All Forum Posts by: Doug Smith

Don't knee-jerk and think it's necessarily a terrible thing. We have a company that buys Non-Performing Loans and, as a secured creditor, we love seeing BK paperwork. Get a creditor rights attorney and file a claim. Once the plan is in place, which admittedly might take some time, they will pull your money (usually plus a bit more the eat away at the past-due amount) from the debtor's paycheck and the court will send the money to you. If you're an unsecured creditor, you're kinda screwed as you might only get 10% or your money, but since you're providing their housing, you're likely going to come out OK. The attorney can help, but don't panic. Good luck to you. 

A couple of things: 

Builders will often (usually) built a big chunk into the price of the house to give "incentives" if they use their preferred lender. That way, they make more off of the loan and they keep the comps up for later sales in the neighborhood. 

Also, they will not usually use the standard real estate contract for the area. They will use their own contract that is heavily, heavily skewed toward the lender and will usually pass many traditional seller fees off onto the buyer. 

If you don't mind, PM me the contact info for the muckity-mucks for the builder. We've got an incredible program where we do things the banks won't do with respect to financing residential developments up to $30K. I would love to chat with them. Good luck to you. 

Yeah...I'm in Tampa and I feel ya. It's been my experience that people talk a good game, but get serious alligator arms when it comes time to reach their checkbook. Perhaps you can be more specific on what deals your referring to. What types of deals are they? What do the deals look like? What are you asking for? That will help us provide you with better answers. 

I'm not only a lender, but we've been doing new construction in the Tampa Bay area for many years. My wife is actually an account exec for a Development Lender up to $20M and my company lends up to $3M. That being said, the first question we have is "what is your level of experience". Even though I had been lending already when we started this company during the last crash, I still partnered with someone more experienced than I and I learned. An architect and a GC are only a part of the formula. There are courses out there, but I've found few if any of them actually know what their doing and give good advice. Partner on 3 or 4, then head out on your own, but you'll need to identify what you bring to the partnership. Capital? Construction Experience? The lot? The Tampa Bay area is a great market, but using any site of blog to learn construction isn't something that you'll be able to do successfully. Good luck to you. 

I'm sure most do, but I know Advanta IRA does. PM me and I'll give you the direct contact info for a rep. I'm not sure posting someone's phone number in open forum is a great idea.

 I gave some more thought to my post and thought I would clarify something. I know there is free info out there, but I hope more people take the time to really look into the backgrounds of those that write that content. The person you mentioned has no formal credit background. I'm not entirely against paying a consultant that has worked as bank/mortgage lender/underwriter for a significant period of time to assist you to set up your practice or review your deals for you. There are just so many courses/gurus out there that have never done what they teach. "Just a year ago, I was a circus clown, but I discovered the secret to performing open heart surgery and I'll teach you this weekend at the Airport Days Inn for only $19,999." At least check out their Linked In profile and look at their background to know if the content creator actually is a true expert or if they are a charlatan like this guy. 

We had an STR down the street from me that specialized in holding bachelor parties. Another longer-term renter was shooting porn in our clubhouse bathrooms. Yet another renter was hauled away for child porn. I actually joined the board to get the rental restrictions changed in the neighborhood. We've got some great people renting in the neighborhood, but a lot of the landlords were not screening tenants. I'm sorry that they changed the restrictions on you, but I wouldn't want an STR by me. No offense.

The reason no one is teaching this strategy is because it's a terrible, terrible strategy that is taught at the end of every cycle only to see those people lose their shirts. I've been through multiple downturns over 30 years and gurus like this pop up toward the end of every cycle to take advantage of people with dreams. You're being asked to pay $3000 to learn lending from a man that has zero formal credit background, lost his professional license in AZ, and who didn't even get into real estate until 2011...so he's never been through a downturn. You're being encouraged to finance people's earnest money deposits. In other words...people that don't have enough skin in the game to even cover the deposit. The first people that lose their money in a downturn are those that are lending at insanely high LTVs without adequate underwriting experience including determining if the borrower's qualifications based on credit/character, capacity, and collateral.  This guy is leading lambs to slaughter. 

 You bet. I'm right down the road from you. I did it and I'm not that smart...lol. I've financed a bajillion flip deals in addition to doing it myself. You're doing it right. 

We started with my lending background and not a lot of capital. I got a business parter with capital and some experience and we hired a GC on the first few flips. Find someone that brings to the table what you don't and partner with them. Once you get some capital and experience, then progressively step up to bigger and bigger projects. That's how we did it.