money for real estate

Quick – you need to get $25,000 for a renovation on one of your rental properties. That renovation will allow you to add another suite and increase your monthly positive cash flow by $800/month. It makes great business sense to do the work but you don’t have the cash.

Your line of credit is maxed out because you used it for a down payment and now the bank isn’t interested in lending you any more money. What do you do to raise money for real estate investing?

There are lots of options to get money for real estate investing but unless you can (or want) to tap into equity in your home with a refinance, all the options you have require that you raise some private money.

Private money is simply money from an individual (instead of a bank or credit union). It’s different than hard money. Hard money lenders finance deals for real estate investors as a business. They are more sophisticated in their investment terms and will typically seek quick repayment at high interest rates. With private money you can have more control over the terms of the loan. You can offer terms that suit your needs and offer a good return for your private lender.

The easiest way to find private money is to call your favourite mortgage broker and ask if they have any private lenders. Most mortgage brokers work with a few wealthy folks that have money to lend or they will refer you to a mortgage broker with private money connections. If you have decent credit and the property generates a solid cash flow you should be able to find money this way, but that money is expensive.

The upfront fees on those funds alone are usually 1-3% or a minimum of a $2,000 fee (whichever is greater) of your mortgage amount. On a $25,000 loan or mortgage that means up front you can start off with a $2,000 fee plus pay at least 7% interest on the loan. That’s ok if you’re in a pinch with a strong cash flowing property, but there are much better alternatives. And those alternatives are usually found by reaching out to friends and family for referrals or getting out there and meeting some other folks interested in real estate investing.

The goal is to get a face to face meeting with people.  In that face to face meeting you can look each other in the eye and determine if there’s a good fit to work together, you can assess what each person brings to the table and make sure you’re offering a deal that makes sense for both of you. In ten years and millions of dollars of other people’s money raised for our deals, we’ve only ever ONCE raised money without a face to face meeting. In that one case it was with someone we had a long standing relationship with and, quite frankly, we gave him the best deal we’ve ever given anyone because we found ourselves in a bit of a last minute bind.

Generally you have to have ONE face to face meeting to move your money raising efforts forward. But most people never get to that face to face meeting because they do one of two things that cause you to fail almost every single time. How do we know?? We messed up dozens and dozens (ok probably more like a hundred) opportunities before we figured out these deal killing mistakes. Today I am going to hand them to you on a silver platter to save you a lot of trouble and a lot of headache from banging your head against the wall wondering why things aren’t working!

2 Things that NEVER Work to Raise Money for Your Deals:

1. Email
I don’t like the telephone. Unless I am expecting a call I don’t answer the phone. My preferred mode of communication is in person, or via email or text. So to get to the in person meetings I tried REALLY hard to find a way to raise money via email. I used all my writing skills to write compelling emails. I spent hours writing people personal well thought out messages. I sent dozens of emails.

The result? I felt lousy because EVERYONE ignored me except a few really polite friends or family that would send back some very awkward email saying “thanks for thinking of me I will review this later.”

Then I started to get annoyed at how rude people were … until I realized it wasn’t them … it was ME!!

Email does NOT work. I don’t care if you have the HOTTEST deal to hit town in a decade, email is going to flop 99% of the time.

Email only is an effective tool after you’ve met with someone and they have indicated that they want to work with you. Save yourself time and embarrassment and DON’T EMAIL PEOPLE your deals and ask them to work with you. Yea – email feels easier at first because you avoid having people say no to your face but the reality is that all people will do is ignore you so it’s ineffective and a waste of time.

2. Spilling your candy in the lobby
This was the lesson Dave learned. He LOVES to talk on the phone. He loves to catch up with his friends and family and learn what people are up to in their lives. He also gets pretty excited when somebody asks what we’re doing. So … he would get on the phone with someone he wanted to set up an in-person meeting with and when they’d say “What are you up to these days Dave?” he’d proceed to basically tell them everything about what we’re doing with our investments negating the need to get together. The problem is that you pretty much HAVE to get that face to face meeting to get the deal done.

Dave wasn’t sure what he was doing wrong so we called up our friend & private money raising expert Patrick Riddle (www.mustknowinvesting.com) and asked what we were doing wrong. He simply said “You’re spilling your candy in the lobby and there’s nothing left for the show.”

You want to give people a reason to meet with you and if you tell them everything that you’re doing on the phone then there’s no reason to meet. You have to keep the call brief and interesting. Give them a reason to meet with you and then get the date and time set up.

One of the best ways to do this is simply say “Jason I’ve been driving by your car dealership and I keep thinking that I really admire and respect what you’ve built with your business. I’m working on a few things and I would really appreciate your opinion. Have you got time next week so I can pick your brain and buy you lunch?”

Nobody ever says no to that kind of invitation and next thing you know you’re having a lunch, learning and finding money for your deals!

Of course … now you might be wondering what you say when you get to the in-person meeting but that’s a little trickier than we can cover in one little article!! Simply stated your objective is to get an understanding of whether your investment program is a good fit for their needs. If it is, confirm their interest and let them know that you will follow up when you have a specific deal that fits their criteria (or present your deal!). If it isn’t, then ask if they know anybody that might be interested.

Image Credits: Dreamstime

Published November 1st, 2011