All Forum Posts by: Matthew Lee

@Account Closed  I am a Rehabber and Have Been Buying and Rehabbing over the past 8 years...

MY Suggestion is to know your goal over the next 3-5 years...

I first started in a great real estate market, and I still made a ton of mistakes in my investing career. Thank God I was in a good real estate market because it helped us to recover from those mistakes because the market was appreciating so fast prior to 2007.

In my case if I were to start over again...knowing that I wanted to have a career flipping houses(Fix & Flips)...I would go and find a successful investor that is already doing Fix and Flips and see how to get them to mentor you(or Partner with you)...The value of their Experience will accelerate your learning curve.

In my experience every rehab deal is different and has different challenges that can pop up during the process...enough that in some case just one mistake can cost you a ton of money.

There is no way you can learn all the mistakes you must avoid by reading a book or taking a 3-day training program. That is why I recommend people look at their first 5-10 deals as a part of your training process...and if all your split was from every deal is 10-20% of the profits you'd till be making out because of the experience you will gain.

Generally the experienced investor will have tons of relationships in place that you will be able to leverage that will save you 10,000's in time, money, and trial and error.

Hope that helps...

PS The best thing about a mentor in your local market is a great mentor will know the market well enough to know a deal without having to use guess work, they typically understand the little differences in neighborhood that might cause a radical drop in house values of homes that might look like deals, but  are really "Money Pits".

@Chris Callaghan The best thing I look for is a track record and testimonials from people they have helped already...

Not that testimonials can guarantee they can help you, but it gives you some confidence...

Thank God for the internet, it is hard to pop up in business without telling people your story about how you got started doing what you do, and if you have no track record then you have some explaining to do, if you can really can do what you can do...the beauty of Financing and Funding is if you are really good at getting companies funded you don't have to advertise...You will have people lining up to send you clients to get funding for...

In my experience their is no new funding out here, and most follow very similar guidelines in terms of what lenders are looking for...

Bottom line I look for is track record...

@Pyrrha Rivers...Sometimes most services will help you monitor and that is what you need to be on top of for the most part...if you follow the guidelines I listed...You are optimizing your scores ability to grow...

Otherwise if you are doing that...checking your scores will now help your scores grow...it's mainly about credit management and protecting your credit report from inaccuracies... 

The only score acceleration methods I have seen work are adding Authorized Users which can boost a score in as little as 15 days, and boost scores from 20-60 points per card you are added to for...

Every credit profile is difference so there is no one size fits all formula, for how long it will take to increase scores...

Good Luck on your Credit Scores...

@Konrad Lightner  Your best bet is to find another experienced local investor and find out who they are using for financing...A few reasons why...

If shopping by rates - rates are usually not locked in for longer the 30-days, and the shorter the length of the lock the better the interest rate...15-Days are most common...you actually pay more to have a 30-day lock.  Having a local lender that has a track record with other investors is great because they can guide you through the process...

I look for the lender who has reasonable rates and fees, and usually don't shop too hard for the cheapest lender...In my experience by working with someone that is trusted by the investor community, they may not be the absolute cheapest, but they will make you money in the long wrong because they understand what your goals and objectives are.

Sometimes the Lenders that are the cheapest are not the fastest in getting a loan closed, which can jeopardize your deal and reputation.

Most fees and pricing are fairly standard at banks and lenders because of new mortgage guidelines and regulations. Most fees will not change much between the time you are pre-qualified and the time you find a property. So you can have theem give your a GFE - Good Faith Estimate, and TIL(Truth In Lending) which disclose all of their standard fees.

The best bet is to find someone that you can build a relationship with and that has a pre-existing relationship with other investors you know because they will have a lot more reasons to make sure you're satisfied with their service because they know you will go back and report to the other investors how their service has been.

One last thing is consider Angie's List. I have never used them before but Angie's List is much like BP in that it is a community, and have a review system.

Hope that helps...

@Pyrrha Rivers  Yes, the main things in Credit Scoring is

-Length of Credit History of Accounts

-Have 3 Major Credit Cards Reporting with No Late Payments -

-Revolving Balances below 30% of Limits

-1 Installment Account

-No Collections, Judgements, Public Records(Bankruptcy/Foreclosure) or Late Payments

These are very good guidelines...And if you want to get a boost of your scores and have a Family member that has a Seasoned Credit Card(Opened CC Account for over 3 years) that will report Authorized Users- they can add you as an Authorized User and you can have that credit history on that card added to your report...

Hope that helps!

@Andy Collins  that's good news...it's about time...

Yes, just simply find another bank...They can have concerns in giving you that second loan because from a compliance standpoint it can look shady if they were ever audited, or if you went into foreclosure...

Usually banks aren't that paranoid if they know there is no shady business going on...Someone who is purposely looking to buy O/O just to get cheaper rate...There may be guidelines from the lender they sell the loans to that stipulate 12-months seasoning on any O/O loan before they do financing for another O/O home...But usually only applies to that bank or lender.

With Banks so competitive to get more business, you will be hard pressed to find another lender that will turn down the opportunity for a new loan!

Hope that helps!

I work with a lot of Renters that have credit issues...

The Credit Bureaus ONLY sell the Banks your Real Fico Scores...You cannot buy the same scores the Banks & Lenders get from Online Providers...They provide a Consumer Report...and in many cases it is inaccurate...

The best option in terms of accuracy is www.CreditCheckTotal.com

www.MyFico.com scores are accurate but they cannot provide you the Score for Experian.

Hope that helps...