Friday, September 23, 2005
Headlines--- Classified Ads---Doc. Manager / Finance / Legal ######## surrounding the article denotes it is a "press release"
Classified Ads---Documentation Manager / Finance / Legal
10/1/2000 Thomas J. Depping Looking at Houston from his Sierra Cities office Documentation Manager / Finance / Legal
For a full listing of all "job wanted" ads, please go to: http://216.66.242.252/AL/LeasingNews/JobPostings.htm To place a free "job wanted" ad, please go to: http://216.66.242.252/AL/LeasingNews/PostingForm.asp ------------------------------------------------------------ Gary McLaughlin passes away A friend of Gary McLaughlin, owner-broker of GCA Financial Services in the Fresno-Madera area, reportedly has died. A specialist in the agriculture business, primarily vegetable equipment, he was reportedly well known to Bank of the West Leasing and Farm Credit. The web site (http://www.gcafin.com/about_gca.htm) states the company was in business for 15 years, and Mr. McLaughlin had over 35 years experience in the financing industry.
The logo on the site of a bucking horse was reportedly from his favorite hobby of "breaking" and training horses. "GCA FINANCIAL SERVICES is proud to be the financing source of choice for many of California and Arizona's largest and most successful farming, packing and shipping operations, as well as leading irrigation, tractor/implement, and vineyard equipment dealers." Reportedly the company will continue. As soon as an obituary is avaiable, Leasing News will print it for his friends in the equipment leasing industry. ------------------------------------------------------------ Gulf States' Leasing Companies Hunker Down The media has been covering Hurricane Rita very well as it moves along. Here is USA Today tracking information, as well as other related sites: http://www.usatoday.com/weather/graphics/hurricane/rita/flash_leader.htm? Leasing companies in the area started to inform employees in the middle of the week to close down, giving them time to leave their residential area, if they wanted, or to prepare for Hurricane Rita. Adam Warner, president and COO of Key Equipment Finance Express Leasing Services made the decision to close the Houston office on Wednesday, telling everyone at this office "This is in anticipation of any impact from Huricane Rita, currently located in the Gulf of Mexico and likely to make landfall on the Texas coast late Friday or early Saturday morning," Warner said in his memo. Employees were also to call the hot line to determine whether the office will be open on Monday and going forward. "We want to reiterate that our employee safety is our primarily concern, " he stated. " If you are located in an impacted area, please make sure you follow all local;/state and federal advisories." "Hopefully the impact will not be severe and business can return to normal in the coming week." Leasing News attempted to reach other leasing companies in the area, but was unable to get confirmation that their offices were closing or closed. Certainly those closer to the actual coast evacuated the region. Each day in "This Day in America History" weather is included, and during the Hurricane season, there have been many cities seriously affected, including the East Coast, too. It does seem the general climate is changing and coastal communities are experiencing more incliminate weather.
------------------------------------------------------------ Classified Ads---Help Wanted National Program Skills
Salesperson
------------------------------------------------------------ The Original Dave Murray is back
"Dave Murray ( Founder of PreferredLease in Lake Tahoe) has started another leasing company. Denali Capital Corporation, located in San Clemente, CA. Rumor has it he has brought back some of the old employees from PreferredLease. Does this mean another mass mailer of pre-approved credit cards?" Name witheld ( highly reliable source) Last we heard David Murray was in management with Venserve/SalesStream until the change in the program. They also were a company that sent out approvals with plastic credit cards, as Preferred Lease of Lake Tahoe did in the "old" days of the late 1990's. There were reports of sales ethics and other types of activities at the time at Venserve/Salesstream. He reportedly left because of this, Leasing News was told, but never verified as neither party would confirm or deny anything. There were ex-salesmen who talked about splitting "advance rentals" and "deposits" not returned or "dirty tricks," as one called it, plus contests for who could get the highest "document fee." These techniques were reportedly common at the original PreferredLease of Tahoe run by Mssrs. Murray and Schneider. March 10, 2003, Leasing News archive: "Warburg Pincus is selling it's interest in SaleStream Capital to Texas Equity Holdings (TEH, LLC) a company owned and operated by Lighthouse Investments. There has been a large injection of capital, around $3M I