BiggerPockets

Hi Francine,
Welcome. What you propose is not an impossibility. I've done deals both ways. You'll need to put this in the "Make Deals" forum, which I'm sure a mod will do.

The real trick to doing this right is rather than posting what you need from an investor - get a deal together and show the hard numbers of what this deal will do for them. 50% of a deal can mean anything and I did do a deal where 50% of the profit is $2,500.00. And yes, I got a private investor for the deal where 50% was $2,500.00. Granted he only needed to come up with $5,000.00 and it turned in 45 days so it was ok but you get what I mean.

Good luck with it.

It's hard deciding between deal or funding because it's chicken or egg and they usually have to happen in very fast succession.

Here's exactly what I did. I became a specialist in one type of property in one market to the point I knew exactly that kind of deal through and through. I would then network and when the topic of conversation came to what kind of investing I do, I would talk about that one kind of property in that one market. Because I was an expert in that one thing, I instilled confidence in my potential lender.

It got to a point where I did a trial "close" where the potential lender committed to lending with me on my "next" deal. I went out and got my "next" deal and called my potential lender to confirm she was in, then put it under contract that day. I did put to risk $500 for earnest but I knew I had to. Once I had it under contract I went back to the lender to get this underway. There was plenty of time from putting it under contract to closing to get all things worked out with the lender.

I won't lie to you, it's scary putting a property under contract when you have no way of paying for it outside of a potential lender "saying" they can do it. What helped was when I found out that even mortgage companies aren't truly committed until closing. If they can back out on the day of closing, then it's not so scary to think of a private lender doing it. Made it all easier to move forward on.

Tim