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Loan doc: George Smith quit a job in the aerospace industry because he wanted to become rich--and he did, putting together mortgage transactions.

Article Excerpt
GEORGE Smith created his own real estate investment banking firm--twice. After working for a decade in the West Coast office of Sonnenblick-Goldman Co., an old-line New York firm, he decided to set off on his own. Grubb & Ellis quickly gobbled up his company, George Smith Partners Inc., in the early 1980s. With the real estate market crashing in 1992, Smith was forced to start over again. Last year, George Smith Partners placed $2.35 billion in loans and completed 70 transactions. In some quarters, Smith is mostly known for gathering 2,000 clients and real estate professionals each year to raise money for the A-T Medical Research Foundation, which is searching for a cure for ataxia-telangiectasia, a degenerative genetic disorder that afflicts his daughter, Rebecca, now 26. Smith recently raised $1 million to endow a chair in her name at UCLA.

Question: What's your view of the real estate market?

Answer: The outlook is very uncertain because of the huge federal deficit and trade deficit, and with the Federal Reserve raising the Fed Funds rate, and cost of living increases rising because of huge increases in most basic commodities. But real estate is still considered a long-term investment. For clients who are most comfortable with fixed-rate financing, we are urging them to finance now. The good news is that the supply of money far exceeds the demand.

Q: What does your company...