Short story and a ? for HML's

Financing, Hard Money Lenders, Private Money
1

I don’t post here often, but now a question.

the story first

I found a really good deal a while back, but my credit was in the toilet following the Hurricanes in 2004… still my credit problems were my problems… anyway I asked about a HML to try and do the deal and I got several PM’s along the lines of " if your credit score is al least 550 or 500 or whatever I can get you your loan" My credit was bad, but I didn’t know what my score was and to be honest I didn’t want to know what it was… so I found someone else with some cash and they did the deal… I made a few bucks which I used to work on my credit problems. That first deal ran its course to the tune of 30K ish… made my few bucks an insult for not being able to do it myself. I’ve pased one other deal since that time for a few bucks that also went to credit issues, but I know when it sells I will again kick myself.

I have since educated myself on credit and credit scores and found that I although my scores were poor, they were not in the “deadbeat” range. Even better I learned how to clean up my credit report following some advise I read here and elsewhere.

My question ( and I’m sure others have the same )is this:

Is there a point ( credit score wise ) that no funding will happen regardless of how good the deal is? Is the initial credit pull to help determin interest rates for the loan… both?

I know that a private money source is always an option, but much more difficult to come by.

2

Conventional sub-prime loans can go down into the 400’s if it’s owner occupied and there is equity or down payment of at least 35%.

The most popular rehab lender (65% ARV) requires a co-borrower if your score is below 550.

I loan out my own money occasionally for fix & flips and I pull credit. I personally don’t want to be in business with people who can’t manage credit/debt because I do not want the house. Some hard money lenders actually DO want the house and that’s why they don’t care.