The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, or FHLMC, is known as Freddie Mac, the entity created by Congress for the purpose of buying mortgages from lenders to increase liquidity in the market. Freddie Mac was created in 1970 and expressly authorized to create mortgage-backed securities (MBS) to help manage interest-rate risk.
Because the FHLMC buys mortgages, lenders don’t have to keep loans they originate on their books. In turn, these lenders are able to originate more mortgages for new customers. The mortgage market is able to keep capital flowing and offer competitive financing terms to borrowers because of this system. In other words, the market runs more smoothly because of Freddie Mac and its sister company, Fannie Mae, the Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA).
If you want to know more about how this government-sponsored enterprise works and how it affects your money, read on for details on:
• What is the FHLMC and what are FHLMC loans?
• What is the difference between Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae?
• What are Freddie Mac mortgages?
• How does the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation work?
Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae
These organizations, with their friendly-sounding nicknames, serve a very important purpose. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were created for the purpose of stabilizing the mortgage market and improving housing affordability. These government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) do this by increasing the liquidity (the free flow of money) in the market by buying mortgages from lenders. Mortgages are then pooled together into a mortgage-backed security (MBS) and sold to investors. The process created the secondary mortgage market, where lenders, homebuyers, and investors are connected in a single system.
In the past, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae operated as private companies, though they were created by Congress. Fannie Mae came first in 1938, followed by Freddie Mac in 1970. Freddie Mac’s addition in 1970 resulted in the creation of the first mortgage-backed security.
The federal government took over operations at both companies following the financial crisis in 2008. According to the National Association of Realtors, without government support of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, there wouldn’t be very much money available to lend for mortgages.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has oversight of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. On a yearly basis, they assess the financial soundness and risk management of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
What Is the Purpose of the FHLMC?
As mentioned above, the FHLMC, or Freddie Mac, makes the housing market more affordable, stable, and liquid by buying mortgages on the secondary market. When they buy these loans, the retail lenders they buy them from are able to originate more mortgages to new customers and keep the mortgage market flowing smoothly.
There are many types of mortgage loans; the ones that Freddie Mac buys are known as conventional loans. The mortgage loan must meet certain standards (such as loan limits) for Freddie Mac to guarantee they will buy these loans.
In general, the process of successfully obtaining a mortgage usually looks something like this once the buyer has made an offer on a house that’s been accepted:
• The consumer finds a lender, if they haven’t already done so, and will apply for a mortgage.
• The lender collects documentation required by the loan type and submits it to underwriting.
• The underwriter approves the loan.
• The homebuyer closes on the loan, and mortgage servicing begins
• The lender sells the loan on the secondary mortgage market to Freddie Mac (or Fannie Mae or Ginnie Mae, depending on what type of loan it is and from what type of lender it originated).
From a homebuyer standpoint, they will see the outward mortgage servicing, which is the entity to which they will send their monthly payment and who takes care of the escrow account. The mortgage servicer is the one who forwards the different parts of the mortgage payment to the appropriate parties.
Mortgage servicing can also be sold from servicer to servicer, but this is different from the sale of a mortgage to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.
Freddie Mac is also tasked with the responsibility of making housing affordable. There are specific mortgage programs guaranteed by Freddie Mac and offered by lenders.
• HomeOne®. HomeOne is a mortgage program that offers low down payment options for first-time homebuyers. There are no income or geographic limits.
• Home Possible®. Home Possible is a program for first-time homebuyers and low- to moderate-income homebuyers. It offers discounted fees and low down payment options.
• Construction Conversion and Renovation Mortgage. This type of loan combines the costs of purchasing, building, and remodeling into one loan.
• Manufactured Home Mortgage. For qualified buyers, Freddie Mac can guarantee mortgages when buying manufactured homes that meet their criteria.
• Relief Refinance/Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP). For borrowers with a good repayment history but little equity, loans are available to refinance into a more affordable rate.
Recommended: What Is the Average Down Payment on a House?
Understanding Mortgage-Backed Securities
After a mortgage is acquired from a lender, Freddie Mac can do one of two things: either keep the mortgage on its books or pool it with other, similar loans and create a mortgage-backed security (MBS). These MBS are then sold to investors on the secondary mortgage market.
What’s attractive about a mortgage-backed security to an investor is how secure it is. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guarantee payment of principal and interest. Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac issue mortgage backed securities now.
Does the FHLMC offer Mortgage Loans?
Freddie Mac does not sell mortgages directly to consumers. You won’t see a Freddie Mac mortgage or an FHLMC loan advertised to consumers. Instead, the FHLMC buys mortgages from approved lenders that meet their standards.
Recommended: What Are the Conforming Loan Limits?
The Takeaway
The housing market in the United States arguably benefits from the role of the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation. Lenders can essentially originate mortgages to as many borrowers as can qualify. The free flow of capital created by the FHLMC also means mortgages are less expensive for homebuyers all around. In short, the smooth operation of the housing market owes much of its success to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.
If you’re shopping for a home and looking for a lending partner, consider what SoFi has to offer. With dedicated loan officers, competitive interest rates, flexible terms, and low down payment options, SoFi Mortgage Loans can offer something for nearly every borrower.
SoFi Mortgage Loans: Simple, smart, flexible.
FAQs
What does FHLMC stand for?
FHLMC is an abbreviation of Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation. It is commonly referred to as Freddie Mac.
What type of loan is FHLMC?
Freddie Mac guarantees conventional loans that adhere to funding criteria, but it does not offer Freddie Mac mortgages directly to consumers.
What is the difference between FNMA and FHLMC?
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac originated in different decades and initially had different purposes, but for the most part, they serve the same purpose today of helping to improve mortgage liquidity and availability.
Photo credit: iStock/Andrii Yalanskyi
SoFi Mortgages Terms, conditions, and state restrictions apply. Not all products are available in all states. See SoFi.com/eligibility for more information. SoFi Loan Products SoFi loans are originated by SoFi Bank, N.A., NMLS #696891 (Member FDIC). For additional product-specific legal and licensing information, see SoFi.com/legal. Equal Housing Lender. Financial Tips & Strategies: The tips provided on this website are of a general nature and do not take into account your specific objectives, financial situation, and needs. You should always consider their appropriateness given your own circumstances. Third-Party Brand Mentions: No brands, products, or companies mentioned are affiliated with SoFi, nor do they endorse or sponsor this article. Third-party trademarks referenced herein are property of their respective owners. SOHL0223008
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When it comes to the active vs. passive investing debate, to me, it’s a no-brainer: I’m a passive guy.
My entire portfolio consists of a couple of broad-market stock index funds and a bond fund. I don’t own any individual stocks and zero funds that try to beat the market. I stay invested in good times and bad and I ignore my portfolio as much as possible, except for annual rebalancing. (In practice, this means I look at it once a week. Thanks a lot, Mint.)
I invest this way not (just) because I’m lazy, but because I believe the evidence is overwhelming that a passive approach will outperform the vast majority of active investing strategies over time. Yes, over any given period, some active funds will outperform by a little and a select few will outperform by a lot — they’ll sail through a bear market smelling like honey.
Unfortunately, it’s impossible to know ahead of time which will be the winning funds and you might end up selecting one of the big losers. Oh, and index funds cost less. That means more money for me and less for a money manager.
As Rick Ferri puts it in his book The Power of Passive Investing, “There’s only a low probability that any fund will achieve superior returns. While it’s possible, it’s not probable.”
Or take it from author Bill Bernstein: “The debate between active and passive management is like the debate between astrology and astronomy,” he said in a recent interview.
As you can tell, I’m convinced of the superiority of index funds and passive investing to the point of smugness, so I thought it would be good for me to talk with someone who fundamentally disagrees. Jerry Webman is the chief economist at OppenheimerFunds and author of the new investing guide MoneyShift: How to Prosper from What You Can’t Control. He dedicates an entire chapter of his new book to building an intelligent argument against my style of investing, and the book is witty and engaging.
Webman and I didn’t have time to hash out the entire classic active/passive investing debate, so I wanted to focus on one of his favorite topics: emerging markets. These markets now account for about one-quarter of the stock market wealth outside the U.S., and we both agree that it’s important for a portfolio to own stocks from emerging economies like Brazil, India, and China. We disagree about the best way to do it, though.
An emerging discussion
MoneyShift argues that most investors, including index fund investors, are missing out on buying opportunities in emerging markets. “Emerging markets is one of the places where it’s easiest to make the case for bottom-up active management,” Webman told me. “You really do have many companies that are not carefully followed, maybe not well-understood, and a careful manager takes the time to figure out what the real market for the company is, and how they fit with the regulatory environment in which they have to work, which might not be fully evolved.”
