More Money, Less Problems!! Trouble Funding a Low Budget Deal

More Money, Less Problems!! Trouble Funding a Low Budget Deal

Rental Property Investor · Winter Haven, FL · Member since 2018 · 68 posts · 20 votes

I'm running into a weird problem right now. Most people complain that they don't have enough money, but in my case, the issue is more like this - the amount of money I need is so low that no one is willing to help me out!

Let me explain a little more... I found a house here in Central Florida that I would like to rehab and refinance. It's not in terrible condition, but it does needs work! Here's the catch, the house in foreclosure and the seller wants CASH ONLY! Okay, so look at Hard Money Lenders, right? Wrong! Most of them won't lend on an owner-occupied property (I don't know why, I'm a guaranteed buyer!) and the ones that will, when they look at the price tag, they say the loan amount it TOO LOW! It's a strange world, this real estate business! Lol

To give you some better ideas on the numbers; the home is currently listed for $60k. Based on the research I've done, we shouldn't have to pay more than $50k and the actual price is probably closer to $43k. I know this because another property sold in this area for $50k and it's about the same size and same condition as the one we're looking at. As for the ARV, I estimate that to be around $150k when it's all fixed up! Huge upside!! How do I know this, well, there was a recent fix and flip in this area - like literally around the corner - and that house was bought in a similar condition in 2015 for $70k. Something obviously went wrong because it didn't list again until 2019, but when it did, it sold for $143k! Assuming they followed the 70% rule, they shouldn't have spent more than $30k on the rehab, so still, pretty good numbers!

Now, I am going to that property in about 3 hours to look at everything in person. I have one contractor meeting us there on short notice to estimate the job for us, and I've got 3 more who are getting pictures and measurements to give their opinions later. After that, I'll have a more solid number for that rehab, but let's break this down - If I get this place for $50k and put $40k into the rehab, I'm all in for $90k on a property that might appraise at $130k. That's a worst case scenario, and we're still under 70% LTV! But no one wants to fund the deal, and I don't have the money laying around to make it happen on my own... so, if it was you, what would you be doing in this situation?

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  • Rental Property Investor · Winter Haven, FL · Member since 2018 · 68 posts · 20 votes
    6y

    UPDATE TIME! 

    So, I just got back from meeting with the Realtor and the Contractor at the property! The bad news, the property is in worse condition that we were made to believe from the pictures. That's pretty much a given though, we expected that. The good news is that the repairs are right around where I thought they would be, if everything goes well.. which it probably won't.. I'd much rather plan for the worst and hope for the best!

    Once we showed the contractor around, pointing out all the flaws and concerns, he estimates that the job will be somewhere around $35-38k to rehab the property. So naturally, I asked him for the absolute worst case scenario and he said if everything goes terribly wrong, he thinks it could go up in the neighborhood of $58-60k. Now, none of these numbers are exact or set in stone yet, and some of them can't be until after we buy the house. The fact is, we won't REALLY know what's wrong with it until we start tearing it apart - so we plan for the worst and hope for the best!

    So looking back at that low ARV of $130k I mentioned before, if we account for $60k in rehab costs, $91k keeps us under that 70% LTV. Now, I know that because I plan to live there, I can refinance up to 97%. If this were a rental, I could go as high as 80% and be all-in for $104k and still come out clean... but I don't want to do that.. I want wiggle-room to hopefully cash out some money for my next deal, so looking at this scenario and sticking with the 70% LTV, the best offer price should be somewhere around $31k. This is probably do-able. I'd be comfortable going as high as $40k, but of course I'd rather pay less. If we can't get $40k or under, we walk away, simple as that.

    All that to say I still have one MAJOR problem - the money to do the deal! What should I do? Who should I talk to? Have you ever tried to finance a deal but no-one would touch it because it the loan amount was too low? This seems strange to me, especially when you have a guaranteed buyer, but this is my situation.. what should I do? Who should I call? Ghostbusters!?

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