How I found a Hard Money Lender, thanks to bigger pockets

[John Hickey]

Up till now I've never used a HML. I'm in my 7th solo deal right now and I worked for two large real estate companies in the last 25 years. I never had to borrow money except from friends(even bosses), family and banks. I did a commercial loan once and that was a bit easier than I thought. So this year I'm doing a bigger deal than I've done before. It's 34+ unit mix of commercial, mixed use and small multi family. It's also in serious distress, so I am getting it at a discount. I had a few HML that I had come across before and I brought my deal to them. One of them offers 14/4. But it doesn't seem like he really wants to do it. I'm worried he will back out. The rest passed. I'm putting down more than 50% but they were worried we had never done business before and it's a big deal for me. Not my first but the biggest and it's got some ugly problems. Mostly that the tenants are the worst case scenario. Street walkers, addicts, possibly drug dealers. Definitely a high percentage of felons. I totally understand why they passed but it's a good deal. I have a list of goals, for about 90 days these properties are on my list. Every day twice a day (sometimes more when I'm feeling down as Grant Cardone says) I read those goals. So I was listening to a podcast and Josh Dworkin and Brandon Turner are talking about improvements to bigger pockets and they are talking about the HML listings. I'm driving home from work. In never listen to the radio. Only podcasts right now. I make a mental note I get home at about ten pm and pull up the New York local HML listings. They have two in my town, I wake up at 3am thinking about the list. I wait till 7am and start calling the list. No,no,no, I hear back. I brought up three of them to the buildings. It takes hours to walk them all. Most of the HML juts say no right of the bat. They don't like my area. The others don't like my deal, bc I'm honest I tell them what is going on. One guys tells me after half an hour, you just talked me out of it. But I finally found one guy. They just sent the term sheet 12/3 for 15 months. They will be ready to close as soon as I get title. Thanks very much Biggerpockets