“It would be foolish to surrender the emerging markets portion of your portfolio to a dumb index fund,” Webman argued. “I want somebody who’s taking a really careful look at it,” he said. “There’s a lot more value to be added by someone who’ll go and do the research in less-understood and less-invested markets.”
To put it another way, it’s hard to learn anything new about an S&P 500 company. Those are the 500 biggest U.S. companies — everyone has heard of them and thousands of analysts scrutinize them all day long.
But who’s keeping an eye on, say, the Peruvian stock market? One manager who takes the time to understand Peru and how to read annual reports from its companies might be able to make a ton of money from insights that would be totally lost on a U.S. stock analyst.
This argument seems intuitively correct. However, I remembered the same argument being made about investing in small companies (aka: “small-caps”) in the United States: the market was less efficient, there was less public information about the companies and the stocks traded less heavily, which meant more opportunities for active managers to make money.
But it didn’t actually work out that way. As Standard & Poor’s put it, “over the last decade, SPIVA has consistently shown that indexing works as well for U.S. small-caps as it does for U.S. large-caps.” SPIVA is Standard & Poor’s Indices vs Active Funds scorecard, which twice a year compares the performance of passive index funds with actively managed funds.
More on that in a moment…
Webman said there are important differences between U.S. small-caps and emerging market companies: In the US, “you do have financial reporting that’s well-established. You have good protection for minority shareholders and you have all of the things that you might not have in an emerging market company.”
I wondered whether SPIVA could help answer this question: in emerging markets, is it better to own a dumb passive index fund that buys all the companies it can, good and bad, or to turn your money over to an expert manager who carefully researches and selects the best companies from each country?
The answer
Well, it’s not even close. Over the five-year period ending in December 2011, only 17% of actively managed emerging markets funds outperformed their benchmark index. Since an index fund hugs the benchmark index as closely as possible, buying the index fund would have put you near the top of the heap. This is typical: it’s difficult to find any five-year period in any investment category where the index fund didn’t trounce most of the competition.
Webman is skeptical of this kind of raw statistical analysis. “I worry about looking at averages,” he said. “It turns out a lot of so-called active managers aren’t so active. And it does look like results are better for active managers who really actively manage their portfolios.” He added that just looking at the number of funds that outperformed doesn’t tell you how much money outperformed. Maybe those few winning funds are actually the biggest funds, which means the average active investor is doing just fine.
Again, this argument sounds reasonable: who cares if most funds don’t beat the index? As long as I can identify a fund that will, I’m golden.
Unfortunately, there’s no evidence that there’s any way to identify the best performers ahead of time, aside from sheer luck. SPIVA also measures performance persistence and the results are appalling. “Very few funds manage to repeat top-half or top-quartile performance consistently,” says the report, which some consider an understatement. For example, in U.S. small-cap funds, less than 4% of funds stayed in the top category five years in a row. They didn’t look at emerging markets funds, but there’s no reason to expect a different result.
High bias
Let’s stipulate that everyone involved in this conversation is biased. Jerry Webman is an executive at a Wall Street firm that sells actively managed mutual funds, S&P is in the business of selling indexes, and I have my life savings in passively managed index funds and am unlikely to go out dragging the river for convincing evidence that I’m investing like an idiot.
If you think Webman is right and I’m wrong, however, I’d like to hear about it.
And let me give Webman the last word: “I think what makes markets is, we’re all going to look at several different kinds of conflicting evidence and come to different conclusions.” I couldn’t agree more.
Matthew Amster-Burton is a personal finance columnist at Mint.com. Find him on Twitter @Mint_Mamster.
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Life insurance is a major component of most any overall financial plan – regardless of one’s age or employment status. That is because loved ones could be faced with massive debts to pay – including the cost of a funeral and other financial expenses – if the unexpected should occur.
The proceeds that are received from life insurance policies are income tax-free, so loved ones can use the entire amount of the funds for their needs. This can help them to avoid a financial hardship, at an already difficult time in their lives.
When you are in the process of seeking life insurance coverage, several key factors are essential to keep in mind before making a long-term commitment to a policy. These should include obtaining the proper type and amount of insurance coverage, as well as making sure that the insurance company that you are purchasing the policy through is secure and stable financially and that it has a good, solid reputation for paying out its claims to policy holders and beneficiaries. One company that meets these criteria is Geico Insurance Company.
The History of Geico Insurance Company
Geico has been in business since 1938. Over the past 80 years, the company has grown and expanded exponentially, and today the company is ranked as the second largest private passenger auto insurance company in the United States.
The name Geico is an acronym for Government Employees Insurance Company, which goes back to the company’s beginnings. The founder of Geico, Leo Goodwin, initially targeted a customer base that consisted primarily of United States government employees and military personnel.
The company now insures military and government personnel, as well as private consumers. In 1996, Geico became a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, which is headed by the world’s most famous investor, Warren Buffett. For the past several years, Fortune magazine has named Berkshire Hathaway’s property casualty insurance operation as the most admired in the U.S.
Presently, Geico is made up of its primary unit, the Government Employees Insurance Company, along with several affiliates, including:
Geico General Insurance Company
Geico Indemnity Company
Geico Casualty Company
Geico Advantage Insurance Company
Geico Choice Insurance Company
Geico Secure Insurance Company
Geico is headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland (near Washington, DC). The company also has some regional offices that are dotted throughout the U.S., including locations in:
Buffalo, New York
Dallas, Texas
Frederickson, Virginia
Lakeland, Florida
Macon, Georgia
San Diego, California
Tucson, Arizona
Virginia Beach, Virginia
Woodbury, New York
There are also several services centers, which are in Iowa, Indiana, and Hawaii, as well as some claims centers, which can be found in Houston, Texas, as well as in Seattle, Washington, and in Marlton, New Jersey.
Geico Life Insurance Review
Today, Geico insures more than 15 million auto insurance policies – and growing – and the company has more than 24 million vehicles insured. It is one of the fastest growing major auto insurers in the country, employing more than 36,000 associates, and providing customer service 24 hours per day, seven days per week, and 365 days per year. As of year-end 2016, Geico had assets under management of more than $32 billion.
The company has also earned a long list of various awards and accolades over the years. For example, Geico was named to Ward’s 50 top group of financially high-performing insurers for the 21st consecutive year in 2011. This award recognizes that Geico achieved outstanding financial results in the areas of safety, consistency, and performance.
Also, Geico was rated as being superior by consumers in 2007, for its customer advocacy. Forrester defines this as being “the perception by customers that a firm (Geico) does what’s best for them, and not just what is best for its bottom line.”
Geico was also rated as #1 by the Kanbay Research Institute for being the most desired insurer amount consumers based on the following factors:
High regard for customer service
Focus on staff training and development
Likewise, the owner of Geico, Berkshire Hathaway, was named as being a leading company in world insurance markets. These rankings include:
#1 global insurance company by revenues in 2013, based on an analysis of companies in the Global Fortune 500.
#2 writer of private passenger auto insurance by direct premiums were written in 2013. (Before reinsurance transactions, includes state funds. Based on U.S. total, includes territories).
Geico has also been named a leader in ethical practices in the property/casualty industry, and Berkshire Hathaway was appointed as a leader in ethical practices in the financial services sector by Ethisphere Magazine.
Also, Geico achieved the highest overall score in Forrester Research’s 2014 U.S. Mobile Auto Insurance Functionality Benchmark. With perfect scores in policy information and management categories, Forrester proclaimed Geico as “The pocket auto insurer.”
Geico’s Mobile App and insurance site received a #1 ranking on Keynote’s 2015 Mobile Insurance Scorecard, competing against top insurers. Geico is also ranked first for technical quality, according to Keynote KCR (Keynote Competitive Research).
While the company has traditionally been known for its vehicle coverage options, Geico doesn’t just offer auto insurance. The insurer offers a broad range of coverage products and services, including life insurance, home owner’s insurance, and even identity theft protection.
Insurer Ratings and Better Business Bureau Grade
Due to its stable financial footing, as well as its timely payment of customers’ insurance claims, Geico has been given high ratings from the insurer rating agencies. These include the following:
AA+ from Standard and Poor’s
Aa1 from Moody’s
A++ from A.M. Best Company
Also, although Geico is not an accredited company through the Better Business Bureau (BBB), the company has been given a grade of B by the BBB. This is on an overall grade scale of A+ to F.
Throughout the past three years, Geico has closed out a total of 2,514 customer complaints – of which 158 have been closed out within the previous 12 months. Of these total 2,514 complaints, 1,655 regarded as the company’s product and/or services, while 658 were regarding billing and/or collection issues. Another 125 considered advertising and/or sales issues, 55 were concerning guarantee and/or warranty issues, and the remaining 21 complaints focused on delivery issues.
