Private Money Lending - The Day I realized Money Didn't Matter

People always ask me HOW I got started in real estate investing. Like many of you, I read a book about it…and I was HOOKED. Next, I took some courses that racked up my credit cards and left me still wondering how the hell I was going to actually get a deal done.

I took these real estate investing courses with another couple from my area. Word of mouth marketing brought them a really great deal, and they brought that deal to my husband and me. We were excited! They wanted to wholesale it to us, and my husband, a real estate agent, knew it was a great deal, based on the comps in the area. But now what? We had this great deal under contract and no money to buy it. What is a girl to do?

My husband took the deal to a colleague that was an experienced house flipper. We could have then wholesaled it to him and been done with everything. We would have made a small profit, and moved on. However, I wasn’t interested in meager profits, and I needed something the flipper had: EXPERIENCE! So, we asked about joint venturing on the deal and splitting the profits. And the flipper agreed!

A joint venture in real estate is when two or more parties pool their resources to get a deal done, and split the profits. In our case, the flipper had the money and the experience, and we had the house under contract and time to complete the deal.

The flipper acted as our private money lender, and funded the deal. We helped organize the project and did some of the rehab. We flipped the home with more than enough profit that EVERYONE involved in the deal made a big fat chunk of change.

I had NO money in the deal. I did have to split my profit with someone else, but still gained more than I would have, had I simply double wholesaled it. Was it worth it for the experience? HELL YES! I got to see the WHOLE process of a deal from start to finish. That is priceless.

This experience was eye opening. The one thing that new investors ALWAYS worry about and the one thing that holds them back is MONEY. “Where will I get the money for the deal?” is one of the first questions I get from nearly every new investor. This experience opened up my eyes to a whole new world that involved hard money lenders, private money lenders, joint ventureship. When I started, I had no money, credit, or experience to bring to the deal. Twelve years later, and I have NEVER put my own money into a deal.

I teach that money doesn’t matter, because it DOESN’T. Find a good deal and the money will be there. Private money lenders and hard money lenders want their money working in good deals! And there are plenty of experienced flippers out that are open to joint venture. If you don’t have the money, you CAN leverage your time and effort to get into a deal. Money is NOT something that should be holding you back.

Make sure you have all your ducks in a row and information ready for your lender or joint venture partner to make the process move quickly so you can get that deal funded! Now go find deals!!!!