A borrower typically starts with a call to our team of hard money lending professionals based here in Jacksonville. You will then run us through the general details of the investment or business opportunity.  At this stage we normally can indicate if we have an interest in funcing the deal and continuing the process. 

As the person or business wanting the loan, it is advisable at this stage that you are ready and able to talk about the key elements of the deal, regardless of whether it’s a hard money construction loan, land deal or a flx n flip.

We will want to know details  such as where the property is located, what the asking price is, whether you think it’s negotiable, an outline of your rehab plans and associated costs, at what price you think you can sell it for (having recent comps here are a good idea) and finally, have a clear exit strategy. And a Plan B exit strategy. We prefer to know that lenders have multiple ways out of a deal and thus multiple means of paying back the loan.

You probably have gathered by now that hard money lenders tend to have very flexible underwriting standards that take all of the above aspects into account with varying degrees of importance. This can make the whole process much faster and easier when comparing the loan process to a bank. Having said all of this, we still do ask all your information to be provided in a neat, professional and succinct fashion. And this is a standard request from all private money lenders for residential real estate, and for commercial real estate too.

Given that speed is important in so many real estate transactions, hard money underwriters should be able to do a preliminary underwriting of your deal in 24 hours or less. 

This is the length of time that we almost always hit and generally when we do take longer than 24 hours, it is is because key information or documents were not provided. But don’t worry, we will tell you everything that you need to supply our team of underwriters with.  

The items that we will typically require from you do conduct the preliminary underwriting are;

• • A finished loan application
  • You much have the purchase contract for the property
  • A scope of work for rehab consisting of approximated timing and expenses.

Once we receive these documents, we may arrange an appraisal to inspect the property and seek to  align on the approximated After Repair Value. In some situations we won’t deem an appraisal necessary. 

During this procedure, our underwriters may ask you for additional paperwork about you and your investment deal, things such as your income, your general experience, value of your assets and credit history. 

Again, these factors do not carry as much weight in a financing decision as they do for a bank.

And finally, the underwriter then requires the information about the purchasing entity, such as the name and Employer Identification Number or EIN.  Once the underwriter has reviewed all of this documentation, they will be able to approve the loan and then schedule a closing