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“Bridging isn’t an easy game and I think there are lenders out there who will be caught out by the tricks and see cracks appearing. You have to be careful, you have to understand risk, who the good brokers are and the bad brokers, all the fraud tricks. I think third quarter of 2012 we’ll start to see some of those cracks appear”
funding side to the London-based guys maybe aren’t available to us. They like to lend within the M25 whereas we’ve always lent across the whole country. But we’re still writing a good sized book.” He’s been in the game a lot longer than many of the bigger bridgers and says while competition is to be welcomed, changing the rules is dangerous. “I almost feel now when I come
down to London, even though I’ve been in bridging a long time, that I’m gatecrashing a nice little cliquey cartel of London bridging lenders. There’s been a huge influx of lenders and they’re mostly focused on that area. But there’s a big world out there – it’s ten to fifteen-fold bigger than the London market.”
Goodman lends countrywide and singles out the north West, greater Manchester, Merseyside, the Midlands and Birmingham as particular sweetspots. He also predicts that 2012 will shake out a lot of the dead wood. “I reckon this year those lenders who have come in over the past couple of years will start to understand what they’ve got on their loan books and will see where the creaks are,” he says. “Bridging isn’t an easy game and I think there are lenders out there
30 BRIDGInG InTRoDuCER MARCH 2012
who will be caught out by the tricks and see cracks appearing. You have to be careful, you have to understand risk, who the good brokers are and the bad brokers, all the fraud tricks. I think third quarter of 2012 we’ll start to see some of those cracks appear. “I hope not. I don’t want to
see anyone fail in this market because it’s bad for business – I want everyone to succeed within the parameters of their business plans because it helps maintain the credibility of the sector and helps attract more funding. We don’t want to see anyone fail but unfortunately I think we may see that happen this year.”
RELATIONSHIPS
Although Bridgebank has “a lot of very close and valued” broker relationship, Goodman says one of his “to dos” on the strategy for 2012 is taking another look at packagers. “We’ve never traditionally
worked with packagers and I remain to be convinced but I think we do need to look at it. It’s changing. More and more brokers are migrating to packagers to get bridging deals put together and to access the best rates and lenders.” Bridging is the opposite of tick box and it’s this that Goodman
is wary about in relation to packagers. “You have to understand the applicant, the risk, the property and the exit,” he says. “It is a very personal underwriting process that requires a huge amount of information. I think brokers over the past three years have identified the bad old days of getting a bridging loan with the minimum amount of information, which you could do in 2005. Those days are dead and buried. now as a lender we need to know everything and it’s probably more than brokers are used to supplying. “If that’s going through too many links in a chain back down to a packager, to a broker and maybe another broker, we know from our own statistics that deals only get done if we can drill down to the applicant directly very quickly. That’s not the same as cutting the introducer out, far from it. We will always keep the broker in the loop but the quicker we can drill down to the applicant to process the loan the more likely the deal is to be done.”
WHAT NEXT
Goodman has grand plans for the coming year. He’s been on a hiring spree and now has six business development staff in place. He’s hired a new head of marketing to boost the firm’s profile. “Steady growth” is what he’s looking to achieve he says and makes vague reference to “sizeable new investment” from more than one backer prepared to stump up
THE PRODUCTS
Bridgebank lends up to 65% and on occasion up to 70% on a residential investment property. No upfront processing fees; 2% drawdown fee shared 50:50 with the introducer; rates start from 1.25% and range up to 1.65% per month.
www.mortgageintroducer.com
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