CLOSE THE TRANSACTION!

Precious funding is the key. The expectation of entitlement is the hook,  and too many a slippery sort, they are led to believe it is as simple as a home loan with a wholesaler. Well, wouldn't that be great! Then again what's the point. In the savage world of speculation finance, in  the auspice of the global arena, let us be honest, (gasp), just this once here; as I am always, the bearer of the reality check. DOCUMENTATION and process close the loans, JVs and asset based dispute resolutions, that of which I seem to excel. Oh, wonderful! So every shmuck or poor soul, who's down on his luck, wants an easy buck, will cry they have been defied by a process of diligence. Wow! Then come the internet pirates and the coercions. Fling a little mud, call my investors, and see what they get. Nowhere. Icarus, the melted wings; no, we must be hard nosed and real about this to give any who really make the effort a fair and equal chance. No ticky no laundry, and I mean no offense. I am an Underwriter of High Finance and Global Assets for specific investors, who have ink on my contract. If your car did not start in the East today, you really do have my sympathy. That being said, we would look under the hood and ask what if anything we can do. If a transaction proves difficult, then that is where I am that guy, the project mechanic. How often do they listen? Are those ears, or did someone just leave open the taxi doors. Oh. Yes, I forgot. Everyone is smarter and more years in than everyone else. Now the truth. I have no concern of that. I want my closings! I work for closings! People are very important to me, yet except for the starving yuppie marketer, who yet does have my sympathy, I believe slavery has been abolished, and I WORK FOR CLOSINGS, not for  the show of it, not to please a hapless client. This is not a drive through window order. The end game will show no quarter to those who refuse to satisfy the investor to a reasonable assurance, and thus... to actually close! Consider this simple method to assess. A see saw, with a sail. One side has security, and that would be collateral, backed up by hard assets at best. The other side has revenues, to prove the pay ability, and that requires the correct wording and signatures on verifiable documents. The sail that runs this engine, it involves the actual principles, to have what we call "skin in the game." Cash equity is needed for process and for contingency. Thus it effects the right type of respect by the target investor to give it a hope for the end game-  CLOSING  THE TRANSACTION. Isn't that what we all truly want. I must write fast, as I have so much work to do. This is a starting bell for market! Ding... wake up. The file needs to be fed, the investor reassured enough to sign off. Once we have all principle parties on contract, we will not allow them off the hook. Assuming everything checks out, verifications and documetation all are acceptable in form and source, it is in everyone's best interest to go forth and CLOSE THE TRANSACTION! I am focused on that here. In reality, we construct a careful file and if cooperative, then that client will be smiling, as we walk away with salary and/or points, to a reasonable degree. Stop the insanity of greed! Use ambition instead and work together to earn that closing. I work in some of the most difficult arenas on Earth. Yes, I am all over in the county recorders' records, all the closing of high point seconds, distress refis and hostile property takeovers (read: defaulted properties I have been forced to auction) I have done so easily here in my own country. That became less a challenge than a chore. I still enjoy some the regionalized action. Yet the real challenge and where we are most needed, the harder it seems to fulfill the process of documentation and to assess a true value. I love it. Give me a stack of projections, yet no actual explanation then I will mine the truth and try to fix it. Often they cry they have been had, yet I have also seen the documents that were agreed upon to get to closing and for the most part, found these to be fair. A few time my companies were able to put fast assets on the table, with dilligence and by contract only, that we have forced several closings, using our creative methods, proprietary often, yet not always. We pay a high regard to all legalities and work through what we are allowed to do. So no, we do not have to be so convincing, as the paperwork and then the meetings on-site, -these tell so much, like a darn crystal ball. Be practical. If you like your client, then first you must ask, why not just go to the bank. Then it is not that simple for most, is it? The needs are too often simple documentation, and there are formulas we can also expand upon. That is what we do in the back room to find a way, any way legal, to CLOSE THE TRANSACTION! That is the goal. If a loan comes short, maybe add in a JV. If a revenue can't be validated, maybe let an Underwriter function to obtain the proper contracts, letters of interest and verifications. Example one and then I am gone for now. A while ago, there was a distress project in a hard to fund country, a construction plan for a resort, with a residential venue, and some units already sold and occupied. I was told and it was insisted the project was worth $180M USD as-is, and yet would sell for only $80M USD! Awesome I say, a 44.4% LTV (Loan-To-Value) and thus a 55.6% Protective Equity, yet there was a receiver and the client had no appraisal. My immediate advice was to take that gent out to lunch and ask earnestly and kindly for his help to obtain a copy of the original appraisal, and yes, there is always one around in these type of transactions. They did not. I was flown in, at great fever and pain, as I had to put off a surgery to come in fast and ready, to move at a pace, without regard to anything but this: I want to CLOSE THE TRANSACTION! To my surprise, nobody even wanted to see and nobody could recognize several POFs (Proof Of Funds  in the way