hear, to promote the vendor driven business model that the company was originally structured to support. There will be no more B2C activity. "I have been directed to hire an additional 5-8 salespeople in the next 30 days to ramp things up. This will create a need for new office space shortly but we will be staying in the area. I will notify you when this is official. "The Venserv name, email and contact info was changed almost a year ago to SaleStream Capital. The new investors are currently redoing the entire website and it will re-appear in a format more to their liking. Tony Watson Vice President Business Development SaleStream Capital Corporation Archives, December 20,2000 Preferred Capital, Tahoe City, California ( also known as Preferred Lease, one of the first companies to for mass telemarketing and mailing of credit approvals to attract business, considered the "daddy" of them all. They hit the Perfect Storm, as did many of their major buyers from Advanta on up. Here is the story: ) In June they closed all their branch offices ( Crystal Bay, Nevada, San Diego, California, Dover, New Hampshire), it was reported. They were heavy in the mail marketing and telephone solicitation with the "Pre-approved" approach, selling mini-paper to GE/Colonial Pacific, Manifest, Commerce Security, up to over $10 million a month in their "hay day." Negative Cash Flow that has hit many others in the industry was reportedly the reason for the downsizing or consolidation, depending on your viewpoint. David Murray and Louis Schneider were the principals. They considered themselves marketers, not brokers or lessors, and even treated their tax returns as they were a marketing company. ( David Murray is no longer with the company, according to the their receptionist---he was listed as the President in the UAEL directory ). They would promote their young account reps into various management positions. There were no"leasing veterans". Preferred DID generate a fair amount of loyalty to their employees due to some of the percs: free season pass to skiing, various company-paid outings (i.e. white water rafting) and bonuses (gave away a snowmobile once...) Their former employees are not talking much as everyone was very happy. This was the premier "application only" operation. It was not basically "internet," but by telephone and mail where there was no relationship selling, just low quote, get the customer approved, change the rate or terms, a "boiler room" operation similar to one as by Republic Leasing of Anaheim, but not as "intense," but more "turn the application around" and move on to the next one. The approach was the same that was used by some of the salespeople at the Republic Group and Corporate Capital before they were acquired by First Sierra. Corporate Capital even issued a "credit card" to the end user, but did not check their credit for approval until an actual application was received. The building in Tahoe City was full of little cubicles, each with a recent college graduate, none of whom knew anything about leasing, or sales for that matter. The sales program was very clever. The company bought mailing lists from D&B and other sources and sent solicitations to the prospects. The solicitation included what appeared to be a credit card and the prospect was informed that he/she had been "pre-approved" for up to $75,000. All that it would take to activate the credit line was a call to an 800 number. The system was taken almost directly from the type of letter you get from credit card companies. Naturally, when the prospect called, he had to provide a "little" additional information (again, a la credit card solicitations). Of course, there was never a "pre-approval". The prospect was "pre-qualified". We received a Plastic Card almost every week at the various companies here at American Leasing. I am sure everyone in California has at one time or other received one of Preferred's mailers. All our advisors are aware of this company, and most said they have received the card. The company recruited their salespeople directly from colleges, using as a lure the Tahoe ski and fun lifestyle. They did little or no selling, but followed closely the company "line". They were simply order-takers, responding to incoming calls rather than making outgoing sales calls. About a year ago the company moved into larger quarters on or close to the lake front. In June, the Tahoe City Newspaper noted they had closed their branch offices. The web site makes no mention of this and calls to the current president have gone unanswered. We have verified that the company is for sale, is in the process of being purchased or maybe purchased. We are not at liberty to give the details as we are unable to confirm some of them, including bank problems and up-side down cash flow---these are rumors and unsubstantiated at this time---but from several sources as we had with Metrolease, Unicapital, and others in the early beginning. Our "readers" give us the