[Editor’s note: This is a guest post from LendingOne. LendingOne was a Bronze Sponsor at LendIt USA 2016, which took place on April 11-12, 2016, in San Francisco.]
Imagine you are in the market today to invest in or buy a new property. Whether you are looking for a fix and flip or a rental property as your buy and hold strategy to add to your growing portfolio of investments, you are going to need to start looking around at potential properties in an area that’ll make a valuable investment. However, if you have been following the market trends, it will be no surprise to find that the number of available homes on the market has experienced a steady decline over the past couple of years, inhibiting your ability to procure profitable deals. Whether you are a first time buyer or a seasoned investor, the prevalence of this inventory shortage has created a multitude of obstacles for those looking to purchase and invest in real estate.
From just January of this year to February, there has been a noticeable decrease in the number of existing-home sales. According to a report done by the National Association of Realtors, total existing-home sales “dropped 7.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.08 million in February from 5.47 million in January.” Because of this smaller pool of possible properties available, affordability has become a great worry for the potential home buyer. Reaffirming these concerns, Lawrence Yun, a chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, stated that “home prices are still rising too fast because of ongoing supply constraints.” However, despite the housing shortage, this seems to be a great time for investors to act and purchase properties. Yun goes on to explain “now that there are fewer distressed homes, it appears there’s been a shift towards investors purchasing lower-priced homes and turning them into rentals.”
The question though that still remains is what does this mean then for the potential home buyer and investor in this shrinking market? This limited supply of properties creates a higher level of competition amongst those looking to purchase, and as a result, investors need to acquire financing quickly and reliably so they can complete their desired transactions at a much more rapid rate than their competitors. This is why turning to a direct private real estate lender will make investing in the current real estate market faster and easier.
Time is of the essence when you are looking to close a deal, and even a couple of days could mean all the difference for whether your purchase is successful or not. LendingOne is a direct private real estate lender that can provide quick and dependable capital to help finance your real estate investments with loans for fix and flip, rentals, and lines of credit. As a fully funded company that supplies their own capital, you know that you’ll get the financing you need in a timely manner. Unlike banks that could take up to three months for approval, LendingOne has streamlined the process so they can provide you with approval in as few as 10 business days due to the technology they utilize with their online application.
When you are trying to close on that house and three other investors are also interested in it, you may not have the time to go into a bank and start filling out lengthy applications that require extensive paperwork, documentation, and unnecessary questions. LendingOne makes it fast and simple for the busy borrower on the go thanks to their user-friendly online application that only requires the essentials. The borrower can fill it out in the comforts of their home, office, or wherever they see fit by just inputting their experience, investable money available, income, credit, and information about the specific property. Additionally, if the borrower has any questions or concerns about any stage of the application process, a specialized team of loan consultants is available to take your call and help in any way they can.
Although the number of available real estate properties may be shrinking, the chance to invest is still possible. It all comes down to who has the financing fastest in this competitive market due to this housing shortage. The key here is time, and a private lender like LendingOne has made it their goal to focus on technology and customer service in order to simplify the overall process for all borrowers looking to invest in potential real estate properties.
The host of this blog, LendIt, is the largest conference series dedicated to connecting the global online lending community. Our conferences bring together the leading lending platforms, investors, and service providers in our industry for unparalleled educational, networking, and business development opportunities. LendIt hosts three conferences annually: our flagship conference LendIt USA as well as LendIt Europe in London and LendIt China in Shanghai. Visit our home page to register for the next event and to subscribe to our newsletter.
