Builder market to stay in the tank
By Martha Entwistle
Updated Tue December 18, 2007
I've just posted January's Special Report on the state of the finance world for integrators and alarm dealers looking for loans. The verdict? Things aren't as bad as the mass media make things out to be, as long as you've got a tight, profitable business with sound metrics and management. Same as always.
Should the economy fall into recession, causing interest rates to rise, then capital might get tight, but that hasn't happened yet and no one would tell me that was on the horizon.
One section of the market that has been affected, however, is that portion of alarm dealers who rely on the new-build market, which is utterly and thoroughly in the tank. Lenders said any company that relies on the builder market for growth has always been a poor investment anyway, but now that company is really a no-go.
With all that said, I think there was an undercurrent of sentiment going unsaid by those I interviewed that felt like: "Actually, we're going to be a bit more discriminating about to whom we lend money." But maybe I'm reading too much into their denials that it was business as usual.
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