All Forum Posts by: Mike Malloy

“What millionaire real estate investor/lender, is going to advertise that they have millions of dollars on craigslist.“

It isn’t too uncommon. 

I agree with asking them for details on past loans. Another option is to search the area recorder’s sites for their name and see what comes up. 

Taylor and Jason nailed it...lenders are generally lenders. not that they wouldn’t get into properties, but they wouldn’t stay in business very long by going around their borrowers. 

Of the ten or so private/hard lenders I know, every single one of them uses a free/personal email equivalent to gmail. That said, none of them do it as their full-time gig, but a personal address is by no means the marker of a scam. 

It is normal for a lender to want to see the correct names, including their own, listed on the insurance. 

Valmer has been pretty solid over about a dozen deals. Stay away from Great American...everything that could have gone wrong on their end...did. 

There is a list of lenders built into the forums here.

Points charged by the lender are a percentage of the loan amount that is either charged or added to the principle. They usually serve to cover any fees such as appraisal, documentation, research, etc. 

Most hard money loans do not affect your credit as long as things go smoothly. Some will run a credit check, but few will report the loan amount to the bureaus. 

I agree with “the other” Mike M...very little chance of a deal being taken. As a lender I definitely want to do my own background research on the actual property, but I am only acting as a lender. If the deal makes sense I will offer terms that I think will work for everyone. If it doesn’t seem like a good deal then I probably won’t make the loan. That is about as simple as it can be. If someone went around snatching up deals under the guise of being a lender I don’t think they would maintain much of a working reputation. This is such a relationship game in my eyes that any real success comes from working with people over and over again. 

Buying with private funds and refinancing with conventional always looks pretty good. Even better if you can do some rehab and get the value up in between. 

I sent you a PM. We tend to like the private route due to the speed and flexibility of funds. You can close on a hot deal much more quickly, which sellers like, and you can pull equity from other properties depending on your plans. 

What is the consensus on how the new 20% pass through deduction will apply to private/hard money lending? Would individuals be better off to lend through a sole-prop LLC?