Less than 100k purchase.
Steve ReedPro Member
Member since 2025 · 1 post · 0 votesLess than 100k purchase.
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Stacy RaskinBusiness Member
Lender · Member since 2022 · 1k+ posts · 494 votesIf it's rural, and under $100K loan amount, funding is more difficult. Checking in with local lending options and seeing if there are recommendations from investors who have worked on similar properties by searching through online local real estate investment groups, meetups or Facebook pages that are in the same area could help bring up some financing options.
There are more lending options if not rural, if the property is a DSCR / ready to rent condition, over $100K and not a fix and flip. Under $100K and down to a $75K appraised value has options if a DSCR loan and not rural. Some investors will target properties that have more lending options as it helps to have more program options to scale a portfolio.
If you need to get out of the agreement, I would review the terms- in most standard purchase agreements, there's a financing contingency that you can get out of the agreement if you can't find financing if you let the seller know within the timeframe mentioned in the contract.
Fix and flip financing is more expensive on rates and fees so even if you can find a lending option, it's worth considering if the math makes sense for this property.
Bright Skyline518 Reviews
7 Replies
- Real Estate Investor · Burlington, VT · Member since 2010 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes1w
@Steve Reed Check local banks / credit unions in your area, ideally those who know the subject property.
I ran into the same issues in VT which is pretty rural, but reached out to local banks that were able to finance it. Check with the commercial lending department, since you may be looking for purchase + rehab funds. Mine was a business loan secured by the real estate.
- 1wErik EstradaBusiness MemberLender · Member since 2022 · 6k+ posts · 1k+ votes
Local HMLs or Banks will be better suited for this due to the lower price point
LuxePrivate Investments LLC 572 Reviews - 1wReuben IlyichPro MemberInvestor · Tel aviv, Israel · Member since 2026 · 1 post · 1 vote
Local banks and credit unions are the right call at this price. Most hard money lenders floor out around $75-100k, so a $66k purchase barely registers for them.
The bigger question is whether the deal works at all. $66k plus $30k rehab is $96k all-in against a $127k ARV - 76% before closing, holding, and sale costs. After those, the flip margin is thin to negative. The lenders passing on it are doing that same math.
Before anything else, check your contract: financing contingency, inspection contingency, earnest money. If the deal can't pencil, your exit should cost a deposit, not a disaster.
If you keep it, think hold not flip. If it rents for $1,000 or more, a local bank purchase-rehab loan can still cash flow.
- 1wStacy RaskinBusiness MemberLender · Member since 2022 · 1k+ posts · 494 votes
If it's rural, and under $100K loan amount, funding is more difficult. Checking in with local lending options and seeing if there are recommendations from investors who have worked on similar properties by searching through online local real estate investment groups, meetups or Facebook pages that are in the same area could help bring up some financing options.
There are more lending options if not rural, if the property is a DSCR / ready to rent condition, over $100K and not a fix and flip. Under $100K and down to a $75K appraised value has options if a DSCR loan and not rural. Some investors will target properties that have more lending options as it helps to have more program options to scale a portfolio.
If you need to get out of the agreement, I would review the terms- in most standard purchase agreements, there's a financing contingency that you can get out of the agreement if you can't find financing if you let the seller know within the timeframe mentioned in the contract.
Fix and flip financing is more expensive on rates and fees so even if you can find a lending option, it's worth considering if the math makes sense for this property.
Bright Skyline518 Reviews - Real Estate Agent · Kansas City · Member since 2018 · 4k+ posts · 3k+ votes1w
I'd ask in local FB groups, networking groups and reach out to banks. Rural will be harder but doable.
- Specialist · NJ · Member since 2022 · 1k+ posts · 649 votes1w
So, this isn't even a deal. Rural is ok, if it is a nice area maybe a vacation area or skiing/hiking that type of thing. Then 2 bed houses are tough. You learn that eventually. Even if you did get into this house, getting out would be very hard. And the spread is not there. Even if the real number for the rehab is 30k and in my experience when the number is low like that you always go over. But 66k plus 30k is 96k and the ARV is 127k, that is 75.5% project cost to ARV. That means if any of these numbers are off are the timeline extends even a little then you can go under.
