Buying deals from wholesalers and financing with hard money

[Suzanne P.]

Over the last few days I have been checking out larger wholesalers in different states as a source of deals, and most provide an ARV, an estimated rehab cost and a gross profit. Some even provide an estimated net profit after hard money financing that they offer themselves.

I am aware that the ARV and rehab cost need to be taken with a grain (or a ton) of salt and the investor really needs to do their own careful due diligence with all the numbers. Since these will be remote flips I will also be working with local project managers to oversee the project, so there is an extra element of cost I need to build in.

If the deals were financed through hard money that would obviously add a significant amount of cost to the project. I would really appreciate your insight on the effectiveness of wholesalers as a deal source and the possibility of financing these deals through hard money. In your experience / opinion, is there enough profit margin in deals from wholesalers that will allow hard money financing and still leave a meaningful margin? 

In some of the less expensive markets I would be able to finance deals from personal funds (without hard money), but I generally prefer not to have larger amounts in any one project, instead I like to diversify and keep my individual cash investments smaller. Any other ideas on financing such out-of-town flips more reasonably? 

Would it, for example, be a good idea to partner up with another cash investor and split the purchase / rehab / holding / closing costs (and the profits) and not have a hard money lender involved?

Thank you in advance for your insights....

[Kuba F.]

@Suzanne P. you're right on about taking all the numbers with a grain of salt.  It's definitely possible to make a wholesale deal work, but you're more often than not going to come up with duds.

As to the difference between using hard money or a JV, You really have to look at each deal individually. Say you have a hypothetical 1MM in total costs deal with a sale of 1.2MM and 200K potential profit.

If you hold it 90 days and borrow 1MM at 2 points and 10% then your financing costs over that 90 days will be $44,658.  For 180 days it will be $69,315.

If you partner, then time is not a factor for financing and your out of pocket risk is reduced, but you lose 50K with a 25% split, and 100K with a 50% split.