All Forum Posts by: Andy Cross

Hi @Andy Cross,

They way I see it, you can "waste" your time knocking doors, talking to real people, getting real experience and real feedback on your value proposition OR you can waste your time pretending you're working putting together marketing materials without any experience and feedback, spend money, and hope that someone calls you so that you can get face-to-face with them to get real experience and feedback on your value proposition.

Door knocking isn't that huge a commitment. The only think hard about it is changing your mindset - people are surprisingly easy to talk to... don't over think it! Just try it for a day... get some experience.

My wife and I bought our first 2 homes OO so she got the first one $0 down with a first time home buyers credit and we bought out second $0 with a Va loan when I got out of the army. Now the first home is a rental and we are looking at buying our third with a down payment here in the next couple of months. The home we live in now will become a great Class A rental when we are done with it but for right now we are putting tile in the basement and preparing to house hack it.

As the number of investors swell, so do the number of "so called hard money lenders" Since the recession, a lot of hard money lenders, or as I will call them, "pretend hard money lenders" ask you this question. How much skin do you have in the game? WTF?

This is the most irritating question I get from these so called hard money lenders. The reason I go to a hard money lender is because I do not want to personally qualify or put my money in the deal. My first question to the hard money lender that asks the question is what do you mean? "Skin in the game?" I found the deal, didn't I? Don't you think my cost of finding a deal that is worth $190,000 ARV and I am buying it for $106,000 is enough skin in the game?

Usually the so called hard money lender will respond, “But I still want you to put some of your money in the deal. At this point, I just hang up on the lender, "gently"

The reason we are investors is to find good deals and have others come to the party and share in our fortunes. So if I am giving a hard money lender some business that makes sense, it is irritating for the hard money lender to be harassing me with "skin in the game baloney." After all, that is why you are a hard money lender. If I wanted to put more skin in the game, I would have gone to my bank.

Please chime in, fellow investors. Do you think these hard money lenders have a right to call themselves hard money lenders when they behave like traditional banks?

I have done over 400 deals, and rarely do I put any skin in the game besides finding the deal. I consider that my skin.

By the way, I found a lender who financed the above recently closed deal by loaning me $120,000. With an after repair value of $190,000, his LTV is 63%. After paying loan costs and other escrow fees, I walked away with $7,545 in my pocket for buying the property. When I exit in 90 days, there's at least another $40,000-$50,000 waiting for me. So why would a reasonable lender ask me to put money down loan to me money on a 63% LTV property? That is my question to you fellow investors. Are these hard money lenders for real or are they just pretenders? Let me have your thoughts.

 Andy

Did you ever give it a shot and how did it work for you?

Does anyone have any experience with the company that posts these advertisements? http://cnj.craigslist.org/rej/5274274723.html

Is it legit, or a scam? Seems too good to be true to me.

I love Google Voice and use it as my business phone. It enables me to screen calls and/or forward straight to voicemail after screening without even "answering" the call. Plus I know any calls that come through to that number have to do with business and it all comes straight to my cell phone.

sounds good to me. Lets do noon.

@Andy Cross

Lunch time or dinner time? Is anyone else still interested? I'm free the whole day tomorrow, so whatever is most convenient for everyone.

What time on Sunday works for everyone?