Hello awesome BPers,

First, my wife and I have been spending time analyzing deals and are wanting to act. It makes sense to me to find a hard money lender in the area who has done the flips, holds, and so on who we can partner with. They have an even better grasp of the locale and the right deals to move on, contractors to use, etc. We haven't connected with the local REIA, yet. I just wanted to ask online if anybody know someone who does it in our area. And, for anyone who's done this, is my thinking correct? I feel it's a safer, smarter move to go with a local private lender.

Your thoughts are greatly appreciated.

There are going to be lenders jumping all over this thread saying ‘we lend there...’ but that doesn’t mean they know anything about your market.

Can you connect with a Local real estate group live, or online, and get some feedback from other investors?

Where exactly are you looking?

@David Weintraub

I’d be looking for someone in the area of Louisville and southern Indiana.

I’ve had several lenders approach me here already. Like I said, we haven’t connected with the local REIAs, yet (plan to at the end of the month). I’ve attended a couple small Meetup groups and my wife has met up with a women’s investor group that just started. At this point, at least I think, the smart move would be to connect with someone local with experience that understands our goals. I’m sure I can find that right person at the REIA; however, I was more or less seeking some validation in my thinking and hoping to connect with people who do it through the BP forum.

Hastily read on the app. 

Yeah, local for many reasons, but one example is if you ever got into a jam, local people know local people.  Best of luck.  

theres quite a few good ones locally. most of them sponsor the KREIA meetings.

@Robert Keller

The things you're asking for aren't typical of a hard money lender.  Sounds like more of a role of a real estate agent, or a friendly real estate investor.  When I think of hard money, I aim to find someone with the best rates who I can depend on to close the deal.

With that said, I also flip and invest in rentals out of state. I use national hard money lenders for the best rates, but also because they know how to vet a new market. I treat them like a partner. They'll check vacancy rates, make you do an appraisal to get true ARV and as-is values, verify that you have the correct insurance policy, etc. And if they don't approve of the deal, I'd probably re-consider if it was really a deal in the first place.