Life Insurance Products Offered Through Geico
Customers of Geico can obtain life insurance coverage via Life Quotes, Inc. The company offers term life insurance policy, which provides pure death benefit protection, without any cash value or savings build up. Because of this, the premiums for term life insurance can typically be quite affordable – especially for those who are young and in good health at the tie of policy application.
As its name implies, term life insurance is purchased for a set period – or term – such as five years, ten years, 15 years, 20 years, or even for 30 years. In most cases, the amount of the death benefit coverage, as well as the sum of the premium, will remain level throughout the term of the policy.
And, provided that the premiums are paid on time, the company that issues the term life insurance policy will not be able to cancel the coverage. Once the term of a policy reaches its end, the insured may opt just to purchase a new policy (if he or she qualifies based on their then-current health).
As with its other forms of insurance coverage, getting life insurance via Geico can be a natural process. For example, by teaming up with Life Quotes, Inc., customers can expect the following benefits:
Easy paperwork/application process
Natural customer service process
Convenient payment plans for paying the premium, which include monthly, quarterly, or annual payment options
A full range of coverage limits to meet each customer/policy holders’ needs
When applying for life insurance through Geico / Life Quotes, Inc., an applicant’s health is considered. Once approved, the life insurance policy will typically cover death due to any cause, other than that of suicide within the first two years of policy ownership.
Once an individual has been approved for life insurance coverage through Geico / Life Quotes, policy holders can access their policy directly through the Geico website. This can make it easy to check coverage, as well as to make changes to one’s account, such as address and other contact information, and the name of the policy’s beneficiary.
The Geico website also helps to prompt a policy holder with various information that may assist them in reviewing their life insurance coverage, and in deciding whether to alter their coverage limits in the future. For example, some of the reasons why someone may want to change the amount of their coverage include:
A change in household income/employment status
Marriage, divorce, or becoming widowed
The birth or adoption of a child
Retirement
New grandchild(ren)
Serious illness and disability
Caring for an aging parent
Starting a new business
Selling off one’s home and purchasing another
New Drivers under 25
Now, Geico does not offer permanent life insurance coverage – which includes whole life, universal life, indexed universal life, variable life, or variable universal life – all of which include both death benefit protection and a cash value component.
Purchasers of many of the insurance plans that are offered through Geico may qualify for a premium discount.
Other Products and Services Available
While Geico is a primary insurer of automobiles, it also provides a wide selection of other products such as life insurance and other types of coverage, such as:
Motorcycle insurance
ATV insurance
Umbrella insurance
Home owner’s insurance
Renters insurance
Condo insurance
Co-op insurance
RV (Recreational Vehicle) insurance
Boat insurance
Personal watercraft insurance
Flood insurance
Mobile Home insurance
Overseas insurance
Travel insurance
Commercial Auto insurance
Ridesharing insurance
Business insurance
Identity Protection insurance
Snowmobile insurance
Collector Car insurance
Mexico Car insurance
Pet insurance
Jewelry insurance
How to Get the Best Rates on Life Insurance From Geico Insurance Company
If you have been seeking the best rates on term life insurance from Geico – or from any insurer – it can be beneficial to work with an independent life insurance agent or broker. In doing so, you will be better able to compare side-by-side the policies and the premium prices from numerous different insurance carriers. From there, you will then be able to choose which one will be the best for you.
When you are ready to move forward with the life insurance purchase process, we can help. We are an independent life insurance brokerage, and we work with many of the top life insurance carriers in the market place today. We can assist you with obtaining all the pertinent details that you require for making a well-informed buying decision, and we can do so for you quickly, easily, and conveniently – all without you having to meet in person with an insurance agent. If you are ready to get started, then all you should do is just simply fill out our quote form.
We understand that the purchase of life insurance coverage can be somewhat overwhelming. There are many different variables to consider – and you want to be sure that you are making the best decision regarding type and amount of coverage for your specific needs. The good news is that the life insurance purchasing process can be done so much easier when you are working with an expert on your side. So, contact us today – we’re here to help.
When I was 23, I bought an eight-unit apartment building with no money down. And I walked away with $1,000 cash at closing! Sounds pretty fancy, right? Wrong.
It was one of the dumbest real estate investing mistakes I’ve made in my young life.
I escaped without a scratch, but it was due to an over-sized dose of sweat, tears, and luck. None of it was due to savvy investing skills.
The Sound and the Fury
I was 23 years old and had just earned my real-estate license the previous year. My first couple of months were spent buying and selling a few upper-end units for individual homeowners. The commissions were decent, but as a new Realtor, my split with my company was high. To complicate the problem, I had financed my association, training, and union fees to get started. (This was before I had decided to cancel my credit cards.)
After several months, I began to work more in the booming foreclosure and short-sale markets that were plaguing central Indiana. Out-of-state lawyers, doctors, and other high-income earners (mostly from the West Coast) were swarming our local market.
They were buying up $30,000, $40,000, and $50,000 houses like they were toys — albeit over-priced, over-financed, and only half-functioning toys at best. With rents ranging from $400-$1000, they simply couldn’t resist what their spreadsheets were telling them the return would be. They bought many of the homes sight unseen and used the first real-estate company that would sell to them.
We represented a lot of the banks that had no idea about the local market prices. They also didn’t understand the current condition of their properties (even after we told them several times). Well over half the deals fell through. Either the banks were too unrealistic to negotiate, or a closing would be interrupted by the discovery of a mystery lien, a second mortgage no one knew about, or some other problem with the title that we didn’t even know was possible!
It was harder work for lower commission, but there were hundreds upon hundreds of properties, which helped even out the paychecks from month to month. And I was learning a lot about how to avoid real estate investing mistakes.
Property Management Comes Calling
After most of the out-of-town investors closed on their new rentals, they began searching for a company to manage/rent them. After several dozen requests for an affordable and trustworthy property management company (and no clear-cut option), we decided to start offering the service ourselves.
I joined forces with a broker who spent his time focusing on acquiring more leads for buying/selling. I set about figuring out how to actively manage and rent the vacant units (which almost always needed repairs first).
Since many of our clients were repeat customers already, they were ecstatic to have the option of having their properties managed by us in-house. Within just six months or so we had over 125 units under management.
I was working countless hours and answering the most bizarre phone calls you can imagine at all hours of the night. Overall, though, we were turning a profit and looking for ways to scale our system over the next couple of quarters.
A Perfect Storm
As part of our networking and lead-generation work, we regularly attended private meetings where local brokers would pitch each other their current clients wants and needs. In one particular meeting, another broker was pitching one of his own properties for sale. It was two side-by-side four-plexes (eight units total) with each unit being one bedroom. It was in a low-income part of town, but he was only asking $125,000 for both properties.
“$125,000 for eight units?”, I thought. “There has to be a catch.”
There was. Seven of the eight units had tenants, but only three had any history of paying on time. Even after kicking out any non-paying tenants, each unit would need a couple thousand dollars of work to get anything decent in rent. In addition, there were four furnaces in total all of which were probably made in the 40s or 50s.
In other words, it was a project by anyone’s terms. It would require some up-front repairs, several months of eviction filings, court visiting, and re-showing the units, but… “$125,000 for eight units!“
If Only Someone Would Loan Me the Money…
I dug deeper and deeper into the numbers. I was already managing property, coordinating repairs, negotiating prices on materials, and renting units for dozens of other clients. It made sense that if I could get a loan, I could plug a property right into this current system I was running.
There was a big glaring issue, though. Neither my partner nor I was credit-worthy in any sense of the word. The chance of me getting approved for a mortgage was zilch (let alone a non-owner occupied, low-income commercial loan). With regret, I pushed the property to the back of my mind and continued about the process of building the management business.
At our next networking meeting, though, we caught wind of some additional news on the properties. The broker who owned them was in serious trouble on about a dozen different pieces of real estate. He owed $76,000 on both the buildings, which were financed through a popular investor/hard-money lender.
The private lender was getting scared that the investor would soon default (giving the lender a property he wanted nothing to do with). The owner was only looking to get out of the property, so he could focus his energy on his salvaging his other properties.
Without much thinking, we pulled the trigger.
A Bold Offer
We called up the private lender (an individual) who was currently financing the properties. Then we pitched him the idea of us taking over the loan and purchasing the property from the current desperate owner.
We offered to both sign onto the loan, giving the investor two names opposed to the one he currently had. Then showed how we would remedy the situation, evict all the tenants, and plug it into our management system.
