An Interview with Longhorn Investments
The Hard Money Lender
Discusses Private Capital
4. Do you have any programs or is your
lending done on a case by case basis?
We have a few different programs based
on location and exit strategy. Every deal
is looked at in relation to the property, the
investor/borrower, and their desired exit
strategy.
From the property standpoint, we are
set up to lend a significant amount of the
money needed to purchase and rehab an
investment property in relation to its after
repaired value. For example, If a house
costs $50,000 to purchase and $25,000
to rehab, with an after repaired value of
$100,000. There is a strong chance that we
would lend up to $70,000 on that property.
The investor would cover the difference
along with closing costs.
When it comes to borrowers, we want
to know that the investor is in a position
to effectively execute their exit strategy
on the deal. For example, if a borrower
is looking to purchase, rehab, rent, and
refinance — we want to know that the bor-
rower has the credit, income etc. to be able
to refinance. If someone is looking to flip,
we want to know that they have the cash
to cover closing, any overages from the
rehab, as well as interest payments.
At the end of the day, as a hard money
lender we are in the business of making
"common sense" loans.
1. How long has Longhorn Invest-
ments been in business?
We expanded our operation into the
hard money lending business back in
2008. It has since become the core of
our business and we're proud to say
that we've funded more than 1,000
loans totaling over $100 Million.
2. What areas are you focusing in and
why?
The short answer is that we like
lending in areas where investors have
a high probability for success and
we're able to put the experienced team
members in place to help them. The
areas where we lend are some of the
hottest markets in the nation for rental
real estate.
We started in Dallas, TX and have
since expanded to cover all the major
metro areas in Texas, Missouri, and are
working on Indiana.
3. Can you give us an example of how
a client has successfully closed a deal
with Longhorn?
We've had all sorts of great stories
working with our borrowers over the
years. Our focus is to help investors
achieve their RE investment objectives,
which we strive to do on every transac-
tion. Doing this often includes leverag-
ing our expertise and network of team
members to help our borrowers.
As an example, one of our borrowers
just called us up recently to thank us
profusely for guiding him through his
first transaction. He had just finished
up his first flip and called to thank us
profusely for our insight and guiding
him away from some costly mistakes.
By working closely with us and other
members of our network he was able to
net $22,000 in just a few short months.
Realty411Guide.com
5. Who is your "ideal" investor?
Our ideal investor is anyone who has the
following in place.
A great property, a good plan to repo-
sition the property, and resources needed
to execute that plan efficiently. Each
potential deal has individual requirements.
but as long as an investor has these three
things in line, we're interested in working
with them.
PAGE 104 • 2014
9. What is it about Longhorn and your
lending programs that is unique?
We started in this business partnering on
a single loan with a family member. We
have since become a direct lender and
funded over 1,000 hard money loans. We
have built our program around helping
our borrowers get in the best position to
succeed.
As investors ourselves we understand
that there are plenty of options in the
marketplace to borrow money. We focus
on bringing our experience to the table
and being the second pair of eyes on every
transaction. Many newer investors make
the mistake of thinking that the biggest
differences between lenders lie in stated
loan to value ratios (ours is up to 70%
of ARV) or points, and fees. The fact of
the matter is that the biggest difference
between lenders lies with their experience,
perspective when working with a borrow-
er, and ability to execute.
Our biggest differentiator as a hard
money lender are the value adds that we
provide beyond just funding the loan. One
of our borrowers once pointed out, "Some
gurus charge $35,000 for mentoring. Y’all
do a lot of the same things while at the
same time lending money needed to do a
deal.”
As such we have a vested interest in
seeing our borrowers succeed. That is why
we also put together frequent educational
webinars, video, and other related events.
We post most all educational videos to our
YouTube channel and other information to
our social media pages. v
For more information about Longhorn
Investments, call 877-420-7346 or visit:
http://longhorninvestments.com
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