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Article:
Hard Money Lenders -- "No Money Down" The Easy Way
By David Whisnant, JD
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 theproperty 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 agreedwith 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 money lenders
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 hardmoney
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 setup 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:
Free Hard Money Lender List
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