Real Estate Reality Radio  

Don't believe everything you hear.  I've heard all kinds of stories from people and the media over the past few weeks about how there is no more money for funding deals; and it' s just simply not true.   One ezine that came out this week stated that there are no more stated income loans.   Fortunately, on today's Real Estate Reality Radio Show, Michael Gross of Dividend America Mortgage set the record straight on the lending market for real estate investors.

As for stated income loans, they are still available.  It's just that you'll need a 680 credit score or better and you'll need to verify assets.  What has gone away in regards to stated income loans is the old stated income/stated assets.  It's now stated income/verified assets.

Construction lenders are a great way to get into deals.  Using this strategy potentially allows you to refinance with a conventional lender and walk away from the deal with some cash in your pocket from the construction loan. 

What are conventional lenders looking for in a borrower these days? 

Safety:  They want to see equity in the property rather than investors trying to pull all of the money out of the property. Michael says leave 30% equity in the property.  If you don't find a deal with that kind of equity -keep looking ! It's a numbers game; and there are plenty of deals out there.   If you need to learn how to analyze deals and what to offer to make your deals work, check out www.dealsorduds.com -I developed this home study course to help you do just that.

Long Term Holds:  Lenders want to lend on deals that you are planning to hold.  Producing a signed lease goes a long way. It's even better to have an appraisal that shows the property as rented or leased.  This strategy works well if you started with the construction loan, fixed the property up and then put a tenant in the property prior to closing on your long term convential loan. 

If you're sitting back saying, I don't have good credit, there's still hope!  The fact that money is available to those with good credit just means that you need to get a partner.  You can partner on deals and apply for loans as a co-borrower with someone who already has good credit.   Finding partners is not that hard -people are all around you that have money and/or credit -start looking for them!  I can help you with that -nspivey@transformit.net.

We talked today about all this and more on the show, you can listen to the show  for more information.