Beginner House Flipper trying to figure out financing

[Adrian S.]

Hello everyone,

I am a new real estate investor and WashU student (18) from St. Louis MO. I am looking to do my first house flip. I am trying to figure out the best way to fund the deal. I have not found a deal yet, I am trying to figure out how to fund the deal before I start looking. Also, I recently got my real estate license and am going to start my career as an agent next week. I don't think I qualify for any conventional or FHA loans as I don't have long enough income history. But hopefully after working as an agent for 2 years I can qualify for one of those.

I have some uncles that are commercial real estate investors and could possibly privately fund the deal. That seems like my best option as of now, but it seems hard to ask them for funding before I even have a deal or any experience.  

The other option is hard money, how good of an idea is using hard money for my first deal? I think it could work as long as I run all the numbers right and the deal is good. 

If anyone has any advice on what the best approach would be it would be greatly appreciated. 

[Andy Sabisch]

If you have private money available, you should explore those as preferable options due to terms and upfront coasts as compared to HML options.  If they are already investors, they could help you locate / assess deals as well which is a plus as they will want you to be successful to help them be successful.  

Getting your financing options in place before you find a deal is always a better route to take.  When we were starting out we had a killer deal (two duplexes that were positive from day 1) but it took us a few days to get the financing and guess what, an investor that did not have that problem picked them up and is making a great profit on them.  You are heading in the right direction to get the financing options laid out and then find the deal so you can pull the trigger for the right one.

As far as HML options be sure you get all the details before signing anything . . interest rate, payment terms, what if you need to extend, points up front, etc.  -  comparing one to another with ALL of the details is the only way to make an informed decison.

Good luck.