Hard
Money Investor Rehab Loans
"Hard
Money Loans. Investor's Best Friend Or Biggest Crutch?"
Hard
Money can be a quick way to fund
everything from residential property, to industrial facilities to new
home
construction. I won’t get into every use of hard
money but I will give
you a general frame work that your imagination can grab a hold
of.
For
starters most hard money
lenders let
you finance up to 65% of the value of the house. If it is for
rehab
purposes, they’ll use the “after-repaired
value” of the property as the
basis point. I have seen occasions that went as high as 75%
but 65%
is the norm.
These
loans are very situational and
very flexible so there is a lot of wiggle room if the deal makes
sense.
It could be a strike against if you are new to the game but fortunately
that can usually be offset with adequate reserves and a good plan of
action.
Let’s
look at an investor rehab loan to see how the numbers work.
Let’s
say you come across a beat up old
home in a decent neighborhood where homes sell for $100,000.
The
seller takes you through the home and you determine that it needs
around $12,000 in work. You’ve gotten prequalified
for the rehab loan
and
want to know what the maximum you should pay for the property.
To
keep
it basic, you want to take $100k
x 65% - loan costs – repair costs/holding costs = Purchase
price.
Loan costs, for hard money loans, run from 8-13% of the total loan
amount. They are not cheap but it’s less money than
you’ll pay to a
partner! For now we’ll assume costs of 10% and
holding costs of
$2,000. Given those numbers, you probably shouldn’t
pay more than
$45,000 for the property. If you pay more, that just means
more money
out of your pocket to get the deal done.

Here are
a few quick tips you can use to maximize the likelihood of being
approved for hard money, in
general:
- The more equity in the property after the
loan, the better,
- The higher your credit score, the better
- The more credit history you have, the
better!
- The more liquid assets you can show that
you have personally or have guaranteed access to (lines of credit,
partners, rich relatives. . .) the better,
- The more populated the area, the better,
- The faster the properties in the area
sell, the better
- The more solid the appraisal value, the
better! A lot of hard money lenders like to use fire sale
values as the basis point of the loan so don’t be
surprised. This is definitely not the time to use stretched
values.
All in all, this
is a numbers game.
Don’t get attached to a property if the numbers
don’t make sense.
Hard money lenders can be flexible but bring them a deal where the
numbers don’t add up and it could cost you a relationship.
Credit
doesn’t
always matter but it does help, tremendously, if you can show good
credit history.