a bank statement and an attorneys' letterhead naming the amounts and showing the accounts). However, the Receiver was seasoned enough, he knew right away, I am the real deal, the genuine article, the last word, especially in this type of circumstance. I asked for a copy of any actual documentation, starting with the appraisal, that would allow us to CLOSE THE TRANSACTION! In less than a day, we had the actual bank appriasal from the original funding default court case, as ordered by the Judge. Ahh! What a pleasure, I finally get some truth, and yes, I can fix the shortfall with in-house  assets, my clients being an attorney and a sidekick who were in order, contrary and too quiet, I yet had confidence that they would do their part. As the appraisal was supposed to prove the $180M USD value, and that is where it took a hook turn into a frozen highway spinout! It read as valued at only the $80M USD which the borrower foolishly offered before any advice or evaluation. Never the less, I still have the way to CLOSE THE TRANSACTION. I pump in JV assets from in-house, yet for a reasonable discount on the acquisition as the appraisal insisted that the final value depended upon the cost of removing the residents who were suing the builder and of course, John Does 1-99. The best way was asserted to be a buy out. That makes great sense and I agree with all the principle parties involved, this had to be done and fast. I asked the realtor for a BPO, (Broker Price Opinion) to discount for removal of the lawsuit and then a "quicksale value", to allow for a fair and discounted offer. Her analysis was brilliant, exacted from numbers and costs. The client did not want to take the heat of this, so he dismissed her. Bad client! Bad client, bad deal. Folks, that is the reality check. I was able to then offer the JV needed, yet only if the original Realtor was on board, as that is also a fair play, and otherwise a foolish liability. I will not discuss the other file irregularities, as the client seemed to expect us to believe the value of their stock for instance, was worth as-is a healthy amount, at $1,900 per share, and total of just under two million dollars worth. Documentation revealed it was worth a dollar per share (read: $1,000- USD in totality) as being backed by only air, poof! Yet I still pressed on, getting my investors aboard and willing to insert JV from one to make up the shortfall, while another wanted to fund and of course then sell off the note. It was in favor, with one condition- get the lawsuit and the residents out.  The lawyer and his sidekick, did not care to actually pursue it, as it was an expense they came to resent. Oh my, we have people living under a construction project, promised full amenities and they have now paid and will not just leave quietly. Do you blame them? That is the point, to find the loose cannon on the deck and tie it to the mast, to find why the engine won't start and maybe address it, with, oh, say jumper cables. Whatever gets the job done, I assert this, because I am driven to CLOSE THE TRANSACTION and get to the points, ahh yes, commissons! Closing is an art, and closing is a sport, yes a science of balance, of which I have many methods to use. I believe any reasonable request can be closed, yet only if it is driven by a realistic client, ones who will give me truth in paper cuts, get honest about shortfalls, so I can fix them, or advise if it is not possible. Not to be so confident, yet if I can do as I please within contractual parameters, and that is a lot of room to be creative. Yet, after 30 years as an ACTUAL Global Underwriter, beware the schemers and dreamers, the Ponzis and the posers. Most mean no actual harm, yet in desperation or simple greed, they will bleed your time away. Security for the funding, best to use hard assets, and revenue, best when it can be proven, will always be the most simple tools to assess any project's chances. Now feel free to use this line to advertise your own items, such as all the BGs, LSPs, MTNs "Gicks" and HYIPs... bullet programs, but please no "scams". Feel otherwise, quite welcome. Yet when all is said and done, think it through, as in distress, dispute and difficult deals, there is always a "smoking gun." I can work with that. It needs real players and that makes me very motivated. Regard your profit motive  as you can be sure, that is what drives each and every client to pursue a closing. If the client is not driven enough, then the path will be too rough, the loose cannons go off, and the whole ship is sunk. Beware the ten year start up. Use official records and actual file components and learn what these are. I speak for many an underwriter when I say we do not get paid for therapy and education; that we may focus on CLOSING THE TRANSACTION. I use currency and hard assets. Welcome to a fair play and an opportunity to enjoy closing points. Enjoy placing "your ad here", as I have full willingness to share, there is plenty to go around. Wait! Did you hear that sound? Was it cannons? No. It was my limo and they figured it out, started it up and now I must depart. I am driven. Let's keep them closing folks, as they need us now more than ever! Forgive my humor, and be good to your files. Get paid and you will smile, CLOSE THE TRANSACTION! Yes, be human, yet for some arenas, know where you are, that they take no prisoners and eat the wounded. Investors are quite fierce about their assets, and yet, they do need to use them. Please be realistic, and start your car before you trod too far, and are buried in the blizzard, or go hungry in the desert. Good luck to you all. We most often make our own fate. You want a fortune? That also depends on the clientele you bring in. Just be honest and I promise I'll be gentle. Duly presented while I sip my warm coffee here, on the way west again! ...Eric Lerman, Senior Underwriter, Titan Global Assets, and under contract by three other companies and a bevy of actual investors. Stirring the pot! Got game? Then challenge yourself. Be well...