Hedgies buying delinquent loans?

Not necessarily a bad idea. After all, dirt has intrinsic value. Would you rather deal with these guys who bought your loan knowing what they got into or a mega-bank that sees your loan as a problem and is not exactly motivated to do much?

You see this in commercial real estate sometimes, too. Sometimes a savvy developer will try to buy out the loan of a property it coveted and didn't get initially, and then foreclose or work out something (deed in lieu, a JV, etc.) with the property owner. In fact, I'm thinking about such a deal as I type....

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