Neither of us had a penny to our names, so we even had the guts to require that the private lender actually invest more money into the property. In order for us to take it over he’d have to loan us an additional $15,000 to replace the furnaces and repair two of the units after evictions.
It was a bold offer. We’d give nothing but a management plan and our signatures on a $91,000 private mortgage (at 12%) for eight units and a $16,000 cash loan. The lender must have known even more about the current owner’s dire circumstances then we did because he took our offer. The current owner was happy to get out for what was owed, and within the week we sat down to close.
After the paperwork was signed on my first-ever real estate purchase I was handed a $1000 check (for prorated rents/deposits for the month). I gave nothing tangible, just my worthless signature, and walked to the bank to deposit the money.
“So this is how real estate works”, I gloated. “I could get used to this.”
I had no idea what was in store…
To be continued…
J.D.’s note: This is a glimpse into a world I’ve always wondered about. Though Kris keeps trying to dissuade me, I have a fascination with rental properties. I look forward to reading part two of this story. And although GRS is not about to become a real-estate blog, this Sunday’s reader story is actually about how one of you folks decided to take the plunge by buying a rental property, so we’re going to have a mini-theme here for a week or so…
I have been an agent and investor for almost 20 years and I have seen many market cycles. A lot of people think we are due for another housing market crash because housing prices have skyrocketed, people cannot afford homes, and there could be economic problems. Besides these factors, there are many things that drive the housing market. What really drives market prices is supply and demand, which is impacted by these factors and many more. The last crash that occurred in the United States from 2006 to 2012 was the worst in the history of the country, it was worse for housing than the great depression. It took extraordinary circumstances to create that crash and it will not easily happen again. Could it happen? yes Will it happen? Maybe. When will it happen? No one really knows. Even with Covid-19 causing chaos, there is no guarantee a crash will happen.
What caused the last housing crash?
I started my real estate career in 2002 before the last housing crash. I could see something was off in the real estate market but I was young and did not know what all the signs were indicating. It was not uncommon to see:
Loans that were 120 percent of a house’s value
Investors buying multiple properties with nothing down
People with no income buying houses with a no money down loan
People simply stated what their income was to get a loan with no proof
6-month ARMs with the payments doubling soon after buying the house
Something seemed off to me but everyone seemed to be happy! Then the bottom dropped out of the market. The banks realized that many people could not pay back their loans and there were too many houses being built for the people who could actually buy a house.
Crazy lending guidelines caused overbuilding and when the party stopped, there was a crash. Prices dropped and more foreclosures occurred because many people had no equity. Banks panicked and tried to sell all their distressed properties at once.
It was the perfect storm and the worst crash in the history of the United States housing market. The big question is can that happen again? I personally do not think so and I will tell you why below.
Are there really too few houses?
Supply is affected by foreclosures, homeowners’ willingness to move, new construction, and many other factors. Demand is driven by the economy, lending guidelines, potential homeowners’ confidence, wages, and much more. I believe the supply and demand affecting today’s housing market is much different than what drove the last housing boom. While prices could level out or decrease in some areas, I do not think we are in for a nationwide crash.
In order to have a crash, we need an oversupply of homes or the demand for homes to disappear. I do not see either scenario happening, even if the economy loses steam or crashes. Some of the stats I show in this article will show you how different the supply side is right now than it was prior to the crash.
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How many housing crashes have there been?
Many people believe that because of the huge increases in prices, a crash is imminent.
“Just look at what happened in the mid to late 2000s. Prices are so crazy now that a crash has to come soon!”
The first thing you have to realize is that the last crash was the worst crash we have ever had. It was worse than the great depression. Those crashes do not happen over and over again. An increase in prices does not mean a crash is coming. Prices can increase or decrease, but that is what happens in a healthy market. A crash is much different from a down market. Other countries have seen increasing prices for decades without a crash. Just because prices go up does not mean they go down. In fact, due to inflation prices will continuously increase over time and they have increased over time.
There are also a lot of people trying to sell books, products, and coaching based on the impending doom that is coming. Be careful buying into what people say based on their motives. Look at the data!
The chart below shows the median sales price in the United States since 1959. As you can see, prices can fluctuate but in the long run, they have always gone up.
Won’t a recession cause a housing crash?
The last crash was the biggest in recent memory and if you look at the data further back it is the same with small adjustments. A lot of people will also tell you we have a housing crash or recession every 10 years. If you average them out we have recessions every 18 years, but not always true for the housing market. The dot com recession did not affect housing much at all. Sometimes we have a recession 5 years after the last one and sometimes we have it 25 years after the last one. Even if we did have a recession every 18 years we have a long time to wait since the last recession was ten years ago.
The chart below shows unemployment in the US, which is a great indicator of recessions. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/UNRATE
You can see from the chart that recessions are not every 18 years, but all over the place.
There are also a lot of people who have been predicting a crash for many years. There are people on YouTube promoting their gold and silver businesses by talking about how real estate will crash. One of the big marketing messages they use is that they predicted the last crash! Well, if you look at their predictions they have been predicting a real estate crash every year for the last three decades. They were bound to get it right one of those years! I was an REO (foreclosure) broker during and after the last crash and there were many people talking about how there was going to be a double-dip recession in 2012. We were going to have a tsunami of foreclosures and it would be much worse than the crash we just went through. Well, it never happened, in fact, the opposite happened.
No one knows for sure what will happen to the housing market. It could go up, it could go down, it could crash. But just because it crashed before when prices were high, does not mean it will crash again.
The video below goes over the possibility of a housing crash as well:
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Will Covid-19 cause a housing market crash?
Many people are now saying that coronavirus and its impacts will cause a housing market crash. The interesting thing is that since the coronavirus started, housing prices have increased in many areas! The supply of homes has decreased because many sellers took their homes off the market. This caused prices to increase because the demand for homes has stayed relatively stable. There are the same amount of buyers fighting for fewer homes.
It is true that many people let their mortgages go into forbearance or are behind on rent. The CDC halted most foreclosures for the rest of the year. There has to be a crash right! There will be so many foreclosures being dumped on the market and that will cause prices to drop.
Foreclosures do not cause a housing market crash. Every healthy market has foreclosures. The last crash was caused by millions of foreclosures coupled with too many houses being built. Foreclosures by themselves can cause a downturn but not a crash.
It is also important to remember that Covid-19 will not automatically cause a flood of foreclosures. The government will do everything they can to stop foreclosures and in some states, it takes years to foreclose. Many people also have equity in their homes which means they can sell them instead of letting them default back to the bank.
Home mortgages are harder to get than ever
One of the main reasons people say there will be another crash is that loans are easier to get again!
In 2005, subprime loans were rampant and as a result, the country over-leveraged itself. Subprime loans, the riskiest loan type given to borrowers with low credit scores, totaled more than $620 billion. Now, subprime originations are only 5 percent of the mortgage market and add up to $56 billion. Compare that to 2005 when subprime origination made up 20 percent of the market. This represents a 91 percent decline from the height of bad loans that set up the economic crash.
Source: Inside Mortgage Finance; Equifax
Not only has subprime lending seen a major decline, but mortgages have also become much harder to attain due to stringent lending standards. Loans are still very hard to get compared to before the last crash. This is greatly due to the type of borrowers able to qualify for loans. The current average credit score for borrowers being granted mortgages is 739. In October 2009, the average FICO score was 686, according to Fair Isaac. The lowest one percent of mortgages issued have credit scores averaging 622-624. Compared to the average range in 2001 of 490-510, the standard to get financing has risen substantially, and as a result, the likelihood of default has dropped. Lenders have done this to ensure the economy doesn’t again become propped on bad loans like it was leading up to the Great Recession.
The chart below shows that loans are even harder to get than right after the housing crash. https://www.urban.org/policy-centers/housing-finance-policy-center/projects/housing-credit-availability-index
As you can see, it is not easier to get a loan, in fact, it is harder!
Investors have even stricter lending guidelines and must put 20% down. There are stricter debt-to-income levels for investors and some banks even limit the number of loans investors can have. It is much tougher to get a loan now than almost any other period in the last century.
Is the United States housing market unaffordable?
Another reason people say the market will crash is that housing is not affordable for most people and it has to crash.
It is true that the affordability index continues to be stacked against potential home buyers. As housing and rental prices steadily increase, wages continue to stay relatively stagnant. Historically, the average income-to-housing cost ratio in the U.S. has hovered near 30 percent, but in some metro areas, that number is currently closer to 40 and even 50 percent! This strips away the opportunity to save money as a significant portion of a person’s monthly income is going to keep a roof over their head.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
However, the United States is still much more affordable than in many other countries. Many of those countries have not seen a huge crash. People tend to find ways to buy homes, even when they are very expensive. Affordability in itself will not cause a crash. Although, it could cause a slowdown.
