Goldata online Guides

Mortgage King Takes a Bath

Posted by agung | Business, Investing Guide, Real Estate | Sunday 16 August 2009 12:51 pm

By JOSH BARBANEL

THE arc of Douglas Lebda’s life in New York nicely tracks the rise and precipitous fall of real estate in America.

In the 1990s Mr. Lebda, an auditor by training, founded LendingTree, an online mortgage referral and lending business. He came to New York from Charlotte, N.C., after the business was bought in 2003 by IAC/InterActiveCorp, the Internet conglomerate founded by Barry Diller.

Mr. Lebda, who became president and chief operating officer of IAC in 2005, rented at first. Finally, in April 2007, at the height of the roaring Manhattan real estate market, he became the first buyer to sign a contract at the Legacy, a glass-walled condominium built in a former parking garage at 157 East 84th Street near Lexington Avenue.

He paid $8.6 million for a spacious 5,175-square-foot penthouse on the fourth floor, and closed on the apartment the following October. Property records show that he did not bother with a mortgage. But that was before the mortgage industry headed into wrenching times.

By then LendingTree’s finances had shrunk under the weight of subprime and nonconforming loans.

Toward the end of last August , just before the meltdown of the financial industry, LendingTree was spun off into a new company, Tree.com, and Mr. Lebda moved back to Charlotte as its chairman and chief executive.

When Mr. Diller bought the company, it was valued at $725 million. After recovering from a steep decline last fall, it now has a market value of about $100 million.

Your Financial Goal In Life:

Casino Links:

Visit Your State DWI DUI Information by click the link below:

Comments (0)

Main Menu

Categories

Archives:

Business

Mortgage King Takes a Bath