All Forum Posts by: Didier Bizimungu

@Owen Franks

Hi Owen,

I'm a local investor. I have both type of contacts.

Shoot me a DM as I'm not sure I'm allowed to share personal contact info here.

And please include what kind of cleaner you're looking for (airbnb, construction, company, high volume, etc).

Thanks,

Didier B.

His personality aside, whether or not a crash is coming you know what I'm gonna do?

Buy more deals.

Hi there!

Here's the breakdown of my experience with getting a HELOC on my primary from Lower.com. They drew me in with their offer of being able to pull out as much as 95% of my primary property's value in a HELOC. That's a lot higher than the typical 80%.

On top of that, I must have shopped around to almost 20 lenders and their interest rate/LTV were the best I found thus far for my credit average (around 690 at the time). Lower.com, at least for Florida, takes the middle score of the top three credit bureaus.

I officially signed and started the process on April 30th, 2021. We scheduled the appraisal which was a full appraisal for May 6th. The value of my home turned out to be about 13% higher than we expected.

Underwriting started right around June 10th, 2021.

Side notes here to keep in mind, the market is crazy right now and lenders are prioritizing home purchases vs. refinancing due to limited labor availability. One has a hard deadline otherwise the buyer may lose the home and the lender may lose the ability to provide the loan. So, it's typical for them to put refinances that are locked in on the backburner for the most part.

Throughout this process, my main contact was the original loan advisor. I made sure to reach out to him at least once a week as a reminder and to make sure he was pushing underwriting. The squeaky wheel gets greased as they say.

You will also be assigned a dedicated loan processor, at least I was. She was the main contact in terms of any additional requirements from underwriting. I have a rental property so extra documents included things like leases, proof of no HOA on the rental property, etc. At some point for DTI (Debt to Income Ratio) purposes, I also had to provide rent roll.

As of now Lower.com partners with Andrews Federal Credit Union to offer the 95% HELOC. I ended up only being able to pull 89% of my LTV due to my DTI. They calculate your expectant DTI in consideration of you using 100% of your HELOC.

After a few months of checking in with both my loan processor & loan advisor, we finally got the clear to close. We signed on August 17th, 2021, and I had the funds from the HELOC in my account on the 23rd. This was expedited as I chose to do direct deposit/wire as opposed to a check. These were the options that were presented in the signing documents as well as the option for the amount I'd like to initially draw.

All in total it took around 110 days or 3 months and 19 days from the initial commitment to signing. So don't start this process as of now, expecting these funds soon.

I haven't made my first payment so I don't have details on that but if there is interest, I can update this thread when I do. I did pull out the maximum allotted amount of the HELOC which I plan on using for BRRRR (already closed on a property!).

A few notes, please shoot me an inbox message if you'd like more details on their credit reports/bureaus as I'm not sure how much of that I'm allowed to publicly share. And use the same contact method if you'd like the contact details of my loan advisor. He's a great guy you just have to stay on top of him like most other folks with a lot on their plates. The same goes for the specific monetary amounts of my specific process.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions on this process, I tried to be as thorough as possible.

Thank you,

Didier B.

Hi Blake & Cody,

Here's the breakdown of my experience with getting a HELOC on my primary from Lower.com. They drew me in with their offer of being able to pull out as much as 95% of my primary property's value in a HELOC. That's a lot higher than the typical 80%.

On top of that, I must have shopped around to almost 20 lenders and their interest rate/LTV were the best I found thus far for my credit average (around 690 at the time). Lower.com, at least for Florida, takes the middle score of the top three credit bureaus.

I officially signed and started the process on April 30th, 2021. We scheduled the appraisal which was a full appraisal for May 6th. The value of my home turned out to be about 13% higher than we expected.

Underwriting started right around June 10th, 2021.

Side notes here to keep in mind, the market is crazy right now and lenders are prioritizing home purchases vs. refinancing due to limited labor availability. One has a hard deadline otherwise the buyer may lose the home and the lender may lose the ability to provide the loan. So, it's typical for them to put refinances that are locked in on the backburner for the most part.

