Which hard money lenders do you sugguest for a first timer

[Jeff Bieniek]

Looking for my first investment. Some lenders want to see a few under my belt before they will lend. Others want a crazy high interest and 15 down. Its making it harder to crunch the numbers to make a great deal work. Does anyone suggest a lender with a success story?

[Andrew Postell]

@Jeff Bieniek most of the hard money lenders I know lend on the property itself. Not on how many deals you have done. Now all hard money lenders are going to have a higher rate than your primary home. And don't be surprised if the rates are twice as high as your primary. Without HML a lot of investors wouldn't even have an option and I bet if you start being really successful you will use HML at some point in your career.

Having said that....we want to TRY to avoid using them whenever we can! But it's really hard to avoid them. If you need $400,000 in 10 days....try raising that much money through your friends and family. it can be hard. But if you do have private resources then let's use those FIRST. Marc Cuban (I think he's a billionaire) says that the #1 reason small business fail early is because they borrow from a bank. He preaches that everyone should borrow their first money from friends and family. They will be significantly more flexible than most lenders. So it is in our interest to try this route first. There are smaller banks that have commercial types of lending that may not be able to close as quickly as HML but still have good options that can close quicker than conventional lending.

But I would absolutely recommend posting in the state forum here on Bigger Pockets and ask what other local people use for their hard money lenders.  See what people in your neck of the woods recommend.  You may get some good responses.  Good luck!