Hard money lending

[Mateus Silva]

Good afternoon to every member of bigger pockets nation as I'm fairly new I was wondering what are the criteria for a hard money loan ?

[Ann Bellamy]

While it is true that hard money lenders as a group have that reputation, it is not true that all hard money lenders by nature are predatory.

The key is to find someone reputable. And even @David T. seems to acknowledge that he has used highly reputable hard money lenders. :-) It seems that different areas of the country have different concentrations of disreputable lenders. And certainly, the ones that are predatory make it exponentially more challenging for those of us who have good reputations and are not trying to take your property.

This is not a solicitation for a loan, because I don't lend in Fall River. But there are some pages on my website that list various requirements for a hard money loan. Each lender will have their own criteria, but that is a starting point for you. There are also pages about what to expect in the process. You can also listen to my Bigger Pockets podcast on hard money lending which many have found useful.

In addition, when you find a lender in your area and want to know his/her reputation, come back to this thread or private message me, and I'll tell you what I know about that lender, if anything.

It is critical that you ask around for the reputation of the person you are considering doing business with. I can't tell you how many times people in my network have gotten burned by someone, frequently in a partnership or mentorship situation, and they never asked around because they didn't want others to scoop their deal. Instead, they are taken, and when we hear about it after the fact, all we can say is we wished they would have asked, because possibly we could have prevented it.