I am starting my RE investing and managing business. Having only bought houses through bank loans before, I don’t have any clue as to other kind of financing (especially business start-up), i.e. SBA or government loans and grants. Is there anyone experienced in that area? How did all of you start in the business?
btw, new to the forum.
George.
George,
Good question and welcome. I’ll be looking forward to other responses.
I don’t have much experience on the requested topics. I have unsecured lines of credit at a couple of different banks, private lenders, and have applied for an SBA loan, which is still in the works.
I haven’t tried grants or other things geared toward small businesses. When I first started, I had some reserves and excellent credit, and a decent-paying corporate job. That was plenty at the time to get me going. I did REI part-time for about 18 months before going full-time about two years ago.
Well, I say part-time. My job was 50 to 60 hours a week and REI was probably 25 to 30 hours a week, including studying. I started reading books, web newsgroups, attending the local club meetings in Austin, buying courses, attending seminars, etc. I became a sponge and still spend a good deal of time learning today.
I spent the first three or four months of 1999 just studying and then finally started making offers, which I consider my real start time.
REI is a vast field and folks have many different interests. Here’s to you finding out what gets your ticker going…
George,
Glad to meet you.
In creative real estate investing depending on the method your are interested in sometimes only a small amount of money is required.
Can you tell us what method of investing you are interested in pursuing? This may help in making a recommendation.
We were all new at one time, so welcome to the club.
John $Cash$ Locke
Tim,
You’re still a sponge. 
Hi Cash,
I’ve already gotten my feet wet in single family residential property and management. In those deals, the finance came mostly from banks and backed by my personal credit. I want to expand into commercial RE, i.e. office building, strip mall or even apartment complex. Of course for those deals, higher the seed money, easier it is.
George.
George,
You want to play with the big boys good for you. I have had success with SBA loans on some commercial deals.
I found there is a lot of paperwork involved but super loan rates. I don’t know the web site link but there is plenty of info on the Government sites.
I would start with the SBA to get your feet a little wetter.
Good investing and always a pleasure.
John $Cash$ Locke
all,
Being a newbe to this and with little start-up, which instution would be a good place to look for lenders. With little credit and small savings.
The greate pleasure in life is Doing what other’s say you can NOT do, Author unknown.
:anon
Phil
I have been seeing “all bidders” HUD homes going for around .50 cents on the “taxed assessed” dollar in my area. Is that not a good formula for hard or private money? And is it true that these lenders base their decision on the deal itself and don’t need a credit check on the barrower?
Tax assessed values aren’t worth crap. We bought a home earlier this year for around 9k that was assessed around 38k. Even at 50% of tax assessed vaule, someone would have been insane to lend 19k on it in the condition it was in.