By Matthew Goldstein
A Wall Street executive who helped Goldman Sachs make more than a billion dollars betting against mortgages now wants to buy up troubled home loans.
Donald R. Mullen Jr., who was the architect of Goldman’s trade against the housing market just before the financial crisis, is seeking to raise as much as $1 billion for a new fund.
In the past two years, the investment firm he founded, Pretium Partners, has bought more than 8,000 single-family homes, which it rents out.
Now, the firm plans to use the new fund to buy distressed mortgages at a discount and rework them to permit the borrowers to remain in their homes or, if that fails, foreclose on the properties and operate them as rentals.
