Experts: Cleansing Period Ahead, Bottom Near

[IMGCAP(1)]IRVINE, CA-”I would guess that over the next 24 months, you will see a lot of real estate trade hands.” So said Town Hall panelist Bill Halford, president and CEO of Bixby Land Co. at the seventh-annual Incisive Media RealShare event, held Thursday in Irvine. The consensus from panelists at the half-day event, which attracted more than 200 attendees, was that “we are moving forward and are entering a time of cleansing,” as in getting rid of all the bad loans/assets on the books of banks and investors… and “it isn’t necessarily a bad thing.”

Halford joined moderator Jeff Moore, senior managing director of CB Richard Ellis Inc.; Brandon Birtcher, president and CEO of Birtcher Development & Investments; Guy Johnson, president of Johnson Capital; Martin Pupil, executive managing director of Colliers International; and Tom Sherlock, senior managing director of Buchanan Street Partners during the event’s opening panel.

“I think that cleansing is healthy, but it is going to be a painful cleansing,” said Halford. “But if you can get your mind past that, and if the numbers or values get low enough, people will start sniffing around investing, whereas 90 days ago, they wouldn’t dare even talk about investment.”