Mortgage Banking

Making sense of commercial real estate finance.

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Newletter Chaos

Posted by Jordan Crouch on June 10, 2008

We were trying to get a newsletter out last week, and now, hopefully sometime this week it will be finished. This has proved more complicated and time consuming that anticipated. Hence my lack of posting here.

Posted in Random | 1 Comment »

Buying the Empire…

Posted by Jordan Crouch on May 21, 2008

…State Building. I recently finished reading Empire: A Tale of Obsession, Betrayal, and the Battle for an American Icon about the Empire State Building and its many transfers of ownerships. It’s a fascinating read about one of the most well known buildings in the world. At one point the ground is owned by one entity, the building is owned by a second entity and master leased to a third entity. How that ownership structure transpired and what each entity did to try to get the other “parts” of the property is what makes this a great story.

Thanks to Dirt Attorney for mentioning the book on his blog a few weeks ago.

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The Safeco Situation

Posted by Jordan Crouch on April 23, 2008

It was announced today that Liberty Mutual is acquiring Safeco Corp. What does that have to do with commercial real estate in Seattle? Actually, a lot. Safeco recently sold its headquarters near the University of Washington to move its operations to downtown Seattle. The company leased 424,000 square feet in the CBD. With such a large chunk of the available market leased at once, downtown office vacancies sank, lease rates rose and several new office developments commenced construction. The opposite will likely happen if Liberty Mutual decides to downsize some or all of Safeco’s space. So far, there has been no word on layoffs; hopefully that will not happen.

Other interesting notes about Safeco:

  • The Mariners play at Safeco Field. I would imagine that the stadium would not change its name.
  • Spun off Symetra Financial in 2004. (Full Disclosure: Symetra is one of the lenders we represent.)
  • Safeco’s downtown headquarters, Safeco Plaza, is locally known as ‘the box the Space Needle came in’.

Posted in Random, Seattle Real Estate | 2 Comments »

How to get a Construction Loan in the Current Lending Market

Posted by Jordan Crouch on April 17, 2008

1. Buy your lender lunch

2. Send your lender flowers

3. Send your lender candy

4. Offer to wash and wax your lender’s car

5. Work with a mortgage banker and

he can do steps 1-4 for you.

Pretty funny, but somewhat true in today’s lender oriented market. I wish I could say this was my idea but someone else used it at a presentation yesterday.

Posted in Capital Markets, Lenders, Random | 2 Comments »

Amazon Novel Contest

Posted by Jordan Crouch on February 5, 2008

This isn’t real estate related. My wife is a writer and is currently one of the semifinalist in Amazon’s Breakthrough Novel Award contest. Narrowed down from over 5000 writers, the semi-finalists have until March to gather “customer” reviews. Here is the link to her story. Please check it out and leave a review if you have time. Thanks. And Good Luck Staci!

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