All Forum Posts by: Ari Hadar

One great source of locating knowledgeable agents is to talk to the local real estate appraisers in a given market. They will have first hand experience with which agents are dealmakers and who is an expert in the investing market.  Appraisers seek out and rely on the agents who have the most knowledge in a specialty.  

There’s no need to equivocate here, @Ari Hadar. This loan is a scam, through and through.

You could have stopped at the first sentence. Legitimate lenders transfer money through neutral parties such as escrow, title, or a closing attorney -- however it’s done in the state you’re borrowing. The only exception might be a construction loan, but only after the purchase money has been funded thru a neutral party.

No one, not even Fannie Mae, is lending at 2%.

Origination fees, or points, are due when the loan funds, not when it’s approved.

The letter you present has been published here on several occasions in almost the exact form and always identified as a scam:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/49/topics/913193-is-this-a-legit-private-money-lender

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/49/topics/302281-private-lender?page=2

You’ve placed yourself at a vulnerable disadvantage since it appears you live in Israel yet want to borrow in the US. Yes? It will be doubly hard to find a lender willing to loan to someone who lives out of the country. Nonetheless, I encourage you to find lenders locally to where you are investing.

Go to Meetup.com and contact some local real estate club owners. Ask them which lenders regularly attended their club before the pandemic and who have the best reputations. These are the lenders you want to meet, preferably in person, but at least online using Zoom or Facetime.

With the number of scammers out there, Ari, blindly searching the web for lenders using Facebook, LinkedIn, Craigslist, or the like, will not end up well for you. You truly have no idea who you are communicating with and some of these scammers are very slick. Plus, by questioning lending terms that are clearly scams, it doesn’t appear you even know what to ask. Read here: Private Money Lender - How to Qualify the Lender and good luck to you.

I indentified the danger by upfront payment. I found a lender from new york through referral that seems reliable even though it 65% refi loan that is hard to cash out... 

Hi Ari, the request for $2,500 up front sounds a little concerning. Did the lender disclose what this money is for? Some private money lenders/hard money lenders do require a legal deposit prior to closing, but only after they issue the loan commitment letter. 

#1 on the list of requirements is a little scary too. Some private lenders require a cancelled check to have automatic loan payments set up, but in my experience, lenders don't wire money directly to YOUR bank account--it goes to a settlement agent who disburses the funds. Funds for rehab/construction are normally disbursed on a draw system through a servicing company. 

Please message me directly is you like. Hope this helps!

Not going to name names publicly,....but I know of a company that is great at marketing themselves on youtube, email and here on BP. Avoid them at all costs. 

Yep...that is the best case. A HELOC would be the way to go...you can always re-fi out of the FHA loan at year 1...lose the MIP they charge...its a scandal.

There are a lot of variables...and no appraisal is guaranteed...I think you'll get a much more favorable appraisal on the HELOC...credit unions are lending 95-97% LTV...in the above example you could possibly get a line of credit around $40k for your next deal...or turn the property into a rental and buy your next investment with a 5% conventional loan.

It's really awesome you are getting going this young...you will have a lot of success in this business.

Hi all,

I'm curious what investors, real estate agents, wholesalers, etc are using from a technology perspective to track down: investors w/ larger portfolios, high equity, length of ownership, absentee owners. delinquent taxes..

Public county records are a trove of information, but there's no easy way to aggregate county info to more meaningful data, and often counties use different systems to track property data. I'm wondering if anyone uses anything to do this for county records?

I'm a software engineer, looking to get into the real estate space and have been developing a solution to aggregate county records to bring better insights/leads to interested parties. We've been able to aggregate enough data to determine who owns several properties, equity estimate based off deed transactions, long term ownership, out of state owners, etc. 

I'd love some insights if anyone can answer:

1. What are you paying today for leads?

2. What service are you using?

3. How is your lead consumed? Is it automatically pushed to your CRM?

I found that the platform charges something like a 13% fee on top of the cost of the work. Nah, I'll pass, if I am really desperate I can offer the project for 13% less than what I am willing to pay, but this size chunk makes it unattractive to investors and good contractors.

So how are you going to find a contracto? The good ones must be busy and expensive... 

@Ari Hadar I’ve never had an issue renting out in cudell, just need to be cautious with screening, as with any property. And I would make sure PM doing monthly check-ins for at least the first 6 months.