Hard Money Loans for Investors

Hard Money Loan Qualifications.

Many times investors ask me to send them information on a hard money loan. As a mortgage broker with many programs and options it is hard to tell them exactly what the qualifications are for financing their project. They are many because hard money lenders are private investors. Each private investor makes up their own guidelines. Unlike conventional financing there is no secondary market and there are no quasi government organizations like Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac that establish uniform or conventional guidelines. There are qualifications that each bridge and real estate rehab lender have in common. They are:

1. The property and after rehab value.
2. The exit strategy.
3. The down payment.
4. The investors experience.
5. The investors credit.
6. The investors cash reserves.

The Property.

There was a time and will be again were the property and the after rehab value of the property was the sole consideration of doing a short term loan to a real estate investor. Whether the deal is commercial or residential investment property this remains the most important key to the deal. The reasons it is not the only criteria is that lenders have been burned by the declining value of properties and the excess of properties available. This means that if they have to take the collateral for the short term loan the property has been harder to sell and they get less money for it. Yet the collateral still remains the most important criteria. The lower the loan to value the better the deal. Even though some lenders will go as high as 65 to 70% of the after rehab value those deals are tough when so many are available at or below 50%.

The Exit Strategy.

Almost of equal importance to the collateral to many purchase rehab lenders require a solid verifiable exit strategy. This means if you say you are going to sell it you should have a buyer who is pre-approved and their information needs to be verifiable by the lender. If you say you want to refinance the property then you need to have the income, credit and assets to qualify for a conventional refinance loan. Whatever your exit strategy is it must be verifiable by the lender. This is good for the lender and for you. No one wants to get stuck with a non performing asset.

Down Payment.

Though there are programs that do not require down payment they are fewer than ever. Most purchase rehab lenders require a down payment. For this reason it is good to be prepared to invest 20% to 30% in your projects. Because there are so many projects available yet funds are limited a down payment makes your project easier to fund. Also if you have poor credit assets help.

The Investor.

The credit, assets and experience of the investor plays a role in the qualification process. For a real estate investor qualify the should have good credit, assets and experience. If they do not and are short in any of these areas they need to be stronger in others. Meaning they should have a deal with lower than 50% loan to value, a strong exit strategy and or a down payment. Because each private investor has different criteria, it is hard to say one deal will qualify and another would not based on one criteria or another. But, the first three are the most important. Most deals that the real estate investor has that requires funding will qualify based solely on the after rehab value of the property, the exit strategy and the down payment. Even though there are no down payment deals available you need to be a strong investor to qualify for them.

Hard Money Loans.

The Essence of hard money loans is that they are short term loans made to real estate investors so they may purchase, rehab or purchase and rehab commercial and residential investment property with lots of real equity. For traditional financing the value of the property is the lesser of the purchase price or the appraised value. That definition does not account for distressed property that for any number of reasons can be sold below market and therefore has real equity when properly compared to similar properties. Truly the years have shown that for traditional lending that is the best definition of value. For it is too hard to determine true value and or future value of property that may not be in good condition or may have other appraisal value issues that may stop the property from being sold on the to a prudent consumer.

Hard Money Loans.

Hard money loans are only made to real estate investors and are only made on commercial and residential properties that will not be used by the investor as an owner occupied property. This is to keep in line with the laws of usuary and predatory lending. To charge higher fees and interest rates to consumers is illegal. But, Real Estate Investing is a business and business are theoretically astute enough to determine the risk and reward. Business owners can determine which course of financing they would pursue and if the cost are justified by the potential reward. I would never finance my home using a hard money loan, but I would invest in a short sale property that I can purchase at 30% to 50% of value even if it costs me 10% in fees and double the normal investor interest rate. So even assuming this adds 15% to the costs I would still be way ahead when I refinance or sell the property.

The Short Sale.

In today’s market many financial institutions are willing to accept less than what is owed to them on the sale of a property that they have lent money on to avoid having another none preforming asset on their books. Non performing assets mean that a bank will be judged by federal regulators based on the percentage of non performing assets in the portfolio. If you truly have a book of account receivables that no one is paying you on the value is not there anyway. Banks are not in the real estate management and sales business. Therefore, there is a limit to the amount of properties they can own and manage. All these are reasons to accept less or accept a short sale so that the money you do get will go to work for you right away.

The Short Sale.

Another reason banks accept short sales is that if they have to foreclose on a property that adds costs and the value of the asset reduces greatly if the occupant is evicted. So who is to say the amount the bank accepts as a short sale would not ultimately be more than they may have otherwise gotten off of a deal.

Hard Money Loans and The Short Sale.

That opens the door for investors to purchase homes that they can buy below market value employing the short sale and use hard money loans to finance these deals. The hard money loans will have the benefit of putting little or no money down and potentially, getting funds to rehab the property to make them more saleable or qualify for normal refinancing.

If you have a potential investment opportunity and can use money to purchase and or rehab commercial or residential investment property contact me at louisj@alldominionmortgage.com or leave a private comment below and I will follow up with you to discuss the viability of your financing needs.

Hard Money Loans.

As a real estate investor hard money loans can help you become very successful and wealthy because you can leverage your opportunities with Millions of dollars of private investor financing to seize investment opportunities that may not have been previously available to you. The key to successful investing, whether it is real estate or anything is to be prepared to take advantage of your opportunities. That is the purpose of these private bridge loans, provide short term financing to real estate investors. On type of Hard Money Loan is Transactional Financing.

Transaction Financing Defined.

Transactional Financing is the shortest term hard money loan. This is a bridge loan for one day. This loan is made specifically for investors who were doing flips and can no longer do double closings. Simultaneous closings are no longer acceptable and transactional funding makes simultaneous closings possible. The private bridge funding investor provides funds for one day. The funds are necessary for the real estate investor to take actual ownership of the property by financing it and immediately selling the property to someone who will pay cash or have their financing in place.

How to Use Transactional Financing.

As a real estate investor you want to identify properties and then identify a buyer to sell the property too before you take ownership. The properties you identify are generally distressed properties below market value tied up until you can find a buyer to take it off of your hands. This is what would separate you from most other investors, because you must begin to develop a number of ready buyers before you acquire the properties. These buyers need to have a source of funding already in place to facilitate a quick turn for you and them. In essence you could be a super investor providing below market deals that you will own and take a profit as part of the simultaneous closing.

Hard Money Loans for Transactional Financing.

In short transactional financing is short term funding from private investors that will facilitate simultaneous closings for your deals. To you the real estate investor, you pay lower fees and have a lower risk because you do not get stuck with any deals that will not close. You make a quick profit just by immediately flipping properties. I know flipping properties and double closings are dirty words in today’s market, but transactional financing helps you legally close these loans and make a handsome profit doing so.

All Dominion Mortgage

As a hard money lender All Dominion Mortgage has private investors who are anxious to do transactional financing deals. If you have projects or scenarios to discuss email us at louisj@alldominionmortgage.com or leave a comment below and we will address contact you immediately.