There should be like a Hard Money University or something. Hard Money likes certain kinds of deals, and I don't mean the lender. The lender will put you in any deal that fits their guidelines set forth by their capital partners that buy their notes. They're in sales. And their loan officers work on commission and have quotas.
I mean Hard Money the resource. Borrowing purchase and rehab money, lifting a distressed property from the depths of ruin to a comp worthy house. Hard Money likes:
Credit above 720
Experience in Real estate
Properties bought under market value
Project costs 65% or less
Capital to front 33% of rehab costs
Quality rehabs done efficiently
A strategic exit plan with wiggle room
Now a lender does not need all that to qualify you for a BRRRR loan, but if you want Hard Money to work for you and be effective then you should check most if not all of these boxes.
I have a unique edge in that I have seen it done wrong and I have seen the costs of doing it wrong and how it goes wrong and why. I'd say most of the scenarios that budding investors come to the forums with are not deals. And anytime I see that 20k - 30k rehab number, I wince. Because I been involved in too many 30k rehabs that wound up being 70k. Unless you are cutting down the trees and making your own lumber and have an A.I bot doing the painting and floors, and a local kitchen and batch company wants to donate a free kitchen and new baths for promotional reasons, 30k is not a real rehab number in most cases.You have to target 2nd city markets, active markets. Markets where your dollar can stretch and then you need to abandon the MLS and wholesalers. You need to build a framework for the secondary markets like auction, foreclosure, or direct from seller. You will need capital for this, these are cash deals and hard money won't work. You need essentially a line of credit from someone that trusts you. You pick up a 100k house for 70k. Then you need to be able to run the rehab, no GC. You work with the subs, hiring the appropriate trade at the needed time. So the 80k rehab from the GC may only be 65k or 70k and you control the quality because its your skin in the game. The GC is getting paid whether he does a good job or not. So where someone else's project cost is 180k, yours is 135k. So now when the ARV is 280k. That guy in for 280k he may have to reduce to 260k, 250k to sell, when you go through the process 100% and get to the exit, you see that you do not get that ARV number most times. So now if that first investor in for 180k who went hard money and had all the holding costs and draw process restrictions. He's in for over 200k maybe after it's all said and done. Then there is closing costs on the 250k sale. Maybe they walk with 35k, and if they did they should be thankful. But the 2nd investor has all the wiggle room in the world. He can give the house away at 199k and still make more profit than the first investor.
With the proper buying strategy, access to money, and the right team - flipping can be very profitable. The problem is, most out there have none of the three and they are trying to make money flipping. You'll get torched.
- Englewood, NJ · Member since 2018 · 355 posts · 60 votes4d
Steve, different angle here since I buy at tax deed auctions in Broward County FL — similar price points to what you're looking at, but the financing question shows up differently for me.
At auction, you're writing a check that same day. No lender is ordering an appraisal or funding your bid. So the "can I find funding" question gets replaced with "do I have the cash and does the math work?"
What I've learned from doing a few of these: the 75% of ARV number Mike mentioned is where I start getting nervous. At auction, if my all-in (purchase + estimated rehab + holding costs + selling costs) is over 70% of what I think it'll sell for, I don't bid. Because rehab estimates on distressed properties are almost always wrong, and they're wrong to the high side.
Your $30k rehab number is the bigger red flag than the financing. On a $66k rural property, $30k rehab usually means $50-60k once you open the walls. That pushes your all-in to $116-126k against a $127k ARV. Now you're at 91-99% of ARV before any closing costs, holding costs, or sale costs. That's not a flip — that's a donation to the seller.
The lenders passing on this aren't being difficult. They're doing the same math and seeing what you're not seeing: there's no margin for error.
My honest take: if you have a financing contingency in your contract, use it. Walk away. The deal doesn't work at these numbers, and no amount of creative financing fixes a deal that doesn't pencil. You can't finance your way into profit on a property with no equity spread.
If you're set on this market, look for properties where you can buy at 60% of ARV or less. That's where the margin lives. Everything else is just moving money around.
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