Old house with Land

[Asher Anthes]

Okay so I'm looking to buy this house owner occupied, and then rent out my current house.

It is a forclosure owned by a small bank. It has 11.5 acres, a pond, almost 4000 square feet. It needs a good bit of work though to make it livable, probably $30,000 to $40,000. The listing price is $175,000 and it sold for much more than that in 2002.

I put in an offer for $170,000 financed with a construction loan and 25% down, but they rejected my offer saying they want cash.

I considered looking into a hard money lender, thinking they may take that offer as it is as close to cash as I can get. But I'm a little nervous about doing a hard money loan.

I'm thinking about going back and offering $185,000 with financing, because I feel like if they price is right, they will agree, even with financing. I'm pretty sure they're going to want me to close in 30 days though, if we get a contract. How easy is it to close a construction loan in 30 days?

Also, we tried asking about a 203k but they didn't seem interested. But again, maybe they would agree if the price was right?

I feel pretty confident that there's enough equity in the deal to put even $50,000 into rehab, and then be able to cash out refi at 80% and make money.