Good afternoon all,

I am starting my journey, and am very very excited to get going with the nitty-gritty of getting to know my area's best and brightest and building my Real Estate Investing Team to have a solid foundation. I have a basic strategy I would like to run by some of you more experienced REIs:

To find the best Real Estate Agents with an investor mindset, talk to many lenders (Mortgage company, private hard money lenders, banks, etc) and ask for their referrals, or whose name they see the most in their paperwork

To find the best Real Estate Lenders, talk to many Real Estate Agents and ask for referrals for REI Lenders.

I will be going in to banks and real estate agencies to start interviewing these lenders and RE Agents, and I was wondering, what questions would you ask a real estate lender? What questions would you ask a real estate Agent? Do you ask for contact info of past clients on the first meet? I want to be sure I am properly vetting them and doing my due diligence to build a great team.

Thank you,

David

Solid strategy in finding lenders, don't forget to leverage what you find here on BP.

Questions that I think are valuable to ask:

• How do you structure deals, LTV/Rehab financing, ARV-LTV restrictions? Loan limits?
• How do you vet my rehab project and contractors? How do i get my rehab draws?
• What are the document requirements? Closing timelines?
• Any fees paid prior to closing? All fees at closing? Any fees after closing?
• What would my rate and points be on this deal? (this will let you know what they require to price a deal as well).
• Do you require an appraisal/drive by/BPO? How is that paid for/completed?
• Anything that makes you stand apart from other lenders?

If you want to vet your HML, they probably won't give you a direct client (investor) as this would be the easiest way to poach investors from a HML. They very likely will give you brokers/appraisers/title companies that they have done business with. Just ask!

Kerry,

Thanks so much for the feedback. I thought up a few more questions to ask the lenders and will start shopping around to find money lenders and real estate agents tomorrow.

Any other advice for finding good soft/hard money lenders that you found useful in your area? I'm just trying to get my foot in the door, so I figured knocking on all doors I can think of will be the approach for now. Any doors I'm over-looking in my search for a good lender and/or real estate agent?

I'll be checking the typical Century21s and national banks starting tomorrow, but I know there are private lenders I can find. I began looking in to the public records of mortgages in my county and seeing who the lenders were, and doing my research to find a time to meet with them. Are there any other ways to find lenders at my stage in the game?

Thanks again,

David