Craig Higdon
BSME, MBA, CA Real Estate Broker
Free
Commercial Lending Trainer and Lender Expert
Craig Higdon Quick Facts
- Main Areas
- Commercial real estate lending, brokerage, and investing
- Career Focus
- Business Owner
- Affiliation
- ICSC, NAR
Craig S. Higdon graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Southern Califo
ia. He subsequently earned a Masters in Business Administration from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland. After leaving school, he decided that he did not look good wearing a pocket protector and calculator on his belt, so he consequently took a job on Wall Street as a retail stock broker. This began 25 years of work in the financial services sector where he held jobs as an investment banker, business owner, mortgage broker, and eventually as a direct lender.
Mr. Higdon has been in the mortgage business since 1993 and is a licensed Real Estate Broker in the state of Califo
ia. He has been a member of the Califo
ia Association of Mortgage Brokers (CAMB), the National Association of Mortgage Brokers (NAMB), The National Association of Realtors (NAR), and the Califo
ia Mortgage Association (CMA). He is currently a member of the International Councils of Shopping Centers (ICSC).
Mr. Higdon has extensive background in both residential and commercial mortgage loan transactions, including significant construction loan experience. His personal mission is to help real estate investors enjoy the benefits of debt-free, high cash flow commercial property by helping them pay down their commercial mortgages quickly. Thus he is a champion of accelerating re-payment of commercial mortgage debt.
He has another mission related specifically to the mortgage industry. As a second degree black belt in Shaolin Kenpo, he considers it his personal duty to protect real estate investors from commercial loan misinformation and inadequately trained mortgage brokers. Thus he has authored a complete course and developed an on-going coaching program geared towards helping mortgage brokers reach the next level in their commercial mortgage professional development.
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Articles by this expert
SelfGrowth articles and saved writing connected to this expert.
Article
Commercial Real Estate: Raising Equity
GETTING STARTED WITH INVESTORS Those researching the subject of commercial real estate investment are likely to encounter the term “OPM” on a regular basis.
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Article
Commercial Real Estate: The Importance of Population Trends
While commercial real estate can be an excellent investment, it’s all but impossible to succeed in this competitive environment without some sort of game plan. The most successful professional real estate investors are those who are able to look at a given area and accurately predict which parts of a given city are likely to experience the most growth in relation to other areas in or near that city.
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Article
Trading Up Using the 1031 Exchange
In spite of decreasing real estate values across the nation, real estate investors continue to come up with innovative ways to make their investment turn out profitably. A powerful method for building real estate holdings is the use of 1031 Exchanges, which lets investors defer capital-gains assessment on investment property by reinvesting sale proceeds into the purchase of new property within a set time period. Though 1031 Exchanges have grown in popularity as the number of active real estate investors has grown, 1031 misperceptions continue.
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Article
Where Have All the Commercial Lenders Gone?
Do you remember that song from the 1960’s that went something like: “Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing?” Oh … you don’t? Hmm, maybe I really AM old! Well, I would update that song for the current decade to something like this: “Where have all the lenders gone, no loans funding!” My walk down memory lane notwithstanding, I am getting a LOT of calls from people telling me that they can’t find commercial financing ANYWHERE. Even our correspondents are making it harder to get projects financed, with a notable exception.
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A Roadmap for Commercial Real Estate Syndication, Part 1
One of the most important requirements for purchasing commercial property is having enough down payment money, called “equity,” to complete the transaction. A very popular method of raising these funds when you don’t have it yourself is by forming a group of people who pool enough capital to let you close the transaction.
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A Roadmap for Commercial Real Estate Syndications, Part 2
Last week I covered the first ten steps to creating your own investment groups for commercial real estate acquisitions. I was able to take the process right up to the acquisition of the property and I’ll cover the balance of the process here. The focus of these articles has been on acquiring existing real property rather than on development.
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Commercial Land: The Asset That Lenders Forgot
Last week I discussed the financing of the purchase of a residential lot for development with a woman who, with her husband, wanted to build a custom home. As always happens when discussing financing, the conversation turned to interest rates and loan structures. When I described the going rate for a fully indexed land loan on a residential lot, she darn nearly fainted! She spluttered: “Whoa … How could rates possibly be so high?!? My home loan is at 6% and you are telling me that a lender wants over 10% for a land loan?
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Commercial Real Estate - How to Ask Your Discovery Questions
In order to make a successful commercial real estate investment you need to know the right questions to ask and the right way to ask them. Since purchasing commercial real estate is a negotiation between the buyer and the seller (and probably their prospective brokers), it is important that you, as the buyer, are prepared. Asking the right questions could help you avoid owning an underperforming asset. Remember, both parties are trying their best to get what they want, but their goals are diametrically opposed.
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Commercial Real Estate: Asking the Right Questions
There are many “insider” commercial real estate secrets. One of the most important secrets is knowing the right questions to ask when investigating a commercial property investment. While I’m not going to cover all of the potential questions in detail, I will make you aware of some of the key issues. I’m also going to suggest some places to go for assistance. Investing in real estate is a complex process. Unfortunately, far too many people jump into this complicated marketplace without the knowledge, training, and tools needed to be successful.
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Commercial Real Estate: Outlook at the Power Breakfast
I had the opportunity to sit in at the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) annual “Power Breakfast” that featured some high powered institutional investors as panelists. They included Erwin Aullis, the Managing Director of Transweste Investment Company, Stanley L. Iezman, the President of American Realty Advisors, Inc., and Glen Sonnenberg, the President of Legg Mason Real Estate Services.
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A Picture is Worth $1,000,000 …or More
So let’s talk about pictures and commercial loans. One of the key items overlooked in most commercial financing requests is pictures. You would think this would be obvious but I think 70% of the initial requests that we receive come without any kind of visual reference. Kind of astounding, isn’t it? Think about this from the underwriter’s standpoint. Most files are sent outside of the market in which they are located. This means that the underwriter is sitting in an office 300 miles away from the property and knows nothing about it or the market where it is located.
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Bailout Survival Strategies and Commercial Real Estate
I have a couple of videos to share with you in this post that should get you thinking about your near-term future. First though, I want to you get a “visual” of what $1 Trillion Dollars looks like. For those of you who are numerically inclined that number is $1,000,000,000,000.00. Here’s the link to give you a look at how that number literally stacks up in $100 Dollar Bills: http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/index.html. Now to put that into perspective with regard to our economy, take a look at this video clip of a recent Glen Beck show where he graphs the amount of U. S.
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