Finding and trusting lenders?

[David Zheng]

Hi All,

I'm trying to find some creative financing ways to fund my investment projects as they come up. Looking for hard money lenders, private lenders etc. is quite difficult it seems and even harder to trust when you connect with them.

I've had a bunch of inquiries for lending money but they come from sketchy websites and what not sometimes.

My question is...how to you find lenders who are willing to do short term loans on high interest payments and what are some qualities or features you look for in terms of trusting them to pull through?

Thanks!

David

[Jeff S.]

I know many believe they can find everything they need online anonymously, @David Zheng, but borrowing is a relationship-based business, and these are best formed face-to-face. Turn your computer off. With the growing number of lenders floating around now, you can toss a stone into any real estate meeting and hit several. This is where I recommend you begin.

Here's a Meetup link to some real estate clubs near St. Louis, MO.

Meeting potential lenders eye-to-eye, perhaps in their office, and with references from other borrowers, is at least one assurance they are not scammers. Checking licensing, looking their loans up, and maybe calling past borrowers listed on these documents, is another.

There have been many threads here on vetting private lenders, if you do a search. Here's one that includes an initial list of questions you could ask: How to Vet a Private Lender

Good luck, David.