just ask you to shop around and ask yourself a few questions. Can these large companies really close as fast as a small lender working with independent local brokers? Will they be as flexible on terms? Will they respond as quickly to your draw requests, payoff requests, and other periodic needs? Consider all of your options and compare them on all factors that are important to you and your project. And we hope to be one of the options you consider. Give us a chance and we think you’ll like us.