Looking for ways to purchase your first or next investment property.  Here are a couple of hints to help steer through these crazy waters.

Generally speaking there are 2 ways to get deals finance.

OPM & YOM  (Other Peoples Money & Your Own Money)  Within these 2 options are many different sub-categories. OPM includes traditional non-owner occupied mortgage like those offered by standard banks and hard money.  Traditional non-owner occupied mortgages will come with a minimum requirement of 10% down regardless of the quality of the deal you are buying. Hard money will require a deal a 70% Loan to value and will require less of a down payment.  YOM is pretty self explanatory. Within YOM you have several options including savings, IRAs, etc.

When you go down the financing road be prepared.  You should have ready answers to common questions like:

• How good is the deal that you are seeking to finance?  There are numerous ways to understand this but generally speaking you will want to be very reasonable about what you are actually buying the property for versus what comparable properties have sold for.  Remember, if you misrepresent the value you are only burning bridges.  Lenders, as a rule of thumb, aren't dummies!  
• How long do you need the money for? Is the money going to only be  a bridge until you can secure permanent financing or do you need to lock in the use of the money for many years, i.e. 30 years. 
• How much are you willing to pay for the use of the capital?  This gets into how you intend to profit from your venture. Are you developing the property, are you renting it, etc. "Start with the end in mind." In this case the end is your profit. 
• Have all purchase sale documentation, and other important docs standing by.  

A quick link to financing sites and options are:

Commercial Real Estate Options - http://www.creinetwork.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=category&sectionid=15&id=55&Itemid=43

National Real Estate Investors Association - http://www.nationalreia.com

Good luck with your real estate investing career!

Douglas Ingram , Partner, NestBrokers