Real Estate

Hard Money Lenders -- "No Money Down" The Easy Way

Would it help you as a real estate investor to be able to
"Close For Cash in Days," even if you're tapped out
financially?

Hard money lenders are perhaps the best way to get 100%
financing with easy qualifying, money for fix- up, and fast
closings.

So what can hard money lenders do for you? Hard money
lenders make relatively short term (12-24 month) loans to
real estate investors for the purposes of acquiring the
property and rehabbing the property.

These loans are often funded by pools of private investors
that have been grouped together into a pool of capital by a
lender.

The hard money lender is looking for maximum return, and is
willing to take more risk for this return in the form of
easier lending standards.

If you strike the right purchase deal, you can even borrow
100% of the purchase price plus some or all of your repair
money by using hard money lenders. Here's how it works.

Hard money lenders typically loan 65% of the ARV or After
Repair Value of the property when it is repaired or ready
for resale.

That 65% loaned by the hard money lender is calculated based
on the value of the property AFTER REPAIRS, not as it
currently sits, and not based on the price is being paid for
the property.

For example, Say that the owner is willing to sell me his
house for $60,000. The hard money lender's appraiser agreed
with my assessment that the home could be sold for $100,000
once it was fixed up. That appraisal would allow me to
borrow 65% of the $100,000, or $65,000. I'm only paying
$60,000 for the property, so guess where that extra $5,000
goes?

Unfortunately, not into my vacation fund!

The extra loan proceeds go into an escrow account held by
the hard money lender, and I can draw it out as I do
repairs.

Remember, hard money lenders are not concerned with your
personal credit to the level that traditional lenders are.
They're concerned with the property. They know that their
loan is fairly secure if you default.

What's bad about hard money loans?

The fees are higher than conventional financing.

Hard moneylenders in my area charge 15% interest, and 5% of
the value of the loan in closing costs ("five points").

Thus, on a hundred thousand dollar loan, there would be
$5,000 in fees to the lender to close the loan, plus
attorney's fees and other charges.

Secondly, the loans usually are only good for 12-24 months.
After that time, you have to refinance. If you haven't sold
it by then, you have to get a new loan, pay more fees, etc.
These are not loans to buy rentals with.

Another disadvantage is the fact that most hard money
lenders don't figure the payments on a 30-year basis. The
longer the payments stretch out, the cheaper the payment.
They figure these loans on 15 or even 10-year terms. Thus,
the monthly payment that you must pay is much higher than it
would be on a conventional 30 year amortization schedule.

Also, hard money lenders are often more difficult to find
than traditional funding sources. As a gift, I have
compiled a national list of hard money lenders at my site to
solve this problem for you.

Finally, most hard money lenders require a pre-payment
penalty that must be paid if you refinance or pay off the
mortgage before a given amount of time. Fortunately, this
time period is often fairly short. For example, the hard
money lender that I use has a two month pre-payment penalty
period. Even if I am not going to do much work on the
property, and have a contract on it quickly, I can just set
up the closing for after the pre-payment penalty expires.

In conclusion, hard money lenders present an attractive
option for investors to succeed without having to resort to
the late night TV creative hype that we've probably all been
exposed to. If you can qualify for traditional financing,
and your seller is comfortable with a longer closing window,
you may want to stay with conventional financing.

However, if down payment money is tight and your credit is
not perfect, or you need to close very quickly, hard money
lenders may be a viable solution since they will allow
almost anyone who can find a good deal to purchase a
property extremely quickly, with less red tape, get money
for rehab, and have virtually unlimited access to cash.

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Download Dave Whisnant's FREE 50 state hard money lender list and forever banish the problem of where to find the cash for your deals! Go to

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