Some of these charts are a few years older, but it’s tough to find updated information. As you can see there are many other markets that have higher prices than the US (even after our last rise) and did not have a housing crash, or they recovered very quickly after a smaller crash. Simply having high prices does not mean a crash is coming.
Why is supply so low?
The biggest factor causing the housing market to increase today is low inventory. The last crash was caused by horrible lending guidelines and overbuilding. We will continue to have low inventory until building picks up, and it simply has not happened. I cannot see another crash occurring until we see more new starts.
The graph below shows new building starts in the United States and as you can see there was a record low building for many years after the crash. We just got back up to the average number of new builds when Covid-19 hit and it dropped again.
There simply are not enough houses for people.
This is why prices continue to increase in the United States. The population is growing and there are not enough houses to meet the demand for everyone who wants to buy a house.
We could absorb a lot of foreclosures and still have a healthy market, a more healthy market than we have now. Having an increase in foreclosures will not crash the market. We would also need an increase in new builds which is not happening at the pace of market demand.
Will migration and population cause a crash?
Another popular theory is that baby boomers will die off and there will be too many houses for those still alive. This idea was pushed back in the early 2000’s by Robert Kiyosaki. While there were a lot of baby boomers born, there are currently more millennials than baby boomers. The millennial generation is actually increasing thanks to immigration. There are fewer people being born now, but those people will not be of house buying age for decades. It is predicted the US population will keep increasing for decades. Other countries have had decreasing populations and have not seen decreasing prices.
This article goes into more detail on baby boomers and a housing crash.
Will interest rates cause a housing crash?
Another prediction is that interest rates could rise and cause a crash. This theory is based on nothing but a guess as rising rates have never caused a crash in the past. Interest rates were 18% in the early 1980s and there was not a crash. While it seems logical that prices decrease when rates increase because houses get less affordable it does not happen. The mortgage rates on a house are typically locked in for many years. If interest rates go up it will cause fewer people to move which will decrease inventory even more! The video below has more details on this.
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Why are others predicting a crash?
A lot of people are predicting a crash, but why? If the data shows that a crash is most likely not going to happen why would they predict one?
Here are some of the people who are predicting a crash:
Gold and silver sellers who want people to invest with them and not in real estate
Stockbrokers who want people to buy stocks and not real estate
Real estate investors who are selling coaching programs about how to survive a crash
Anyone who is trying to get their name in the news or create a catchy headline to sell something
People who want cheap housing prices so it is easier to invest.
Not everyone who is predicting a crash has an ulterior motive but many do. Some very smart people are predicting a crash who may not know exactly how real estate works either. You have to be very careful who you listen to when it comes to real estate and predictions.
What can we predict?
I buy a lot of house flips and rental properties. One of the most important rules of thumb I work by is to never base my purchases on what housing prices might do. If I am flipping houses or buying rentals, I never assume prices will go up. I base my investment strategies on today’s prices. I also have a plan in place if the market decreases. Yes, we have seen huge price increases, but that does not mean prices will keep going up or that they could not go down. One of the easiest ways to get yourself in trouble is to invest in real estate because you think prices will increase.
I do not try to predict the market and most economists will not predict it either. There are too many variables to know what will happen and predicting when it will happen is even harder. If someone says they know exactly when a crash or downturn will happen, they are probably trying to get attention or sell something!
The market could go up or it could go down. The great thing about real estate is you can make money in every market if you know what you are doing.
Conclusion
The factors that caused the last crash do not exist in today’s market.
There is not overbuilding, in fact, there is too little building.
There are not loser lending guidelines, in fact, there are more strict lending guidelines.
While foreclosures may increase, there are much fewer than before.
Rising prices and unaffordable housing do not cause a crash. They could cause a downturn or cause prices to level out, but a crash is much different than a downturn. If you are waiting for a crash to invest or buy, you may be waiting a very long time!
Many people want to buy investment properties because of the fantastic returns they can provide. However, many people do not have the 20 percent down payment (or more) that most banks require. There are ways to buy an investment property with little money down. The easiest way to buy an investment property with less than 20 percent down is to buy as an owner-occupant and later rent out the house, but there are many other options for investors as well. Using a line of credit, refinancing your home, house hacking, the BRRRR method, or even credit cards can provide ways to buy investment properties for less money. Seller financing is a great way to put less money down on a rental property if you can find sellers who are willing. A more advanced technique is to use hard-money financing that you can refinance into a conventional loan. Whatever way you choose to buy a rental property, research the method to make sure that it is legal in your state, your lender approves it, and that you are not stretching your finances too thin.
How much money down do most banks require?
An investor will have to put down at least 20 percent to buy a property from a typical bank. If you own more than four properties, that figure can increase to 25 percent down, providing that they are even willing to finance more than four properties. On top of the down payment, an investor will have to pay closing costs, which can range from two to four percent of the loan amount. It is very expensive to buy an investment property using financing from a typical bank. I have found a great portfolio lender who will finance as many properties as I want with 20 percent down, but they are not easy to find. Once you factor in repairs, carrying costs, down payment, and closing costs it can cost as much as $30,000 to buy a $100,000 rental property.
The video below goes over ways to buy with little money down as well:
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How to buy as an owner-occupant
The easiest way to buy an investment property with little money down is to buy as an owner-occupant, satisfy your loan requirements, rent out the property, and keep it as an investment. Most owner-occupant loans require the buyer to occupy the home for at least a year. Once that year is up, you can rent out the house and turn it into an investment property. There are many owner-occupied loans available, with down payments ranging from 0 to 5 percent down. You can put as much money down as you want if you want to put 20 percent down or even 50 percent down. USDA and VA have great no-money-down programs and little to no mortgage insurance, which will save an investor a lot of money each month. You will have more costs with little money down loans because mortgage insurance is required. Mortgage insurance can add hundreds of dollars to your house payment and eat away at your cash flow. The process of buying as an owner-occupant and then turning the house into an investment property is as follows:
1. Buy a house as an owner occupant, which will cash flow when you rent it out.
2. Move into the house and live there for at least a year.
After the year is up, find another house that will cash flow and purchase that home as an owner-occupant.
4. Move out of the first house and keep it as a rental. Move into the new house and repeat the process every year!
Eventually, you will be building up equity and extra cash flow, which will enable you to buy properties with a 20 percent down payment. Repeating this process 10 times would be an excellent way to get started, but no one wants to move ten times in ten years. It can also be tough to convince your family to live in a home that would be a great rental.
Low down payment owner occupant loans
For more tips on real estate, check out the InvestFourMore Instagram page.
If you are going the owner-occupant route there are many loans available that have from very little to nothing down required.
FHA loan
FHA loans are government-insured loans that can be obtained with as little as 3.5 percent down. You can only have one FHA loan at a time unless you have extenuating circumstances like a job relocation. You do have to pay mortgage insurance on FHA loans, which I will discuss later in this article. There are limits to the amount an FHA mortgage can be, which varies by state and even city.
USDA loan
USDA is a loan that can be used in rural areas and small towns. The loan can’t be used in medium-sized towns or large towns/metro areas. The loan is a fantastic loan for those that qualify and want to buy a home in the designated areas. USDA loans can be had with no money down, but do have mortgage insurance as well.
VA loans
VA loans are run through the United States Veterans Administration. You have to be a veteran to qualify for the loan, but they also can be had with no money down and no mortgage insurance! VA is a great option for those that qualify because the costs are so much less without mortgage insurance.
Down payment assistance programs
Many states have down payment assistance programs. In Colorado, we have a program called CHFA. The program helps buyers get into owner-occupied homes with very little money down. CHFA actually uses an FHA loan but allows for less than a 3.5 percent down payment. Check with lenders on your state to see if you have any programs that help with down payment assistance.
Conventional mortgages
Even conventional mortgages have low down payment loans available for owner-occupants. For owner-occupants, conventional loans have down payments as low as 3 percent. You will most certainly have to pay mortgage insurance with any conventional loan that has less than 20 percent down. Unlike some of the other loan options available, you can have as many conventional mortgages in your name as you want as an owner occupant.
FHA 203K Rehab loan
An FHA 203K rehab loan allows the borrower to finance the house they are buying and repairs they would like to complete after closing. This is a great loan for homes that need work, but the buyer has limited funds to repair a home. There are more costs associated with this loan upfront because two appraisals are needed and lenders have higher fees for 203K loans.
