All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

As a lender who lends exclusively on fix and flip properties throughout the country, I can attest to the value add of beautifying neighborhoods. No one wants to look out of their front window while cooking dinner and see a deteriorated house immediately across the street. It's a reminder of tough times for all, brings down the value of your house and also is just a gloomy thing to look at! By renovating properties that have been neglected, we're taking a raw diamond and cutting it into something that sparkles and people desire. It's like fixing up an old Camaro or Mustang that's been sitting uncovered in someone's backyard for years. 

We're offering people the chance to make a home out of something that's currently unlivable, adding life into neighborhoods and cities and turning the tide of the limited housing inventory that's available. We're adding economic value and creating jobs with our contractors, designers, lenders and appraisers. As we often say here in the office, we're "Renovating America" and making our surroundings a more appealing place to be. 

This would be a non-arms length transaction, therefore most lenders won't touch this kind of a deal given the higher risk associated with the deal. Be sure to disclose the nature of the relationship to your lender prior to spinning their wheels so you don't lose credibility and come off as a borrower who's trying to pull a quick one. 

While 50% upfront might be a hefty sum in some cases, as has been pointed out, why should the guy trust you to be good for the money? He is assessing the risk of you not being able to pay (or simply not paying) just like you are assessing the risk of him not completing the job. If you vetted your contractor (i.e. referrals, examples of past work, BBB, Yelp, etc) then you should have confidence in your selection to provide him the funds to get started and have less of a concern of him walking. You sound hesitant to do so, which means you likely did not do enough diligence on the contractor and don't have enough faith in your own decision to stand behind it. 

There are so many lenders out there that it's almost impossible not to qualify somewhere! Sometimes the opportunity presents itself and you know you have a deal, so it's worth locking in the contract first then finding financing, knowing you have an exit route as a wholesale option if the numbers are there.

Lendinghome offers short term financing for fix and flips, and the competition is everywhere these days. There are lenders that will lend to investors with a sub-499 FICO (Civic) and lenders with a minimum loan amount of $50,000 (Groundfloor) - there's truly a lender for everyone. 

Do your homework based on the type of property you're looking for, where you're looking for the property and know what you can and cannot get financing for before locking in a contract, but a pre-approval is not required in the investment space. As a lender, we do not offer pre-approvals since we underwrite the asset, not the borrower, therefore depending on the scenario you might not even be able to get one. 

This was my favorite part of the filing process! The name can be anything, but check the SOS website for your state prior to filing to ensure it's available by Googling "{state} public entity search" and searching for your top choices to see if they're already taken. A few things my partners and I discussed while coming up with our name:

• We felt "acquisitions" sounded a little too aggressive for the intent of our business. Think of your end game and build from there. Are you helping homeowners 
• Make it easy to spell - you would not believe how many entity docs I review with misspelled names, which could have implications on your claim to title
• Think about an email alias - you want it to be short and sweet. My first entity was Millennium Venture Partners, LLC - stephen(at)millenniumventurepartners.com; It's too long, most people misspell millennium, and it doesn't easily fit on a single loan when handwritten. We later shortened this to MVP Real Estate.

Have fun with it, but don't make it too hokey either - you want the sellers to take you seriously. 

It's a matter of what you plan on using the funds for, what you're paying right now, your overall expenses, current financial situation, etc. If you're looking to tap into the capital in your house and use it for a down payment on another property, then refinancing at a higher rate could potentially make sense if you count the delta between your current and increased mortgage payment as a recurring cost on your new property and it still cash flows. 

If you're looking to lock in low rates and don't plan on living in the house for too much longer, I'm a fan of ARMs (I'm also 27, therefore not likely to remain in one place for an extended period of time at this point). 

For the houses that sell in the winter, what is the typical SP % LP compared to the summer months? Also, I'm having a hard time without access to the MLS to find the local comps that have the below grade, above grade bed and bath count. Are there any local tools that you recommend I use for this?

Hello friends - 

My partner and I have been looking at properties in the greater Cincinnati area for a few months and have found a couple we're interested in. We live in San Francisco, CA and have been on the backend of real estate investing for over 2 years at a high volume lender and we're ready to put some money in the market. However, SF and the surrounding areas are cost-prohibitive (we have $45,000 for the investment). Several of my borrowers are working in the Cincinnati area and we've been working with a local acquisition agency (Build Realty) to find properties. My concern is with it being August and the cold months right around the corner, how much does the changing of seasons impact the ability to reliably get a project done on time? Us Californians don't have to deal with these things :)

There's a property (not under contract yet) that we could close by EOM, but that would put us at a resale of March. All insights are appreciated!

At LendingHome, we charge a $199 application fee ($299 is the loan is brokered due to the sell-through quality of loans) that covers the Desktop hybrid appraisal as well as other fees that are incurred when the loan is submitted: AVM, Property Profile, flood cert, etc. This fee is credited back on the HUD when the deal goes to close. As mentioned on the thread, working a file with no application fee does get expensive when we're seeing several hundred deals a month, and we need to ensure the borrower is appropriately invested in the deal as well.

Hi Kent - how was the experience with Roofstock? I have a couple former colleagues that work there, and have been perusing their website as well. Really intrigued and would love your list of pros and cons from the experience.