Jim Cavoto

A hard money lender is your best bet in this market. Most banks are shying away from land in general, the added fact that your Canadian makes it even harder- A private / Hard / or Equity lender will take on a deal like this assuming you can put down at least 40-50% - Sun Jun 22 2008, 16:56

We are getting call after call from people that have had their bank pull out of a construction loan, and we have been able to help. It almost seems like banks want these loans off their books, and will do about anything to get them off! There are lots of legal questions, and you do need a lawyer to help with them. You are more than welcome to give me a call, we have people that are lending their own money out on good deals, and if your deal is good, we can get you back on track with your builder within weeks.

You can talk to your broker and see if he has anyone looking to make interest on your deal or if they have a hard money lender that will step in and help you out. This type of loan will get your home done so you can get it refinanced into a more conventional loan, and get moved it. - Sun Jun 22 2008, 16:53

This al depends on if your going to live in the home while you rehab it - if you are a 203k program is a great way to go, and is a lot cheeper than most other loans.
If your doing this as an investment, to fix and flip or fix and hold, Private & Hard money lenders are going to be your friends, and if you are planning on doing this over and over, these are the guys you want to know-the money is not cheep! but there is no limit to how many loans you can do at a time, it is based on the project, so if you have 4 homes that you can find, these lenders will allow you to do 4 at a time, if you can show you can service the debt. The basic loan programs are 90% of the purchase price and 100% of the rehab money, as long as you don't go over 60-65% of the rehabed value- thats the good news - the cost of the funds will be around 14% plus points of 5-7 - there are a number of lenders that this is all they do, each one has different sweet spots for the deals they want, and if they are full doc or stated.
One good thing about these programs is for the most part they won't let you make a mistake, because they wont lend over 65% of the completed value-
you can check out
Brookview Financial
Rehabfunding.com
or just google "rehab funding" and on the first two pages you will find 5 or 6 lenders that this is all they do. - Sun Jun 22 2008, 16:41

Sounds like you have been talking to a hard money guy for the 65% - Check with you local bank, if the project cash flows, they will be looking for at least 1.2 plus ratio, they should have a program to get you around 80% - 95% is a dream when it comes to commercial lending, and to get even 90% you would need a loan balance over 1mm to get a lenders attention.

As far as LTV based on Renovated Value, A hard money lender or Private money lender is you best bet- BUT you have to understand the cost of these kinds of funds. Private money is not the cheapest out there, nor do we care about your credit score, we care about how we are going to get paid back, and that the project is doable. For example your buying it for 500k but when your done it is worth 1mm - a hard money or private lender will lend you up 65-70% of the completed value getting you the money to fix up the property - the money would be held in escrow and released in draws to ensure the work is done. In most cases a interest reserve will be kept so you dont even make payments while your improving the building. This is when your good credit comes in, a hard money lender wants to know your exit plan from the loan into conventional financing, so the fact you have the high scores matter, we know you can get out of the loan, based on the fact were only going to be at 70% loan to value when your done, and your local bank will gladly lend you money if the debt ratio on the project is at 1.2 or better and you have good credit. The hardest part us hard money guys have is if you have never looked at hard money, the costs will scare you, but in this money market place, it seems we are the ones with the funds to do these kinds of deals.
You are more than welcome to contact me about funding your deal, or just google "hard money" and you will see all the programs that are out there and the costs of the money. - Sun Jun 22 2008, 16:26

I offer private money - but I am not sure what your saying here - contact me and we can talk about private money sources -
If your saying you can buy bulk we do blanket loans - if you want to buy them one at a time we have private people that fund - but again I need to understand your question- - Fri Apr 25 2008, 17:01