All Forum Posts by: Eric Blanchard

Also, many brokers can arrange everything between you and your private lender, and charge a point (%) or two for their services.

Ask BP member Stewart Fox. He is very familiar with the process.

Also, it depends on what the lender wants. If they want the property as collateral for the loan, most title companies can prep documents and handle escrow. Call around and ask what docs would be needed in your state and what services they will provide.

One of my private lenders uses his attorneys to draw up the promissory note. But he doesn't need a deed of trust because he doesn't require collateral.

@Bryan L. Thanks! Always helpful to hear what other folks are doing. Not much too brick here in PDX (I think it's the occasional earthquakes) but there's probably a number of equivalent niches.

[Runs off to ask realtor...]

@Allan Draper I started with realtor who had a private lender contact. That way the lender already knew one person involved, and was thus more agreeable. It also made analyzing deals easier because I knew my financing costs ahead of time.

As to finding the deal first - I noticed when I went to local REIA groups that there were tons of people pursuing that strategy, while the few people with money got to cherry pick.

I mean *third...

I second Lake O.

Got to go with @Martin Zawarski on this one. A good realtor is worth finding and keeping. I kissed a toad or two, but I'm happy with my current realtor (BP member Stewart Fox).

That's what I did on the house I bought two weeks ago. Once we (my realtor and I) knew the bank was interested in our offer, we went through it with a contractor to make sure we knew what our "highest and best" offer was. We actually beat out a couple other offers because the bank was tired of having the sale fall through multiple times with other buyers, whereas we didn't have the inspection contingency.

In the case of our contractor, he was a connection of my realtor, so he looked at the property for free. The money for him is in getting the job...and he has it now.

Hey @Michael W.

Yes, getting started is often a slow, discouraging process. It took me a little over two years to line up all the pieces to buy my first house. But the things that make it hard are why there's money to be made :)

It's hard to partner with people when you have neither cash nor experience - you might consider finding someone already established and working for them for free until you get more experience.

Good luck!

@Zachary Rouse hey zach! Great to have you on BP. There are definitely lots of us here happy to look at deals (and even buy sometimes...). Be sure to set up your keyword alerts so that you can be notified about relevant conversations. Also take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with our forum organization - I believe this post should be reposted in our Marketplace section, but one of the moderators will probably chime in about that. Good luck!