We have been jammed getting two new clients live (one Backshop license and one CMBS data user) and delivering major loan servicing features for an existing client. As we finish up, we are turning our attention to doing a Backshop enterprise software delivery, launching our document service and closing more business.
I spent the weekend skiing with a group of industry guys. Our annual trip is usually in Aspen, but this year we ventured to Whistler. It’s a boys trip with a rocking crew that works in lending, advisory, servicing and legal. Not much discussion about standards, rent rolls and MISMO, but I got a few props in.
Anyway, the town was still all decked out from the Olympics, and the bars were jammed. Here are a few pics and a video from the top of the mountain after eight inches of fresh snow. Enjoy.
The Olympic symbol at Whistler Peak. |
Now that’s a peak: Black Tusk Peak |
Snowy mountains as far as you can see. |
Across the valley looking west. |
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Jim Flaherty is CEO of CMBS.com and the creator of the Backshop loan origination system. He is a trained credit professional with experience installing enterprise underwriting systems for commercial real estate lenders, rating agencies and investors.
I am just back from our 2009 Backshop user conference in New York. Bank of America hosted it in a beautiful board room overlooking Bryant Park. About 10 clients invested the day with us to go over our accomplishments from last year and help set priorities for next year.
Backshop User Conference
We unveiled our new look for Backshop that we undertook as part of converting Backshop from a ASP/ASP.NET hybrid application to a 100% .NET application.
The new look and feel was really well received, and we got some good feedback on some additional design tweaks. Check out the Backshop web site in the near future as we will be adding a Software Tour section featuring the new design.
We also had time for informal discussions on customers’ outlooks for 2010 and beyond. I would say no one expects 2010 to be a good year as far as originations go. The belief is a few low leverage deals will get done, but traditional conduit origination will be small.
Asset management and deleveraging were much more the talk than originations. However, for the first time in a while people were talking about some allocation of capital for 2010 new loans, so we will see.
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Into the belly of the beast. |
Metallica!
The real fun started on Saturday night when a group of 16 of us met at Stout Bar (on west 33rd street) for a pre show dinner.
We got to the Metallica show right when the house lights dimmed and watched them kick off the show. As usual (this was my 7th time seeing this show), they were awesome. Sellout crowd, downtown New York City, flames, lasers and 20,000 outlets of energy.
While I was cruising around back stage, I ran into John McEnroe getting a drink in the green room. Last time I had seen him was at a Metallica show a few years ago out in the Meadowlands. He is a big fan.
The after party was at Del Posto, a great restaurant owned by Joe Bastianich and Mario Batali on 10th Avenue at 16th street.
We arrived with about half the crew still standing and all got in and had a great time. I went to Boston College with Joe and we played rugby together (I was the hooker, he was a prop) so it was good to see him also.
I got to spend a few minutes with Lars and could not thank him enough for the hook up. Food, drink and famous people. Not a bad way to spend an evening.
Robert and Lars rock the bass and beat. |
Metallica plays “Turn the Page” at Madison Square Garden:
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Jim Flaherty is CEO of CMBS.com and the creator of the Backshop loan origination system. He is a trained credit professional with experience installing enterprise underwriting systems for commercial real estate lenders, rating agencies and investors.
It has been a busy week around here: ULI Conference, Leads Release, MISMO Progress, preparing for the Backshop User conference and listening to Julian Marley.
 As an aside: The asset highlighted in the Asset Summary Report – CVS Holliston Mass. (PDF) is a property my brother and Dad own that has CMBS debt on it. It’s interesting seeing your own loan in the database. |
Last week we had a booth at the Urban Land Institute Conference in San Francisco. The 5,500 registrants included a wide range of equity players including developers, REITS, funds, architects and city planners. There were not as many lenders as in the past, but attendance was strong and the exhibit hall sold out.
While the attendance numbers were good, the frozen debt markets, rising cap rates, and detiorating fundamentals were affecting most people. The bright spots were 1) the few REITs that have accessed the capital markets and 2) the funds with dry powder looking to buy into the downturn. I did some promoting for transparency but spent most of my time selling Backshop, Leads and our bond tools.
We upgraded the CMBS Leads product by adding a new PDF report at the asset level and adding expanded data to our download features.
Here are two sample reports:
CMBS Leads report – Alaska Hotels (Excel)
Asset Summary Report – CVS Holliston Mass. (PDF)
The MISMO rent roll and operating statement committee, which I chair, had a call this week to go over the proposed XML schema we came up with at the end of August.
It took us a bit longer than we had hoped to get the structure integrated into the core data model, but we are moving again. We have another call set up for next week to finalize the schema, then it will be ready for its the 30-day public review period. Hopefully there will be a lot more on that in the coming weeks.
 Julian Marley rocks The Independent in San Francisco. |
We are having our annual user conference in New York this Friday. The last two years, we have hosted two-day conferences in San Francisco. This year, given the markets and travel budgets, we decided to have the meeting in New York instead. Our good friends at Bank of America are contributing the meeting space, and we have more than 10 clients coming in for a day of updates and priority setting.
We have traditionally had a music theme at the conference. The first year we went to see Willie Nelson at the Fillmore. Last year we saw Dark Star Orchestra at the Great American Music Hall. This year, we are going to the Metallica concert Saturday night at Madison Square Garden. We have a crew of 16 going and, as always, I am looking forward to a rocking night!
