Congratulations, with all your experience and negotiating skills you’ve just tied up a great investment property. And in a sellers market, like we have today, that was no easy accomplishment. Chances are you had to put down some serious earnest money and promise a quick closing. That means the most important part is yet to come…getting the financing that glues the deal together. Enter your hard money lender.

Now, maybe you already have a relationship with one; maybe you’re about to begin that search online. The challenge isn’t finding a hard money lender. There’s a bunch of us out there and we’re not difficult to find. What might be challenging, however, is getting a reliable loan approval that you can count on, because your clock now… ticks… faster. I’m going to share with you the most important hard money lending hack that can turn your next lender conversation into the kind of loan approval that has a whole lot more teeth in it than just a “maybe”. Are you ready?

Four facts that are most important to your lender. If you can start the conversation right out of the gate with these you will impress your lender that they are dealing with a pro, you don’t waste any time and you know what you’re doing. Here it is…

  1. What is it
  2. Where is it
  3. What’s the purchase price
  4. How much cash are you putting down.

That’s it. That’s exactly what we want to know first. And believe it or not, this isn’t easy for a lot of investors to do because everyone likes to talk about the sexy factors, things that make your deal exciting like why you think the real value is more than you’re paying, what you think it’s going to be worth when you’re done fixing it up… all important to know, but that comes later in the conversation. You want a real answer that leans in your favor? What is it, where is it, what’s the purchase price, how much cash are you putting down. Let’s break this down even further.

1) What is it? Meaning is the property a: Single Family, Multi Family, Land, Industrial, Office, Strip Mall …? We do them all, we just need to know what hat to wear for the conversation.

2) Where is it? Knowing the address goes a long way. We’ve been funding hard money loans in Arizona for more than 25 years. Chances are we already know the neighborhood. Is it a homogeneous property located in a major metropolitan area where comparables are easy to find, or is it at the end of a rural highway and down a dirt road, do the neighbors have bars on the windows? Hey, we can deal with it all, but these things go directly to marketing time and strength in value.

3) What is the contract purchase price? Again, this is not the time to get into what you think it’s going to be worth someday. ARV (After Repair Value) is important, just not yet. If the lender asks you what you are paying and you avoid the question by hypothecating about future value, that lender is going to think you’re holding something back. I promise, we will get to it just not yet .

And this leads me to #4 and perhaps the most important of them all, you want to get your lender excited?… how much cash are you putting down? Your skin in the game means a lot.; It’s the one single factor that tells the lender how committed you are to the investment success. Maybe you want to put as little down as possible so you can use your reserves for things like fix up costs, setting aside payment reserves or a down payment for another property, that’s okay. You’d be surprised how many things we can work around. Creativity is something we’re really good at, once we know the four facts we just discussed.

So you see, putting those four facts right out on the table speaks volumes. And don’t hesitate to just say what it is… everyone’s time is important and if you really have a deal both you and your lender should know in less time than it took you to watch this video. Time is important and you don’t have time to waste. We are in the business of getting to the point fast and funding your deal FAST. If you have any questions or a loan that needs funding you can call us. To get started we don’t need a big fat hairy loan file, just a conversation.

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