NACA Loans
NACA is a non-profit program with:
No down payment
No closing costs
No points or fees
No credit score consideration
Below market 30-year and 15-year fixed-rate loans
This sounds like it is too good to be true, and it is a great program. However, you do not simply apply for the loan and hope the lender approves you. You must take classes, and even host classes when in the loan program.
More details are on the NACA site.
What loan costs does a buyer need to consider besides the down payment?
On almost any loan you will have more costs than just the down payment. The lender will charge an origination fee, appraisal fee, prepaid interest, prepaid insurance and possibly prepaid mortgage insurance. Plus you may have more costs the title company charges like a closing fee, recording fees, and possibly title insurance. In most cases, the seller pays for title insurance, but with HUD and VA foreclosures the buyer has to pay for title insurance. These costs can add up to another 3.5 percent of the mortgage amount or sometimes more. When you talk to a lender they can give you an estimate of exactly how much these costs will be before you get your loan.
Can you ask the seller to pay closing costs?
Even though the lenders and title company will charge you more fees than just the down payment, that does not mean you have to pay that upfront. You can ask the seller to pay closing costs for you. If you can get the seller to pay your closing costs for you, loans like VA and USDA may be obtained with no out-of-pocket cash. You may still have to put down an earnest money deposit, but that can be refunded at closing in some cases. When you ask the seller to pay closing costs, it reduces the amount of money they are getting from the sale so you might actually be paying more for the home than if you didn’t ask for closing costs. But in my mind paying a little more for the house and financing those costs to save cash is better than paying more money out-of-pocket for a little cheaper home.
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House Hacking
House hacking is when you buy as an owner-occupant but you buy a multifamily property instead of a house. By purchasing a multifamily property you can live in one unit while you rent out the other units. This strategy allows you to rent the property faster, which may mean the bank will be more willing to give you a new loan as soon as you are ready to move out. You will also have help from the other tenants to pay your mortgage. In some cases, you may be able to live for free while you own the house because the other rent covers your costs.
Virtual real estate
Yes, you can now buy virtual real estate! This is land in the metaverse that only exists digitally. Some pieces of virtual real estate have sold for millions of dollars and others can be bought for almost nothing. Here is some more information on getting started!
BRRRR Method
BRRRR stands for buy, repair, rent, refinance, and repeat. It is a great way to get into rentals with less money down. You will need to get an awesome deal to make this strategy work, but you may be able to get all of your money back. You buy a house that is an amazing deal, fix it up, rent the property, and then refinance it. Once the refinance is done you repeat over and over! The key to making this strategy work is getting an awesome deal with plenty of equity. You also need to be prepared if things do not go perfectly. Appraisals can come in low, the banks may not want to finance you, you may not get the property rented or repaired as fast as hoped, etc.
Hard money loans
Using hard money can save you a ton of cash in the short-term, but it is more expensive in the end. Fannie Mae lending guidelines, allow you to refinance a home with no seasoning period, which means you do not have to wait six months or a year after you purchase a home, to refinance at a higher value than what you bought it for. Fannie Mae guidelines base the refinance amount on a new appraisal, and they will allow a 75 percent loan-to-value ratio. Fannie Mae guidelines do not allow a cash-out refinance, but they do allow the refinance to pay off any existing loans. Many hard money lenders will allow a buyer to borrow up to 100 percent of the purchase price and to finance repairs as well.
Since Fannie Mae guidelines allow a 75 percent loan-to-value refinance, theoretically an investor could buy a home for $100,000 and get a loan with a hard money lender for $100,000 plus $30,000 in repairs for a total loan amount of $130,000. The investor could refinance the home for as much as 75 percent of a new appraisal. If the appraisal came in at $180,000, then 75 percent loan-to-value would allow a refinance of $135,000. Fannie will not allow a cash-out refinance, but the investor could refinance the full $130,000 loan amount. This strategy can be costly due to hard money fees, but it allows the investor to refinance the entire purchase price and repairs!
This strategy can also be very risky because you are depending on a high appraisal to get your money out. Most hard money loans are only one year and you must pay off the loan after that year. Refinance appraisals are not always as high as we would like them to be. Make sure you have an exit strategy if the appraisal comes in lower than you expect.
Private money loans
One legitimate way to buy real estate with no money down is to use private money. Private money is from a private investor, friend, or family member. The private investor will give you money at a certain interest rate to buy a flip or rental property. Private money rates can vary from very cheap to very expensive depending on the relationship, investment, and terms of the loan. I use private money from my sister for my fix and flips. She charges me six percent interest. It is a great way to reduce the amount of cash I have into the properties.
I have used private money to buy commercial rentals and then refinance into a long-term loan with a local bank.
Can being a real estate agent help?
There are many advantages to having your real estate license, but the biggest benefit is you can keep your commission on almost every house you buy. On a $100,000 house, your commission could be $3,000 dollars or more. Here is an article that details why it is an advantage to become a real estate agent if you are an investor. Being a real estate agent also gives me an advantage in finding and purchasing great deals. I detail how hard it is to get your real estate license here. I saved more than $270,000 a year on commissions by being a real estate agent. That does not include the money I made on deals that I got because I was an agent.
Turnkey rentals
A new trend in the US is buying turnkey rental properties that are purchased, repaired, rented, and managed by a turnkey provider. Turnkey properties are a great opportunity for investors to buy rental properties out-of-state when homes are too expensive in their area. There are turnkey providers who offer as little as 5 percent down for investors, but they tend to have very high-interest rates. Here is a great article about turnkey providers or send me a request here for turnkey providers I know of. I bought a turnkey rental in Cleveland a few years ago.
Line of credit
I have had many lines of credit in my career. I have had lines of credit against my personal house (the house I live in) and my investment properties. It is much easier to get a line of credit against your personal house and some banks will not even offer lines of credit on investment properties. A line of credit is basically a loan against a home, but you do not have to use the money all the time. If you do not need the money you can pay it back to the bank and not be charged interest on it. When you need the money again, you can borrow it very quickly as long as the line is open.
Off-market properties
Off-market properties are purchased through direct marketing or by word of mouth. Buying off-market usually means less expensive properties and in some cases, owners with flexible terms such as owner financing. Many investors wholesale off-market properties, which you can purchase with no down payment. Wholesaling is a process of buying and selling properties very quickly. The properties must be very good deals and are usually found by direct marketing for properties. Many investors make a great living by only wholesaling properties to other investors.
Seller financing
Some sellers may be willing to finance the house they are selling or finance a second loan on a home that allows a buyer to put less than 20 percent down. If your bank is willing to offer 80 percent loan-to-value, the seller may offer to loan the other 20 percent, which would amount to no money down for the buyer. The seller may also offer a number of other loan-to-value percentages to help a buyer get into a home for less than 20 percent down.
Finding seller-financed properties is the tricky part. Most sellers are not looking to finance a loan when they sell. To find seller financed listings, look for homes that have no loans against them or an MLS listing description that say seller financing is available. The seller’s terms can vary greatly depending on how desperate they are to sell and what exactly they are looking to get out of the deal. Do not expect to pay four percent interest on a seller-financed loan; they will want a premium on any money they lend. It is also harder to find great deals with seller financing, which is key to my strategy.
There are many new restrictions on financing thanks to the recent Dodd-Frank Act.
Refinance
In most areas of the country, home values are rising and interest rates are at record lows. You may be able to refinance your home and get enough money to buy an investment property. Once you are able to buy an investment property, you can refinance it in one year (sometimes less with the right bank). With rates as low as they are, if you bought the home below market value, you should be able to take out as much as you put into the house and still cash flow. I use this refinance technique all the time. Getting lenders to do a refinance is tricky when you own multiple investment properties. I use a portfolio lender who has allowed me to use a cash-out refinance on as many properties as I want.
Below is a property I refinanced:
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Move in ready Houses
A move-in ready property means all the repairs are completed and it is ready to rent as soon as you buy the home. There can be many advantages to buying a nice home. The biggest advantage is you do not have to pay for repairs. You also do not have to spend time waiting for repairs to be done, which saves money on mortgage payments, utilities, and other carrying costs. The downside of a move-in ready property is that it is usually more expensive and provides less cash flow than a home that needs work.
Credit cards
A few other ways to get quick cash can be very expensive and are usually reserved for people looking to do a quick flip. If you have a killer deal you cannot pass up, you may want to consider these options, but I do not recommend using them unless it is necessary. The easiest way to get quick cash is with credit cards. You can get a cash advance or pay for repairs using your credit card. If you use a credit card to finance your down payment or repairs and cannot pay it off right away, do not pay the 17 percent interest rate. Do your best to get another card that will allow a balance transfer. Many times, you can transfer all of your balance and pay little to no interest for up to a year. That may give you enough time to pay off the card and not to be stuck with a high-interest rate eating all of your profits. I also suggest using a rewards card for repairs on your investment properties. If you pay the balance off every month, this is a great way to make a little extra money.