information we have here. Jan 4, 2001, Leasing News had an exclusive interview with attorney Mark Self: Preferred Capital is for sale, according to their general counsel Mark Seif. Last November, 1999, they did $17 million in capital equipment cost. That was their best month. They had been doing anywhere from $14 to $15 million each month, according to informed sources. Not any more. Peferred Capital was very heavy in the mail marketing and telephone solicitation with the "Pre-approved" approach, selling mini-paper to GE/Colonial Pacific, Advanta, Manifest, Commerce Security, among others. With the changes of policy at their funders, placing business started to decline and warehouse lines could not find take-outs, resulting in serious cash flow problems, especially in October and November of last year, it was reported. " Yes, we have not been sold, " Seif said in an exclusive interview. They have had many offers, but the two original principals could not agree on the selling price, and from a high of 270 employees, closed their branches, and are now down to one-quarter their original size with their main facility in Tahoe City, according to Seif. " We have 42 sales reps now, " he says. " The commissions are now based on rewards. We have cut the boats, cars, and all the frills...We are aggressive, but not what we used to be. Right now, we are actively talking to investors, strategic partners." He blames credit tightening, more competition, more sources for the dramatic change in the small ticket market. " It is not the internet, " he explains. " We are with Live Capital, get leads off our web site, but the business is very small. Not much is being done on the world wide web. We are going to weather the storm with a tight budget, running lean and mean, taking very good care of all our funding sources." He and Louis Schneider are basically managing the company. David Murray left on November 7, 2000. "Basically David didn't like laying off his friends, facing the financial difficulties of a downsized company, closing offices, and didn't want to remain in the leasing business any more, " Seif explains. " It wasn't fun... And yes, the small ticket market is no longer what it used to be. " Archives, November 7, 2003: "Louis Schneider, former partner of Preferred Capital, is into his second year oflaw school, apparently in New England " ...and apparently loves it. He is in semi-hiding while attending school so nobody knows which school he's attending. He is enjoying his time away from leasing." Jim Raeder of Capitlwerks LLC has claimed on several occasions to Leasing that his Better Business Bureau report comes from their company purchase of Preferred Lease and he has been trying to get it corrected for quite some time. http://www.leasingnews.org/Pages/Company%20Report.htm ------------------------------------------------------------ ****Announcement********************************** ELA Municipal Conference---Disasters Disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and terrorist attacks can strike our customers without warning. These disasters often destroy equipment under lease and create a demand for new equipment to be leased. At the 2005 ELA Municipal Leasing Forum, scheduled for September 26-28 at the Trump International Sonesta Beach Resort in Sunny Isle Beach (Miami), Florida, our session will look at the key factors Non-members may attend one ELA meeting, such as this one, Leasing News is told. Lessors consider in developing disaster response plans for affected customers, such as: *How should existing leases on destroyed equipment be handled? What happens when a customer is self-insured? What if their self-insurance proves insufficient in the wake of massive destruction? *How do we evaluate new credit applications from affected customers, given that their tax revenues may be significantly affected in the wake of the disaster? *Are there particular types of leases that will be in greater demand following a disaster? *Should we reach out to these customers to offer support, or wait for them to contact us? ELA says you still have the opportunity to register on-site at the conference registration desk. The registering on line may be closed by the time you read this, but give it a try by going to the url below, as that gives them a "head count" of who is coming. For the complete agenda and to register for the conference please go http://www.elaonline.com/events/2005/municipal/ Racquel Codling ****Announcement**************************************** Housing Starts Remain "Strong" Despite other newspaper reports, the Department of Agriculture, Housing starts remained strong in August, even though they fell 1.3% to 2.009(SAAR). This is the fifth consecutive month they have been above the 2 million level. The single family sector was flat (1.709 million SAAR), while multi family was down 8.5%.
Analysis and outlook: Near term, the housing market should remain strong and is expected to remain so for the rest of 2005.
