Hard money refinance

[John Garza]

Can I use a hard loan for a buy and hold rental property? Would I be able to refinance it with a conventional loan pay the lender back then rent it out? How would I go about doing that?

[Adam Johnson]

@Assaf Furman - I don't have a BPO or appraisal done, but I should qualify that by saying that I am a broker and I am comfortable with my opinions of value.  I will go on to say that I always build in a decent cushion in case I am wrong on my opinion of value for the end financing, which I have been wrong about in a couple cases.

I am very particular about what I buy and don't shoot for high volumes of deals.  I try to make every deal count.  I will pass over 10 mediocre deals to wait for the "can't lose" deal.

It is not a bad idea to get a professional opinion of value ahead of time (BPO or appraisal) because it is dangerous to get trapped by your deal if you use this approach, unless you have extra funds to kick in to close on the refi in the event that the bank's appraisal comes in low.  Used correctly it can work very well.  Used as a way to "worry about it later" and you can waste time/money/energy trying to save it later.