Throughout this process, my main contact was the original loan advisor. I made sure to reach out to him at least once a week as a reminder and to make sure he was pushing underwriting. The squeaky wheel gets greased as they say.

You will also be assigned a dedicated loan processor, at least I was. She was the main contact in terms of any additional requirements from underwriting. I have a rental property so extra documents included things like leases, proof of no HOA on the rental property, etc. At some point for DTI (Debt to Income Ratio) purposes, I also had to provide rent roll.

As of now Lower.com partners with Andrews Federal Credit Union to offer the 95% HELOC. I ended up only being able to pull 89% of my LTV due to my DTI. They calculate your expectant DTI in consideration of you using 100% of your HELOC.

After a few months of checking in with both my loan processor & loan advisor, we finally got the clear to close. We signed on August 17th, 2021, and I had the funds from the HELOC in my account on the 23rd. This was expedited as I chose to do direct deposit/wire as opposed to a check. These were the options that were presented in the signing documents as well as the option for the amount I'd like to initially draw.

All in total it took around 110 days or 3 months and 19 days from the initial commitment to signing. So don't start this process as of now, expecting these funds soon.

I haven't made my first payment so I don't have details on that but if there is interest, I can update this thread when I do. I did pull out the maximum allotted amount of the HELOC which I plan on using for BRRRR (already closed on a property!).

A few notes, please shoot me an inbox message if you'd like more details on their credit reports/bureaus as I'm not sure how much of that I'm allowed to publicly share. And use the same contact method if you'd like the contact details of my loan advisor. He's a great guy you just have to stay on top of him like most other folks with a lot on their plates. The same goes for the specific monetary amounts of my specific process.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions on this process, I tried to be as thorough as possible.

Thank you,

Didier B.

Hi Cody! I'm just going through this process with Lower.com. I'll respond with details in two to three weeks once everything is finalized. 

@Account Closed https://www.newwestern.com/ might be a good place to start as well. But be careful and stick to your numbers as always. 

Thank you @Stephanie P. and @Greg Scott! And good point @Michael Glist. I plan on keeping in my personal name so that shouldn't be an issue. 

So my next steps here will be to start searching for lenders with a short seasoning period. 

Any input on how a bridge loan affects or changes this process? 

Thanks again everyone!

Hi all! 

Newbie question here. Once I've secured a hard money loan and used it to buy/rehab a home, how do I present my current situation to a traditional lender when acquiring a conventional loan on the property? 

Do I present the property as currently having a hard money loan on it with attached details? Or do I present it as owned by me? Also, how does a bridge loan differ in this scenario? 

Appreciate any insights here. My approach is buy & hold/rent.

Thank you,

Didier B.

Hi Clint,

First of all, congratulations on your first foray into home ownership!

1) As @Guifre mentioned rezoning is an intense process with no guarantee that it will come out in your favor. This can be done/requested by the current owner.

2) Check out other loan sources. I don't think the 15% down for multi-family is a hard standard.

3) Check out NACA.com. They do conventional loans for multi-family with no money down if need be. Their process is intense though so be warned.

4) Feel free to please please ignore this. This information is gathered from a few paragraphs you shared, I am not aware of any nuances or other factors under considerations going into this from your end.

You mentioned the purchase of this house is predicated on 4 sources of income from what I can gather. Your two jobs, your girlfriend's job, and rental income from Airbnbing the apartment/garage. Going into the purchase with a 3% assist from your landlord and co-signing from your father. Maybe it might be prudent to consider a more affordable home. I know it's tough giving up the home that you're already living in and feel comfortable with, it feels like home. But this in no way means it's your only path to home ownership.

Again feel free to ignore this last unsolicited advice and I wish you good luck!

Thank you,

Didier Bizimungu

Thanks @Adam Rasmussen & @Bill Hampton I'll update this thread when I get it done.