Whether you have lots of money and great credit starting out, or no money and lousy credit starting out, either way, if you truly want to make a serious bid at building a property empire then you cannot discount the importance of learning how to find investor partners and equally how to find private lenders to help fund your real estate investing. As you go along in your real estate investing career, as long as you pay attention and get educated about real estate investing, you will find that the skill you possess in spotting value and valuable money-making opportunities in real estate will far, Far, FAR surpass your ability to get all the money you need to do all these many deals you come across- UNLESS…
You learn how to find investor partners and find private lenders and get your money sources in place AS YOU GO ALONG and BEFORE YOU NEED THEM.
How to Find Investor Partners and Private Lenders
Creative investing techniques aside, sometimes you need real cold cash to do a deal. And sometimes it can be very frustrating not to have it to hand. For that reason, available financing money tends to be the biggest challenge for many real estate investors, new and experienced both. If you can’t get the financing, sometimes there’s just no deal.
John Wooden once said “Don’t let what you can’t do stop you from doing what you CAN do”. Keep that in mind now as I lay out what you should do, if for example you do have little money or a poor credit situation. And if you don’t then you’ll still find more access to money than you might have ever though you needed (yet) when you apply these strategies.
Now, I speak from experience (big time!) when I say that lack of money and/or a negative credit situation can be one HECK of a hurdle to leap over but with enough tenacity and creativity and faith you will do it.
Before you get all disappointed that I’m not saying it’s easy, I want you to consider a paradigm shift in your thinking. Today, I want you to see that it’s not easy but it IS simple. I want you to consider that being credit challenged is not all a negative. I want you to believe that this “negative” situation can have a powerfully positive silver lining, and that’s this:
“As long as I KNOW I’m going to make it happen (a deal, this business, whatever), whatever holds me back (poor credit and/or no money) is immaterial to accomplishing my goals. In fact, I am BLESSED to have this challenge (poor credit and/or no money) because since I KNOW I will succeed that means I will have successfully defeated this challenge and developed skills and attributes (patience, tenacity, faith, creativity) that will take me far FURTHER than someone for whom this (credit/money) was not a problem. Nor will I, when I have bested this challenge (poor credit and/or no money) ever take what I have gained (good credit, wealth, financial independence) for granted and lose it– as some who never face challenges do.”
Believe that and you cannot fail.
Now, as for the steps to help you right now getting your money sources in place to do even more real estate deals, let’s talk about finding investor partners and private lenders for real estate investing.
Here are a few strategies many people can do immediately, and others as soon as is feasible with their time and money availability. If you do these concurrently, and CONSISTENTLY, in less than a few years you can have access to more money to do deals than you might imagine:
1) Go to the Courthouse and look up mortgage documents. Go regularly because you’re researching. Creating the database that will get you paid. Ask around, these people (civil servants) can be extremely helpful if you are humble in your requests. Just don’t expect to discuss real estate investing with them, they likely don’t care. What are you looking for? You are looking for the mortgage lienholder. Take a tablet of paper with you and write down any (including mailing address) INDIVIDUAL (i.e. non- Wachovia, First Century Financial, Bank of America bank/finance institutions) names you find. These are one of two types of people, people who took back a mortgage on the sale of their own home (owner financing)- whether it was their idea or not. You don’t usually want these (not for gaining investors who will give you money to do deals anyway).
The second kind is a private lender, someone that loans their money out secured by a property. These are the ones you want. How to find the good ones? Call them and introduce yourself, explain that you are a real estate investor coming across a wealth of high-ROI secure low-LTV real estate deals and in search of short-term mortgage financing from private individuals to get the deals done.
One of three things will happen, two of which will make you money potentially.
a. They know exactly what you’re talking about because they hold a LOT of private mortgage notes– not just the one you found that prompted you to call them– and love the high safe returns they get. These types will ask what interest rate you’re offering or other savvy questions. These are the private lenders you want. Find out as much info as you can about them and add them to your database, promising to notify them first when you have a deal in the works. Don’t worry if you don’t have answers to all their questions. At this point having their contact info and them knowing who you are, being “pre-pitched” is all we’re concerned about.
b. They don’t have any idea what you’re talking about or think you’re crazy or aren’t interested or have no money to loan/invest.
c. They know what you’re talking about because they have a seller-held mortgage on a house they sold and in fact HATE that they are receiving payments over time– instead of the lump sump cash they wanted (but couldn’t/didn’t receive when they sold). NOTE: Two questions here could make you a nice chunk of cash: “Why?” and then “Oh, I see, well Mr. Jones that’s actually my specialty. I can get you all the cash coming to you within a week, and you could __(insert their answer to Why? here)__ right away without waiting all those years and the headaches of collecting payments. Of course, because you’re getting cash in your hand, it would be a discounted amount from the face value you SETTLED for when you took the mortgage. If I could get that set up for you with just a few questions and you’d have the cash within the week– would that be something you’d now be interested in?”
