Secondary Newswire

Northsight Inc. recently received a $10 million credit facility from Jaguar Group LLC to facilitate loans for distressed homes, Northsight parent Navidec Financial Services announced.

“Jaguar is the premier wholesaler in our market,” Navidec President John McKowen said in the announcement. “This agreement enhances our ability to offer qualified buyers a complete solution to locate, rehabilitate and finance discounted residential real estate properties.”

Navidec, which says it is a Denver-based diversified holding company that creates and acquires development-stage enterprises with the expectation of further developing them, purchased 80 percent of mortgage brokerage Northsight in 2003.

Last July, Navidec Mortgage Holdings Inc. and Northsight began originating short- term residential loans for borrowers who purchase their property as part of or after the repossession in a foreclosure proceeding. As of Aug. 10, 2007, the companies had made nearly $1.3 million of such loans, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In other secondary market news, Mortgage Assistance Center Corp. started the year announcing its purchase of a $3.3 million pool of residential assets, containing properties in 12 states. The Dallas, Texas-based company, founded in 2003, focuses on the acquisition, workout and resale of distressed real estate assets in the secondary market.

Mortgage Assistance said the purchase is the second multi-million dollar acquisition it has made since October 2007, when it entered into an agreement with a large Dallas-based investment fund that has provided up to $75 million in funding, and indicated more are on the way.

The agreement “has positioned us to take advantage of the many opportunities like this one in the distressed sub-prime market,” said Ron Johnson, Mortgage Assistance president and chief executive officer, in the announcement. “We’re ready to do business. We have the funds, the infrastructure, and an experienced, professional staff that’s ready to handle additional acquisitions.”

Another Texas-based firm that focuses on rehabilitating portfolios before reselling them at a profit, Oxford Funding, acquired a $1.5 million portfolio of performing first-lien loans from an unnamed national lender, the Houston-based company said on Thursday. The late December purchase was executed at a “significant” discount to face value.

The purchase follows the banking commitment Oxford secured last November to purchase a $2.4 million mortgage portfolio, after securing $5 million in mortgages during its first 90 days of business. The Houston-based company launched last June with a core strategy to buy individual and bulk loan portfolios consisting primarily of sub-performing, and non-performing residential and commercial loans.

“While our earlier purchases continue to perform exceedingly well, this purchase constitutes a nice addition to our portfolio,” Oxford CEO Ron Redd said in the written statement. “By purchasing these performing, well secured loans at the discounted price we paid, we have a tremendous opportunity to add to the company’s profitability.“

Other steps Oxford has taken to taken to grow amid the subprime mortgage meltdown have included the acquisition of Huntington Financial, a residential and commercial broker through which it provides brokerage and mortgage loan sales and trading services, and San Felipe Commercial Mortgage, an originator of hard-money and traditional loans for commercial real estate development, construction and permanent financing.