ONTARIO, CA-Smarter, not riskier. The run-up to the recession saw a lot of smart people doing a lot of dumb things. Of course, in the frenzy of go-go deals, who had time to think?

Well, with the ensuing years and in the cricket-like silence where deal flows once roared, those who would lend and borrower wannabes alike had plenty of time to think. Kevin Aussef, newly named managing director of CBRE Capital Markets, thinks it shows.

“The pendulum has swung,” says Aussef, who oversees the firm's private capital work. “It used to be that if you could fog a mirror you could get a loan.” He likened the morning-after overcompensation to “a financial colonoscopy.”

At last, more level heads prevail and the lending environment is normalizing. “Lenders and borrowers are getting smarter about their LTV or debt coverage,” he tells GlobeSt.com. “A lot of lenders don't have the highest LTV or lowest debt coverage, but they're not as aggressive as they were in the run-up.” There's more information-gathering and underwriting, he notes. “The lender perspective is much more grounded in facts.”

From the borrower perspective especially, he notes, “the setback is still fresh in everyone's mind.” Helping to keep expectations in check is the cold fact that “values have dropped anywhere from 20% to 45%” during the rough weather.

But, in a way, that valuation dump might have been a blessing in disguise—especially for the more risk-averse. “Even if you're getting a higher loan-to-value or a leveraged loan relative to the market,” Aussef says, “you're not running the risk of another deep correction. Relative to where the values were, if you're getting a 60% or 70 % loan-to-value on a particular property, you're still ok because your downside risk has minimized over the past few years.”

And yes, Aussef agrees with the general thinking that, indeed. If you have equity, it's a great time to be a borrower. “It's free money,” he says. “That's how low the interest rates are. Depending on your portfolio, you have the option to refi, reposition or sell.”

In addition, a volatile stock market and an even more volatile European crisis are joining to make us Investment look really good. “We're a safe haven,” he says. “Syndicators, investors, private equity funds . . . the whole gamut of investor are looking to place money in real estate. We see strong demand across the board for all product types and most markets across the country.”