Guidance for first taking out a Hard Money Loan

[DeeDee Lucks]

I am looking for a hard money loan of $100,000.  I have a cash flow issue, not an asset issue.  By September I should be able to repay in full, though I prefer to hold for 6-12 months.  Unfortunately, we must close on the house in question in July.

Briefly, I have a business that for administrative reasons (my fault mostly, but my excuse is that I have three toddlers) did not file for VAT at the earliest possible date (delayed 2 months). The money will be returned to us 60-90 months after we will file by the end of June(no default risk - it's an EU government).  We do have a refund coming in July (16K). Further, we have an order that will ship July 22, so on or before, I will have another 50K in cash. Hence my certainty that I can repay in September. Why hold for a year?  Operations are easier for us when we have cash on hand and so I would prefer to hold until we have emptied our warehouses two more times (scheduled for September and November)

I also have three valuable properties.  Two of those I am in the process of a cash-out refinance; they are located in a major European city with nearly 2mil in equity, but, I am assuming, useless as collateral in the US, as well as a property in very hot NJ market near the one I am buying, that I am assuming a lender would find more attractive as collateral than the one I am purchasing.

I should mention this will be a 2nd lien, but I have offers on the NJ property for 450K more than the mortgage. I don't want to sell anything since I know I will have a lot of cash from my refs and business within a few months.

If anyone has had a good experience with a HML, please post or message a recommendation. Speed is a bigger issue than rate for me.

If you are a HML, please tell me what you think I should pay and what I need to be aware of. I want to understand how a lender will view me before I start my calling around.