Speaking of rocking, I saw Julian Marley play last night at The Independent in San Francisco. Julian, a son of Bob Marley, is touring with his brother Stephen in support of Julian’s new album, “A Time and Place.”
It is an awesome album and a great show. If you see this show pop up in your city, consider going for great taste of some current reggae.
I’ll report in after the user conference and Metallica show with some cool pics/video.
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Jim Flaherty is CEO of CMBS.com and the creator of the Backshop loan origination system. He is a trained credit professional with experience installing enterprise underwriting systems for commercial real estate lenders, rating agencies and investors.
TALF, LoopNet vs. CoStar, CoStar and PPR, MISMO and a vacation in Yosemite … a ton has happened in the past few weeks.
I celebrated my 42nd birthday with my family over the long weekend by renting a house in Discovery Bay, a community located on the Sacramento River Delta 70 miles from San Francisco. While the girls drove, my son and I went up by boat.
We plan to launch our CMBS Leads product at the end of the week. We are currently putting the finishing touches on the tool, and we are really proud of it.
Our family just enjoyed a great spring break. While my wife and daughter went to Disneyland, my 10-year-old son Andy and I went to Palm Springs and hung out in the desert. We started by renting a hot red Dodge Charger and going to the local Walmart for essential supplies:
1) An adapter so we could plug our iPod into the rental car (going to Joshua Tree without playing U2’s Joshua Tree just wouldn’t seem right).
2) A sling shot.
After Walmart, we drove to 29 Palms and had breakfast at a Denny’s, then headed into the park. Joshua Tree is known for rock climbing, with piles of boulders and granite slabs everywhere. There is great climbing and scrambling through narrow cracks and tunnels.
After several stops of climbing and shooting rocks from the sling shot, we headed out on a 15-mile trip down a single track dirt road. Andy sat on my lap for a good part of it and got his first taste of driving. Way fun. We went out the eastern end of the park where we saw lots of interesting things — including Skull Rock and blooming cactus. Magical.
 In God’s country. |
 Andy in action. |
 Skull Rock! |
 Blooming cactus. |
 Where the streets have no name. |
After Andy got the taste of driving, we needed to hit an ATV park. About 5 miles outside of Palm Springs we found a great place where they had good machines and a minimum age of only 6! So we ended up doing it two different times and had a ball cruising around the dunes. Check out Andy’s speed:
The family reunited in Malibu for the weekend, where we met up with great friends we haven’t seen in a while. They had a 50 cc dirt bike and 15 acres, so Andy kept his need for speed going through the weekend. What a great dose of Southern California!
Back to work
Here at CMBS.com, we are busy finishing up our new Leads product. And tomorrow I’m speaking at the 4th Annual America’s Growth Capital Emerging Growth Conference on a panel about mortgage technology. I’ll report in after that.
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Jim Flaherty is CEO of CMBS.com and the creator of the Backshop loan origination system. He is a trained credit professional with experience installing enterprise underwriting systems for commercial real estate lenders, rating agencies and investors.
We have had a very active few weeks around CMBS.com — just not much blog writing!
Not much glamour around CMBS.com the last few weeks. We’ve been working hard “clearing” deals to add to our CMBS library. To clear a deal, we must tie out the loans from the setup file with the loans being reported on the Trustee IRPs. This is a slow, labor-intensive process.
Once we tie these loans out, we can successfully “roll” the loans from our source information (the setup files in the Conquest database we acquired from S&P) to the current balances.
We have now cleared about 400 securitizations — including all of 2008 and 2007 and most of 2006 and 2005. We are clearing close to 20 a day, so we should be finished up with all 600 in the next several weeks. We are updating the CMBS.com Free Securitization Search with the 400 this weekend, so enjoy the new goods.
Cover of U2’s “No Line on The Horizon,” to be released March 3. |
No Line on the Horizon is the name of the new U2 Album. I am lucky enough to have an advance copy, and we’ve been listening to it as we’ve been grinding through the data. Tracks 3, 4 and 5 (Moment of Surrender, Unknown Caller, I’ll Go Crazy If I don’t Go Crazy Tonight) are as good as any three U2 songs. Can’t wait for that tour –– I have an in there, so we should be front row again — Rock!
Why don’t deals tie easily? For a whole host of reasons, including:
1) The loan was split between securitizations, so there is more than one “servicer loan number” for a single loan in the setup file.
2) The loan paid off. In the older files, these simply were dropped from the list. Now, they are supposed to be reported as “paid off.”
3) The loan defaulted and has been foreclosed on.
4) The numbering systems are off between the setup file, which used Prospectus ID, and the Loan Periodic (the update file), which uses Servicer Loan Number.
So, populating our CMBS library is a manual process where each and every deal has to be touched and “cleared.” But we are figuring out the issues and getting the deals loaded correctly.
At 20 a day, there is a Line on The Horizon — and it is getting closer. …
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Jim Flaherty is CEO of CMBS.com and the creator of the Backshop loan origination system. He is a trained credit professional with experience installing enterprise underwriting systems for commercial real estate lenders, rating agencies and investors.
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