What do you find first? the Deal or the Loan?

[Jorge Martin]

When starting out as a first time rehabber being denied a traditional loan but having a good sized down payment what would you do? Find the loan first or the deal?

[Raj Mulchandani]

I personally would start with the loan.  If your deal is presented correctly, you should be able to mitigate the limited experience.  

For example, our guidelines require at least 1 deal in the last 12 months. However if the person had good credit, decent income, and found a good deal along with putting an additional 5-10% down that now sounds like a deal that warrants an exception.  Another mitigant could be that you have hired a general contract with experience and have a full budget ready to present along with as is and as repaired comps based on your plan.

If none of this work you could try and joint venture with another rehabber and leverage off of his experience the first deal or two while you are building your track record.  This may also be a good learning experience and give you another set of eyes looking at each deal with you.  

I hope this helps.  Feel free to pm me if you have any other questions about qualifying for a rehab loan.

Thanks,

Raj Mulchandani CPA

[Mike Hanneman]

Can this be done with out looking at debt to income? I have been having issues finding a place that will loan to me because of my debt to income. How can an investor get around this with the bank/traditional financing?