ORGANIZATION AND BASIS OF QUARTERLY PRESENTATION (Details) (USD $) In Millions, except Share data, unless otherwise specified	9 Months Ended				0 Months Ended		0 Months Ended		9 Months Ended				9 Months Ended
	Jun. 30, 2012 LEAF Commercial Capital, Inc [Member] Series A Participating Preferred Stock [Member]	Nov. 16, 2011 Eos Partners, L.P. [Member]	Nov. 16, 2011 Eos Partners, L.P. [Member] Series A Participating Preferred Stock [Member]	Nov. 16, 2011 Eos Partners, L.P. [Member] LEAF Common Stock [Member]	Nov. 16, 2011 Resource Capital Corp. [Member]	Nov. 16, 2011 Resource Capital Corp. [Member] Series A Participating Preferred Stock [Member]	Nov. 16, 2011 Resource Capital Corp. [Member] Series B Redeemable Preferred Stock [Member]	Nov. 16, 2011 Resource Capital Corp. [Member] Series D Redeemable Preferred Stock [Member]	Jun. 30, 2012 Resource America, Inc. [Member]	Apr. 17, 2012 Resource America, Inc. [Member]	Dec. 29, 2011 Resource America, Inc. [Member]	Nov. 16, 2011 Resource America, Inc. [Member]	Jun. 30, 2012 Resource America, Inc. [Member] General Partner [Member]	Jun. 30, 2012 Resource America, Inc. [Member] Limited Partner [Member]	Jun. 30, 2012 LEAF Financial Corporation [Member]	Nov. 16, 2011 LEAF Senior Management [Member]
Subsidiary or Equity Method Investee [Line Items]
Number of equipment leasing partnerships															4
Amount invested in cash in LEAF		$ 50.0
Leaf Preferred Stock Shares Issued (in shares)			50,000			31,341	4,872	2,364
Dividend rate of preferred stock (in hundredths)	12.00%						8.00%
Number of shares of LEAF common stock that can be purchased with warrants issued (in shares)				2,954
Exercise price of warrants (in dollars per share)				$ 0.01
Fully Diluted Potential Percentage Of Interest In LEAF From Warrants (in hundredths)			45.10%									15.70%				10.00%
Percentage of interest in LEAF (in hundredths)					26.70%
Number of common shares in LEAF retained by the entity (in shares)									18,414
Valuation of Company's investment in Apidos											34.9
Gain on deconsolidation of LEAF Commercial Capital									8.7
Gain on sale of Apidos Capital Management									54.7
Company's common equity interest in Apidos Capital Management, LLC Sold (in hundredths)										100.00%
Proceeds from sale of CLO management subsidiary									$ 25.0
Percentage Interest In Limited Partnership Formed														33.00%
Company's general partnership interest in newly formed limited partnership (in hundredths)													33.00%
Preferred equity interest retained as a percentage of incentive management fees (in hundredths)													75.00%