Posted by Jason (SC) on September 20, 2004 at 19:01:53:
what state are you in?
It would not hurt to go to a bank, useually anybody can get pre-approved. Sometimes they we can approve you for $(x-amount) with $(x-amount) down. Have you tried no doc loans? Do you have money to put down?
You can always ask for an option on a property and flip it that way. Since you are planning on wholesaling it you can talk to some hard money lenders.
We very rarely use mortgage brokers, we useually go straight to lenders and banks.
So I have talked to several realtors, all of whom ask me to get pre-approved for a mortgage. Not a big deal, but I don’t want to get personal financing for every single deal I do. I am young, but I have good credit (I don’t know my score), and am in a transitional stage in my employment which all equates to me not being able to secure pre-approval.
My first couple deals I will flip to one of those WE BUY HOUSES guys in the local paper to get some start up capital in order to put some money down on my own deals.
My question is: do I tell my realtor this? How much information should I give my realtor about my situation?
My second question is: would it be best to get in contact with the owners of the property instead of working through the realtor all the time?
Thank you thank you thank you so much for your time and wisdom!!!
Regards,
Ian
Posted by Jason (SC) on September 20, 2004 at 10:29:33:
I am a realtor in South Carolina. Of course I am sure you know realtors don’t get paied unless someone buys.
The problem your having is that the realtor is scared he is going to drive you around for 2 days looking at properties and then your going to find one. However your not going to be able to find financing or don’t have the money to buy it.
So thats why they want you to get a pre-approval letter. This does do a lot for you though. It is not going to be a waste of time. When your making an offer sending the letter lets the seller know you are a serious buyer and your making a serious offer. Even though your trying to creativly finance a property this letter will let everyone know “hey I can buy this even if the seller does not lease/option it to me or owner finance.” If the owner is going to owner finance more than likely he is going to ask for some sort of creit report or something. You have to ask yourself “why would you want to hold paper on something for someone, when the buyer has a 504 credit score and 2 foreclosures?”
definatly let your agent know what you are planning to do. There are a few smart agents out there that could offer some good, non negative advice. There are some too that are completly turned off by this type of “creative stuff”. So if you find one of these agents I would recomend you look for another agent.
there are a lot of agents that I am sure are willing to work with you it is just a matter of talking to enough of them and finding the right one or ones. If your intrested in the Myrtle Beach, SC area I would be willing to help you out. I perfer working with investors, chances are if you keep them up to date on whats going on they will probably be repeat customers and buy a lot from you. If you let me know what area your in I might know someone I can refer you to.
I will give this piece of advice and I am sure a lot of people here will disagree but I am going to do it anyway. if you are in a hot market, it is going to be hard to find those extremly good deals and forclosures. It will be hard also to get some of the sellers to owner finance and help you with a lot of the more creative ways. Most of them want thier money yesterday. We have a lot of sellers here listing there ocean front properties going “I don’t really want to sell but if someone will give me $(whatever amount)they can have it.”
If you find a property thru a realtor and you end up taking it subjct to or whatever, expect the agent to expect to get paied. If they don’t get anything out of the deal they are not going to want work with you again and beleave me word travels fast, it will be hard for you to find another agent. We want to get paied to. If you are offering a note for the agent’s commission, offer some incentive to take the note? Maybe a good intrests rate? a higher commission?
A good agent can be one of the best assets you can have.
Thanks for the insight. The problem is that I can’t seem to get pre-approval. It has nothing to do with my credit, but I am switching jobs. That is something the banks don’t like very much (at least they won’t like it for 2 or so months until my endentureship is over). I’m not interested in not buying for two months, and I would like to do a couple of wholesales.
I have been working with a couple of mortgage brokers. Would it make a difference if I went to my bank?
Thanks again,
Ian