Near term housing demand may drop initially ( September and maybe November) due to Katrina impact on LA, MS, and AL. The housing market is expected to remain relatively strong through the rest of this year, but as I mentioned last month, modest inflation and dollar problems will push mortgage rates upward through 2006 and this means the housing market is expected to pull back sometime in 2006. House price appreciation may encourage some improvement in multi family demand next year as some potential single family buyers are forced out of the market. Regionally, Katrina contributed to a 6.6% pullback in the South which accounts for almost half of the residential activity. The NE and MW were down 4.1% and 5.2% respectively while the West, up 13.3%, was the only region with an increase. Permits were down 2.2%, and Katrina will probably result in a further drop next month as rebuilding in MS, LA, and AL will take some time to show up in housing starts. According to the most recent Red Cross Report on Disaster Operations, 416,894 homes were destroyed in MS, LA and AL, most of which were single family. In addition, there were another 320,000 that received partial damage, ranging from "Major", "Minor", to "Affected". That bulk of that rebuilding effort will have to wait until the infrastructure is repaired, but longer term, it means the equivalent of 25% of last years' single family housing starts were destroyed and will need to be replaced eventually. The port of New Orleans was major destination for cement imports, as well as plywood from Brazil. In addition, there was significant damage to timber lands in the three states. Furthermore, costs for food processing, transportation, and many other goods and services will be impacted by rising energy costs. Longer term concerns remain the same as last month - the dollar continues to weaken as the budget deficit grows in response to costs related to Katrina, and rapid house price appreciation in some regions will curb demand from some potential buyers. Housing bubbles are still a concern in some regions of the country. Finally, the consensus is that energy costs will continue to increase - not just oil, but natural gas, and coal will also increase. The big question is the net impact on the economy and interest rates - inflation versus slowing economy. To follow impacts of Katrina on the housing sector and building materials, the National Association of Homebuilders website -NAHB - (http://www.nahb.org ) is good. Also try the National Association of Realtors ( http://www.nahb.org). Also, some of the wood product associations may offer assistance: APA (http://www.apawood.org/), and SFPA (http://www.sfpa.org/) are two good examples. As previously mentioned the American Red Cross produces a report on disaster damage (houses destroyed, etc.) and is available by contacting Erik Jones at: joneser@usa.redcross.org . ( information from Craig Adair - APA). Courtesy of: Carl Villella, CLP Acceptance Leasing and Financing Service, Inc. ---------------------------------------------------------------
News Briefs---- Rita draws closer to Texas coast, turns away from Houston http://www.usatoday.com/weather/stormcenter/2005-09-22-rita-main_x.htm 200,000 out of work because of Katrina http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20050922-1357-economy.html Jobless claims related to Katrina surge http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/employment/2005-09-22-jobless-katrina_x.htm Sony Plans 10,000 Job Cuts http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/23/business/23sony.html Credit card court ba
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You May Have Missed Money tight? Give time, give miles, and give vacation http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/columnist/block/ ----------------------------------------------------------------
"Gimme that Wine"
Alexander Valley Vineyards announces the release of the 2004 Sin Zin! They invite you to a special release on Saturday, October 8, 2005 from 12noon - 4pm and be the first to try the 2004 Sin Zin! AVV is located at 8644 Highway 128, Healdsburg, CA 95448. Chef Jeff Young will be on hand to pair Duck Tostados with this ever popular wine. For more information please call Cheri Yokoi at 800-888-7209 ext 116 or email at cy@avvwine.com . I have a case of the Sin Zin plus My Friends Zin, only available at the winery, 125 cases made, their Cab reserve is available to Wine Club members who also receive discounts from 25% to 30%, one of the reasons I belong. Their Pinot Noir is the best priced in California for the quality in my opinion. I have many cases of their 2002 vintage. This is a free event, no reservations required. Bring a friend and experience a Wicked Weekend in Wine Country. Forecast looks excellent for Walla Walla growers http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/foodwine/2002508767_winecol21.html Uncork New York Californians can now buy New York wines directly from the wineries. The state's unique climate makes it worth doing. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/09/22/WIG9IEOI511.DTL ----------------------------------------------------------------
This Day in American History 1957- Nine black students at Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas are forced to withdraw because a white mob had formed outside. The following day racial violence in Little Rock prompted Pres. Eisenhower to send a force of some 1000 U.S. Army paratroopers to enforce the desegregation of Central High School. The president said that violence had caused the removal of nine black stduents in the newly integrated school. The students eventually entered the guarded school on September 25. ----------------------------------------------------------------
This Day in American History 1595- Spain launched an intensive missionary campaign in the American Southeast. During the next two years, about 1,500 American Indians were converted to the Catholic faith. ----------------------------------------------------------------
Baseball Poem Linear History He comes at the pitch Written by Tim Peeler, Published by McFarland & Company
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