Self-directed IRA
If you have money invested in an IRA, you are not limited to investing in stocks or mutual funds. There are special self-directed IRAs that you can use to purchase an investment property. You can use your IRA for down payments and repairs and then collect rent in the IRA.
401K
Some 401ks allow an investor to take out a loan against them. You usually have to pay back the loan relatively quickly and pay interest on the loan. You have to be very careful when borrowing from a 401k because the money you borrow is no longer earning interest or growing in your retirement fund. If you lose your job, you also may be required to pay back the loan within 60 days or pay a 10 percent penalty and income tax on the loan.
Subject to loans
With a subject to loan, you buy a house without paying off the previous owner’s mortgage. This is another tricky situation; investors must be very careful with it. Most bank mortgages are not assumable; when the homeowner sells the house, they have to pay the loan in full. The bank most likely will have a due-on-sale clause that says the loans must be paid in full, once the property transfers ownership. With subject to loans the new investor buys a house subject to an old mortgage and does not pay off the loan. There is a chance that the bank will require the loan to be paid off if they find out that the home has been sold.
Investors buy homes subject to a mortgage so that they do not have to get a new loan. It may be hard for the investor to qualify for a mortgage or they may be maxed out on being able to get new loans. If you buy a home for $80,000 that has a $75,000 mortgage in place, the investor would only need $5,000 to buy the house instead of the normal 20 percent or more.
Fannie Mae Homepath program
The Fannie Mae Homepath program on their REO properties allows investors to put only 10 percent down and allows up to 20 financed loans in one person’s name, which is also a huge bonus. It is very difficult for many investors to get loans on more than four properties.
This program has been discontinued.
Conclusion
Rental properties can be expensive, but there are ways to purchase them with less than 20 percent down. If you are short on cash, buying properties with little money down can accelerate the purchasing schedule and increase your returns. However, you will most likely make less money on each property, because borrowing that last 20 percent can be much more expensive than the first 80 percent.
My book Build a Rental Property Empire, goes over how to buy investment properties with little money down. It also covers how to find deals, finance rentals, manage them, and much more! It is available as a paperback and ebook on Amazon or as an audiobook on Audible.
You can make a lot of money as a real estate agent but it takes some time to become on. You must take classes, pass a test, and hang your license with a broker. Having a real estate license can also help your real estate investing if you do a lot of deals. Real Estate Express is a real estate school that provides online classes in many states. Multiple agents in my office have taken online classes from Real Estate Express and have some great feedback on the program. I also took my real estate classes online back in 2001, but I did not use Real Estate Express. I used Vaned to get my license and that was so long ago, I barely remember anything about the classes except they were very boring!
Visit Real Estate Express
There are many other online companies that offer real estate licenses. You will find that many of those companies have very bad reviews and people tend to have bad experiences with them. Why is that? Because taking a real estate class online is one of the most boring things you can ever do. It is hours and hours of staring at a computer screen trying to comprehend information that you will most likely never need after you pass the test.
Many people think the courses are bad because of the material, but that is what the companies have to teach. They don’t decide what to teach, the real estate commissions for each state do that. You have your choice of taking classes online or in person in most states. I think you might learn more by taking classes in person, but the classes can be taken much faster online.
Why should you take real estate classes online?
Potential agents need to ask themselves if an online environment is right for them when getting their real estate license. If you are an investor who only wants to use your license on your own deals, online is a great choice. If you want to make a career out of being a real estate agent, and you have a lot of free time, you may want to think about getting your license in an actual classroom. Being in a classroom is a better learning environment because you have an actual teacher, guest speakers, and can network with other people in the business. The downside is that it takes a lot of hours to get your license in a classroom.
In Colorado, you need 168 hours of education before you can take the test to get your license. The amount of hours you need does not change whether you take the class online or in person, but some people can work faster online than others. You may be able to get through the material much faster online than you can in person. You are also able to work on the classes whenever you want when you take the online version. I have to take continuing education to keep my license every year. I prefer to take my classes online because I can get them done a little faster.
Some people also learn better with different teaching techniques. Reading is a great way for some to learn, while others need an instructor. The online classes have videos and different types of teaching, but there is still a lot of reading. There is a lot of reading when you take in-person classes as well, but the instructor can help supplement that more than an online course.
Is it hard to learn on a computer?
Before I get into the pros and cons of Real Estate Express, I want to talk about online classes in general. If you decide to take online classes, be prepared to be in front of a computer a lot! Most states have much fewer hours required than Colorado, but wherever you get your license it takes a lot of hours staring at a computer.
When you take classes online it can be very hard to motivate yourself and you have to set your own schedule. I know it was tough for me to go through the real estate material and I had been around real estate most of my life (my dad was an agent). The real estate classes are not meant to teach agents how to sell houses and make money, they are meant to teach you the laws and regulations. The laws and regulations are very important, but also very boring.
If you are taking real estate license classes to learn how to sell houses or how to invest in real estate, look somewhere else. You will need a supplemental training program to learn the ins and outs of investing or selling real estate.
I have seen a lot of complaints about Real Estate Express and most of those stem from the material. Real Estate Express does not choose the material they teach, the state licensing board does. It is important to remember the classes are meant to help you stay out of jail, not teach you how to sell houses.
What are the real estate licensing requirements in all 50 states?
What real estate school did my agents choose?
When I got my license in 2001 there were very few choices for real estate schools. I choose Vaned.com because it was one of the few choices I had and somewhat affordable. It was a decent course and they are still around today. There are many more online schools now and prices have dropped as competition has increased.
The primary reason my agents choose Real Estate Express was they were the most affordable choice and they have a very high success rate for agents passing the test. My agents also had schedules or jobs that did not allow them to take their classes in a classroom environment. I think that most people find it is tough to take 168 hours of classes in a classroom when you have a job or a family. If you have to work around that schedule it can take forever to get through the classes.
Reviews from my agents
From Justin:
“I earned my real estate license while at a full-time job, so knew I needed to do it online. I shopped all of the top options and did demos of each. The delivery was fairly similar across the board, so I chose Real Estate Express due to its better price point.
Doing hours and hours of online education is never easy, but I got through the material fairly quickly.
Out of everything, the biggest value was the test prep portion. Once your educational hours are complete, you still need to take state and national licensing exams at testing centers. Real Estate Express had modules specifically to prepare me for these. I really enjoyed these modules and most importantly…I passed the test on my first try. Many people I know had to take the exams 2 or 3 times before passing.
Based on all of this, I have recommended Real Estate Express to several people.”
From David
“I was able to get through the material rapidly while working a full-time job. I needed the flexibility online courses offer. Real Estate Express was inexpensive and has all the features I wanted.
As I shopped options, I saw that Real Estate Express had chat and phone support for people to reach. The money-back guarantee was good to see too.
During exam prep, when I went through the test questions the system gave immediate feedback on the question. This is called a coaching module. It lets you know why you got a question right or wrong as you test, which has helped my learning tremendously.”
From Michael
“I quit my job in order to get my real estate license as quickly as possible. After looking at various options, it seemed I could get through fastest by using an online option. Real Estate Express had what I needed and it was recommended to me by two people.
I did have some technical issues with my computer, so I had to use their support several times. They responded quickly and resolved my issues. It was good to have nice human support throughout the process.
I also had questions with the licensing process, which they helped me with as well.”
Real Estate Express advantages
When I got my license many years ago, I did not pass the test on my first try. Most of this was my fault because I thought I knew everything about real estate and did not need to study very much. The real estate test is not easy to pass. I passed the next try after studying more and taking my time prepping for the test. I had to take the test again on very short notice a few years later to become a broker for my sister’s company for a short period of time. I passed the test with three days of studying on my first try thanks to a test prep course.
Test Preparation
One of the toughest parts of passing the real estate licensing tests is understanding the questions. The real estate licensing boards tend to use double and triple negatives to trip you up. The wording is very confusing and it is easy to fail even if you know the material well. I think the test prep is one of the most important features of any school because you need to get used to how the questions are asked on the test.
I have heard people complain about the poor wording of quizzes and questions in the real estate classes. It is true that they are worded poorly, but that is to prepare you for the state test. Here are some other advantages that I have seen from Real Estate Express:
Live support
I have heard from numerous people about the life support Real Estate Express offers and how helpful it can be. They are very quick to respond to questions online or on the phone.
A+ BBB rating
They have a great rating with the BBB and respond to any complaints with logic ad solutions.
