Mortgage under $50k?

[Becky Smith]

I live in Oregon and have a few rentals, but I am wanting to venture out and buy and rent out some properties on the east coast where houses are considerably cheaper so I can scale at a much faster rate. I am having a hard time finding a lender to do this. Since I am not local, I do not have a relationship with credit unions in the area I’m looking to buy. What are my options? 

[Ben Nelson]

Hi Becky,

Yes, finding lenders who do smaller loans can be tricky. Have you considered private money? That could be a much better option for something like this. Find some folks who have money they need to put to work, but they don't have the time or want the hassle in actually doing the work, and use their money as debt against the property. Especially for smaller amounts, there's money like this everywhere...just look at home much money is sitting in bank in CDs making 1%.

Also, unsolicited advice I know, but a side note I'd make is do NOT buy property simply because it's less expensive. It can be tempting when you're in an expensive market, but cheap homes are not always a good investment. It can also look really good on paper, but real life number work out much differently especially in some of the less expensive markets if you're not careful about where you buy. If you goal is scaling, and that's the only reason you're considering cheap homes, I'd challenge you to think differently and think bigger - you can still scale quickly on more expensive home or larger buildings, you just have to go about it a different way. Think partnerships, syndication, etc.