florida gator

Prior to going to work raising money for a non-profit that I used to volunteer with I was a Branch Manager and then a Business Banker for a large bank. I am in the middle of some life changes, including moving to a much larger area than I previously resided in, and am leaning toward getting back into finance. I have been talking to a friend who is a mortgage broker about the possibility of doing some residential and commercial financing with him.

I was wondering, before getting real involved with that, how the marine finance industry is holding up? I read the recent posts about the repo's but figure when these boats do go back on the market someone will need financing. Is their a demand for lenders? Are the credit standards tightening like they are in the residential and commercial sectors? Is it primarily a desk job? What I loved about the Business Banking was getting out and meeting with clients and referral sources and prospecting new business.

Thanks ahead to anyone wishing to answer any of these questions.

legend700

have to say if I was trying to feed my family the last thing I'd be jumping into is the mortgage business in a declining market. Been in the business for 15 years and my fathers been in it for almost 30 and it's a tough way to make a living at this point especially without having a book of previous customers to work off of.

Chris Sunkin

I have a friend that owns a business that services mortgage brokers. Almost 60% of his customers have gone out of business in the last year. Not good.

People need homes way more than they need boats. If you really want to get into it and you have the resources to do it, there's no better time to enter any market than at the bottom. All the marginal players have been cleared out. If you have a thick bankroll, now's the time. If you need an income, I'd look elsewhere.

florida gator

I have taken all of that into consideration. The biggest plus for me is that I have a very good network for commercial lending and know the bank side. The commercial lender my friend is hooked up with does a lot of what the banks won't.

This is a market that seperates the men from the boys and I figured if I could start developing / working the right network of people things could only get better.

Chris Sunkin

Then I guess it's on to your core question- how are the marine financing markets holding up? They're not. NOBODY is buying boats- unless they're giveaways. Credit is tight everywhere. We're back to the old days where the only people who are qualified to borrow money are those with enough money they don't need to borrow. With gas being so questionable, it's unclear if the market will ever truly recover.

Good luck!