Clay Sparkman
There are some good things happening out there, but these last (nearly) four years now have been tough. There are plenty of negative signs in the economy as a whole, but I am actually somewhat bullish at this point about real estate markets in general and private money investing in particular. Still, these are tough times and will remain so for some time to come. If we didn’t laugh at these things … well, we’d need antidepressants (strong ones). So here in the name of a good laugh (if not a belly buster, at least a chuckle), I give you a new top ten list.
Drum roll please…
The top ten red flags that you may not want to lend to a particular fix and flip borrower:
10. Starts singing, “If I had me a Hammer,” during meeting at the property.
9. Adamantly certain that the property can be fixed in 2 months and sold in 2 more. Only needs 4 month term.
8. Hasn’t actually looked at the comps, but has a “cozy” feeling about them.
7. Borrower: “Give me $20k and I’ll turn this little 700 square foot shoe box into a friggin’ castle!”
6. Borrower: “It’s a Zen thing. Words and numbers miss the whole point.”
5. Borrower: “Where’s the check already. I thought this was private money.”
4. Calls himself Bevis the Flipping Machine, and refers to himself accordingly in the third person. “Bevis the Flipping Machine will have this place whipped together in the time it takes you to recite the Aztec calendar backward.”
3. Borrower: “Experience? No. But hey, I can handle a screwdriver as well as the next guy.”
2. Borrower: “No I don’t have a cash buffer per say, but I’ve got a stash of old comic books that are worth plenty … and highly liquid I might add.”
1. Borrower: “Yes, I realize there is no profit in this particular project, but I’m going to make it up in volume.”
— Clay (clay@privatemoneysource.com, 503-476-2909 or 800-971-1858)
Clay is Vice President of Fairfield Financial, a primary source for private money loans since 1964. Fairfield works with a broad range of private money investors, in a broker capacity, finding, underwriting, presenting, closing, servicing, and when necessary, assisting in the workout of difficult loans.
Tags: hard money investing, hard money lending, hard money loans, investing, private money investing, private money lending, private money loans, trust deed investing, trust deed lending, trust deed loans