Once you’ve done this it’s a simple matter to connect them with a lender you contacted in #1 or find a buyer through an online private lender clearinghouse like http://www.cash4notes.com or calling someone more experienced or getting a private mortgage broker involved- though they’ll take much of the profit. Any of these is an easy way to cut yourself in the spread for a few thousand dollars or more, with just a little paperwork and you’re doing nothing unethical. If you do this be sure to consult a competent real estate attorney, however, because you’re dealing with securities and complicated paperwork).
But again, the point isn’t to find cash flow loans, it’s to find lender investors for your own deals. Just think of #3 above as a lucrative sideline that costs you little but the time it takes to ask 2 questions.
2) Place ads “Money wanted. Up to 16%. Short term and long term. Minimum investment (insert here whatever 65% of the average value of a home in your area is) Private investors needed. Secure, low-LTV investments collateralized against income-producing properties. Free consultation. Call now.
Local people are best when it comes to developing investor partners for real estate investing. These people are going to want to meet you and see what you’re about. Remember, professionals don’t have to have all the answers. You just have to know you can get them! So use the local newspaper. Use bandit signs (these are the signs you see on the side of the road- just check your local county ordinances and attorney about possible penalties). Call the guys at 866-SIGN-GUY and even if they’re not available in your part of the country, they’ll happily refer you to someone who does it where you live I bet. Also, put the above ad on the back of your business cards.
A no cost option is placing the above on http://www.craigslist.org, the world’s largest online free classified ads exchange, and other classifieds online.
3) Attend a private money bootcamp seminar, even if you have to borrow or put it on a credit card or convince a better-off friend who is like-minded to go halves on the cost for two to attend. There are some good options for this But it’s pricey. Go to the training section of the HIS Real Estate website to learn more.
4) Go to your local REIAs (real estate investor associations). Don’t ask these people for advice until you’re experienced enough not to fall for the blind leading the blind phenomenon that prevails at many of these, or have seen proof of how successful they are and how many deals they’ve done. Get business cards, hand out yours. Ask the organizer to address you from the front of the room and introduce yourself. Let people know you’re looking for money investors, and that you are in search of investor partners for real estate investing.
5) Improve your own credit.
Here are some simple, easy, and mostly free ideas that won’t work for everyone, but will work for many:
-Hire a credit repair company (be careful there are some scams out there)
-Celebrate your successes and hold yourself accountable. Sign up for credit monitoring at 14.95/mo through Truecredit.com or another.
-Get someone in your family or a close friend with GREAT credit to add you as an “authorized user” or better a “secondary user” to their high-limit, long-history credit cards. Tell them it will not affect their credit AT ALL, and they can cut up the card in your name that is sent to them. You’ll be surprised at how many points this can bump you up.
- Decrease your DTI and debt-to-credit limit ratios one of two ways. Pay down revolving (credit card) balances to BELOW 50% of the limits. OR, and some people never even think of this one…ask that your credit LIMITS be increased so that the balance owed is less than 50% of the new higher limit
- Remember, sometimes the best investor partner you can have is your own credit’s ability to channel OPM
6) Call everyone who advertises “We Buy Houses” in your area. Many of these investors also lend on property as private lenders. It’s a great way to find private lenders for real estate investing. With very little change in your schedule (just being AWARE and writing it down when you see these walking or driving- pull over first!) I guarantee you can create a database of HUNDREDS of these in your locality– unless its extremely rural anyway-just by paying attention to billboards and bandit signs on the side of the road. This is an example of the phenomenon that when you want to make money in real estate without your own money it’s What You Know + Who You Know = What you Get.
7) Realize that if you have the What You Know AND the Who You Know handled, What You Have right now is NOT IMPORTANT. Do you follow me?
By: Danny Welsh