Blog
How the money actually works.
Guides to financing investment property, written the way I would explain it on the phone. What lenders check, how the numbers are built, and where deals quietly stop working. Plus case files: individual funded deals, written down.
When a flip runs past the loan term: how extensions work
Contractors slip and buyers fall through. What a hard money loan extension is, when to ask for one, and how to keep a delay from becoming a default.
2 min readPersonal guaranty on a hard money loan: what you are signing
The LLC borrows, but you guarantee it. What a personal guaranty covers, why nearly every hard money lender requires one, and what to read before you sign.
3 min readAssignment vs double close: which one this deal needs
Assigning is cheaper and simpler. Double closing keeps your spread private and works where an assignment cannot. Four questions decide it.
3 min readDSCR loan documents: what you hand over instead of tax returns
No tax returns, no W2s, no employment history. Here is the short list that replaces them, and the two items that actually slow a DSCR file down.
3 min readReferral fees from a private lender: how they actually work
A lender referral fee is real, and easy to get wrong. What triggers payment, what to put in writing first, and the licensing question that is yours alone.
5 min readWhen to tell a seller to fix it, and when to sell it as is
The renovate-or-sell-as-is call is high-leverage advice for a seller. How to run it as arithmetic, not instinct, including when the honest answer is as is.
5 min readWhat an investor buyer needs from you that a retail buyer does not
Representing an investor is not a smaller version of representing a homeowner. What changes, and how to be the agent they call first.
5 min readHow agents use hard money to save a stale listing
A listing that will not sell because it needs work is not a dead listing. It is a listing waiting for a buyer with capital, and that is a referral you can make.
4 min readHard money lending in Delaware: three counties, three markets
New Castle, Kent and Sussex behave almost nothing alike. Plus the transfer tax that catches every investor arriving from a neighbouring state.
4 min readFix and flip lending in Pennsylvania: Philadelphia to Pittsburgh
Two very different markets under one state. What changes between a Philadelphia rowhome and a Pittsburgh single family, and what a lender looks at in each.
4 min readHard money lending in New Jersey: what actually closes here
New Jersey has its own obstacles: attorney review, high carrying costs, and title work on housing stock old enough to hide things. What that means for a flip.
4 min readContractor bids: what a lender checks before funding a rehab
Bids get reviewed before close, not after. What that review is actually looking for, and why the cheapest bid is usually the one that fails it.
4 min readWhat a lender needs before releasing a rehab draw
A draw request is a documentation exercise, not a negotiation. Here is the checklist, and why incomplete requests are the most common cause of slow draws.
4 min readGround-up construction loan requirements: what gets checked
A construction loan is underwritten on a budget and a schedule, not a house that exists yet. Here is what has to be in place before one funds.
7 min readBlanket loans: refinancing five or more doors in one closing
One loan, one closing, one payment across a portfolio. What it solves, what it costs, and the release clause that decides whether you can sell one property.
4 min readHow a construction draw schedule actually works
A build loan funds in stages against finished work. Here is how a draw schedule is set, what releases each payment, and where builds stall.
4 min readWhat a rehab actually costs per square foot
Rehab is the number investors get wrong most. Here is what each level of work costs per foot, and why the rate is easier to check than the total.
3 min readDouble close funding: how A to B to C actually works
Two closings, one day, funded by money that exists for about an hour. The mechanics, the paperwork, and where double closes actually go wrong.
4 min readTransactional funding for wholesalers: same-day A to B to C
Same-day funding for the A to B leg of a double close, priced before you write the offer. What is offered, what it needs, and how it works.
5 min readBRRRR seasoning: how long before you can refinance at the new value
Seasoning is the rule that decides whether you get your capital back in month four or month twelve. Confirm it before you buy, not after the rehab is done.
4 min readBRRRR financing: how the two loans actually fit together
BRRRR needs a bridge loan and a refinance that agree with each other. Here is how the pieces connect, and where the cash gets trapped.
4 min readSmall hard money loans, and why most lenders will not do them
The reason a $40,000 deal gets declined has nothing to do with the deal. It is fixed cost. Here is the arithmetic, and where the floor actually sits.
4 min readHolding costs: the line item that quietly eats the profit
Holding costs are small every month and decisive over a project. They are also the number investors most reliably leave out of the model.
4 min readDSCR loan requirements: how the ratio works and what it has to hit
A DSCR loan qualifies the property, not you. Here is how the ratio is calculated, the number it needs to clear, and how to fix a file that misses.
3 min readHow to underwrite a fix and flip before you call a lender
The full pre-application check, in the order a lender will run it. If a deal survives this, it will survive underwriting.
4 min readMaximum allowable offer: setting your ceiling before you bid
MAO is the highest price at which a deal still works. Calculate it before you see the asking price, because the asking price will move your number.
4 min readHow to calculate ARV without fooling yourself
After repair value is the number every other number depends on. Here is how to build one from comparable sales, and the five ways it gets inflated.
4 min readHard money for a first flip: what changes, and what does not
First projects get funded routinely. What sinks them is almost never inexperience, it is a scope of work that was never going to hold.
5 min readFix and flip loans with bad credit: what actually gets approved
Credit is a pricing input on an asset based loan, not usually a gate. Here is what a low score actually costs you, and the items that genuinely stop a file.
4 min readThe 70% rule in house flipping, and the deals where it lies to you
The 70% rule is a filter, not an underwriting model. Here is what it assumes, and the four situations where following it loses money.
4 min readHard money closing timeline: what happens across 5 to 14 days
A day-by-day account of a hard money closing, including the three things that cause almost every delay. None of them are underwriting.
5 min readWhat a hard money loan actually costs, in full
Rate is the number everyone asks about and rarely the largest cost. Here is the whole bill on a real deal, priced line by line.
6 min readHard money loan requirements: what a lender actually checks
Hard money is underwritten on the property and the exit, not your tax returns. Here is the full list of what gets checked, and what does not.
4 min read
This is general information about how this kind of lending works, not legal, tax, accounting, investment or financial advice, and reading it does not create an advisory relationship. Your deal has facts this page does not know, and rules, costs and market conditions vary by state and change over time. Any figures shown are illustrative rather than quotes: pricing is set per borrower and per deal, and nothing here is an offer or a commitment to lend. Real estate investing carries risk, including the risk of losing money. Check anything that matters with a professional looking at your actual situation. Full terms and conditions.