Category: Announcements

By Kyle Niewoehner, Esq. In private lending, certain deal structures are often presented as creative solutions to difficult financing scenarios. All-Inclusive Trust Deeds (AITDs), also known as wraparound mortgages, are one of...

By Pam Strickland This article was originally published in the May 2019 Points of Interest. It has been updated to provide information on the resolution of the audit. I am actually sitting with the DRE auditor as I type this...

By Michelle R. Rodriguez, Esq. A business purpose loan does not automatically become a consumer loan merely because some of the proceeds are used to pay off consumer debt.  But the payoff can create risk if it causes the loan...

By Nema Daghbandan, Esq. After improving lending conditions throughout much of late 2025 and early 2026, recent months have brought renewed headwinds for real estate investors. Rising Treasury yields have pushed borrowing costs...

By Michelle Rodriquez, esq. Temporary loans, commonly referred to as bridge loans, are exempt from certain provisions of Regulation Z and from portions of other consumer protection statutes, including the Real Estate Settlement...

By T. Robert Finlay, Esq. Unfortunately, we have some very bad news to report regarding the industry’s constitutional challenge to AB 130. The court dismissed the industry’s constitutional challenge to California Civil Code §...

By Marcus Carter Case Study: The consequences of skipping a comprehensive construction budget analysis during underwriting. Recently, a veteran in private money lending agreed to fund a ground-up SFR construction loan in Orange...

By Lindsay D. Dragon, Esq. Hawaii is one of the few jurisdictions that maintains a dual system for recording real property interests: the Land Court (or “Torrens”) system and the Regular (or “Abstract”) system. For lenders,...

Determining loan purposes can become especially challenging when proceeds are being used for both business and personal purposes. In those situations, lenders not only have to evaluate how the funds will actually be used, but...

By T. Robert Finlay, Esq. and Jonathan D. Fink, Esq. California Court of Appeals Gives Industry a Big WinWhen it Comes to Unwinding a Foreclosure Sale For decades, lenders have battled third party purchasers in court over...

By Pam Strickland This article previously appeared in Pam Stickland’s newsletter, Stricktly Strickland. Be careful what you say and how you say it. Choose your words carefully! The most common way of interacting with clients in...

Ask Me Corner: When a property is vested in a trust, corporation, or LLC, verifying proper authority is essential for both loan enforceability and investor protection. We asked two CMA lenders to share what documents they prefer...