HELOC or Equity loan on investment

[Shawn Harvey]

Has anyone done a HELOC or equity loan on investment property in Texas? Talked with a couple lenders that only hold 1st lien positions on investments.

[Andrew Postell]

@Shawn Harvey @Neil Narayan @Axel Meierhoefer you can absolutely do a Line of Credit on an investment property here in Texas.  100% you can.  The lenders are harder to find admittedly but you can certainly find them. Local lenders will be your HIGHEST probability of success when trying to find "Line of Credit" lenders on investment properties. The unfortunate thing here is that investment properties foreclose at a higher rate than primary homes so many banks just don't want the exposure to this. But it is 100% possible to find but you have to put in the time or at least know someone that ALREADY has the connection. Here's my 2 suggestions:

1. Visit your local REI groups. There are many groups that meet across the country. Some post here on Bigger Pockets. Many post on meetup.com. Networking is always a great practice and you never know who you might meet there and what good information they have to share. Would certainly recommend visiting if one is close to you.

1. Calling - Which is what I had to do. I had to call about 200 lenders (no exaggeration) to learn of 4 lenders who did this in DFW and I have some tips. First, when calling banks target the smallest most community based banks you can first. If you have never heard of them, and they have one location - that's a good candidate. No big, national, publicly traded banks will do this loan type. Second, try to ask for "LINES OF CREDIT" instead of "HELOC". I know it sounds like I'm splitting hairs but some banks write HELOCs in their residential department....which won't write Investment Properties. And that residential department will often not speak to the commercial department. So they'll just say "sorry, we don't do it"....not even knowing that they really do! So if you ask for a "line of credit on an investment property" that should get you to the COMMERCIAL division. That's the section of the bank we want. Now, most of these smaller banks may only have 12 employees or so. So don't get frustrated if they don't return your call or aren't in the office. Just call back and be friendly. Maybe play dumb a little "I don't know if I'm in the right place..." "I'm sorry to disturb you, you may not be the right person for this....", etc. Maybe someone can get you to the right person. Again, be prepared to call A LOT.

*whew* I know that is a lot but feel free to ask anything additional that you might need.  Thanks!