Affordable
Real Estate Express is Cheaper than most other real estate schools. They are the largest online real estate school in the country and that allows them to be able to charge less than the other schools. Their low prices are also why they have become the largest real estate school in the country.
Courses in most states
Real Estate Express offers courses in 27 states. They are continually adding more states as they are approved to offer courses for real estate licenses. Some states require in-person classes while others do not.
Real Estate Express disadvantages
There are some cons to Real Estate Express, but they will come with almost any online school.
The online structure is boring
When you take classes online it is really boring going through the material and hard to motivate yourself.
Fewer networking opportunities
When you take classes in person you meet the instructor, other classmates, and guest speakers. You miss that with online classes.
Less support with online classes
Even though most schools offer some type of support, you don’t have a live teacher you can ask questions to immediately.
No time table to complete the course
When you take classes in person you know exactly when the classes are and when they will be completed. When you take classes online it is all up to you to complete the work. There is no schedule and you must be self-motivated.
Conclusion
If you are thinking of getting your license I recommend Real Estate Express if you go the online route. you can make a lot of money as a real estate agent, but remember the real estate classes will not teach you how to make money. The classes teach you the laws and regulations of being a real estate agent. If you want to learn to make money as an agent I would suggest choosing a broker who offers training and support for new agents.
By Peter Anderson9 Comments – The content of this website often contains affiliate links and I may be compensated if you buy through those links (at no cost to you!). Learn more about how we make money. Last edited August 24, 2020.
The Roth IRA is probably my favorite investment vehicles, and it’s something I’ve written about pretty extensively here on this site. When I started hearing stories from folks recently about how a lot of people have never even heard of the Roth IRA, I was a little bit shocked. Maybe I shouldn’t have been.
Jeff Rose of GoodFinancialCents.com recently gave a talk to a group of graduating seniors at his alma-mater about investing and retirement. While he was there he took an informal poll and asked who knew what a Roth IRA is. Out of 50 people attending, not a single one knew what a Roth IRA was. For Jeff that moment was a bit of an ephiphany, and he decided to start the Roth IRA Movement. The Roth IRA Movement is a group of 140+ bloggers and personal finance journalists all coming together today to write about the Roth IRA, and to get others to start thinking about saving for retirement.
I decided to pitch in and give 10 reasons why the Roth IRA should be your retirement account of choice.
10 Reasons To Love The Roth IRA
There are probably a million and one reasons to love the Roth IRA, but for the sake of brevity, here are my top 10.
Tax free withdrawals at retirement: The IRA and the 401(k) allow you to add funds to your account before the money gets taxed. That’s great because it allows you to reduce your taxable income, and lowers your taxes now. The Roth IRA has a great benefit as well, however. You pay taxes on your income now and fund your Roth IRA, and then you get to take your contributions and earnings out without paying taxes at retirement. Who doesn’t love tax-free money at retirement?
Withdraw contributions at any time: When you contribute money to your Roth IRA, you can withdraw those contributions without penalty or taxes at any time (not so with earnings). While I wouldn’t suggest doing that as it can short-circuit your gains, it is nice to know that if an emergency arises and your emergency fund doesn’t cover it, this may be an option.
No age limit for a Roth IRA: There isn’t an age limit to have a Roth IRA, so even your children can have one! As long as you or your child have earned income, and you’re below certain income thresholds, most likely you will qualify to contribute to a Roth IRA.
Good way to diversify tax treatment: As mentioned earlier in this post Roth IRA withdrawals at retirement are tax free. By contributing to an IRA (pre-tax) and Roth IRA (post-tax) you can diversify your situation when it comes to taxes. That can be especially important if you’re unsure how your tax rates will compare – now versus at retirement. Hedge your bets and contribute some to each.
High income limits: The income limits for contributing to a Roth IRA are relatively high, so most people will be able to contribute. The limits are $193,000 if you’re married filing jointly, or $131,000 if you’re single, head of household, or married filing separately and did not live with your spouse for any part of the year.
Perfect for procrastinators like me: The Roth IRA account type allows people to contribute to their Roth IRA right up until tax day of the following year. So for example, if I wanted to start a Roth IRA and fund it for 2014, I could do that right up until April 15th, 2015, the day that taxes are due for 2014.
You can use it to save for college or a home without penalties: You can take contributions out of a Roth IRA to pay for college expenses, without incurring any penalties. While it isn’t always a good idea to short circuit gains in your account by taking money out, if you do run into the situation where you need to, you won’t be subject to the normal early withdrawal penalties and taxes. Withdrawing earnings would still be subject to taxes, but no penalties. For first time homebuyers, you can withdraw up to $10,000 tax free from your Roth IRA contributions and earnings, just be aware of all the fine print on withdrawing for a home purchase.
The Roth IRA can secure your golden years: If you want to be secure in retirement you need to start saving, and start now! The Roth IRA is a great way to get started because you can invest in smaller increments – which will add up to much larger dollar amounts by the time you retire.
A Roth IRA will usually have more investment options than your company 401k: One great thing about the Roth IRA is that they’re flexible. You can invest in what you want through the Roth IRA. Company 401ks aren’t always as flexible as you’re held hostage to whatever plan administrator your company chooses, and
Easy to open a Roth IRA: Opening a Roth IRA is really easy. Companies like Vanguard, Betterment, Wealthfront or Axos Invest have made the signup process to get started with a Roth extremely easy. In many instances it will only take a few minutes to open an account. Depending on your investment strategy choosing your investments may take a bit longer, but it isn’t as complicated as some people might think. Just choose where you’ll open the account, fund the account, and choose your investments.
Those are a few of the reasons why I love the Roth IRA, and why I think you should give the Roth a look as well.
Have you started your Roth IRA yet? If not, what’s holding you back? Tell us your thoughts in the comments.
Roth IRA Contribution Limits
Year
Age 49 and Below
Age 50 and Above
2002-2004
$3,000
$3,500
2005
$4,000
$4,500
2006-2007
$4,000
$5,000
2008-2012
$5,000
$6,000
2013-2018
$5,500
$6,500
2019-2022
$6,000
$7,000
2023
$6,500
$7,500
Open Your Roth IRA Today
Open your Roth IRA today with one of my favorite and recommended providers.
2020 update: Lending Club no longer offers peer-to-peer lending in it’s platform.
Let me say up front that I have excellent experience with Lending Club as an investor. My relationship and experience with them have been overwhelmingly positive. However, I’m aware that not everyone has had such pleasant exchanges with the site. And in the interest of providing reviews of various financial service providers from both a positive and negative angle, I’m focusing this review specifically on Lending Club complaints.
They’re out there – mixed among the many positive reviews and commentary about Lending Club that are all over the Internet.
So let’s take a look at the dark side, and see what some are saying who don’t have such a positive view of the company.
What the Better Business Bureau Reports
We should note before getting into the specifics of complaints against Lending Club through the Bureau, that BBB regards Lending Club very highly. Lending Club has been accredited by BBB since January, 2008, and they give them a rating of A+, on a scale of A+ to F, which is clearly their highest rating.
Here are the reasons for that rating:
Length of time business has been operating.
Complaint volume filed with BBB for business of this size.
Response to 138 complaint(s) filed against business.
Resolution of complaint(s) filed against business.
They further go on to state the following:
“BBB has determined that LendingClub Corporation meets BBB accreditation standards, which include a commitment to make a good faith effort to resolve any consumer complaints. BBB Accredited Businesses pay a fee for accreditation review/monitoring and for support of BBB services to the public.BBB accreditation does not mean that the business’ products or services have been evaluated or endorsed by BBB, or that BBB has made a determination as to the business’ product quality or competency in performing services.”
We can interpret the BBB rating and comments on Lending Club to be a clear indication that, despite the fact that numerous complaints have been filed against the company through BBB, the bureau nonetheless considers Lending Club to be in the top echelon of service providers in the community.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at the complaints. A total of 138 closed complaints are listed on BBB in regard to Lending Club.
They break it down as follows:
Advertising/Sales Issues – 54 complaints
Billing/Collection Issues – 19 complaints
Delivery Issues – 1 complaint
Problems with Product/Service – 64 complaints
Guarantee/Warranty Issues – 0 complaints
I sampled about 20 to 25 of the complaints, all of which were satisfactorily resolved, and found that each complaint was about something different. That is to say that there were no common themes among the complaints, that might point to some sort of system-wide flaw in Lending Club’s operation.
Most of them seem to point to a misunderstanding of fees charged. I have a pretty good knowledge of the fee structure on the platform, and my guess is that in most cases it was a matter of borrowers not paying attention to exactly how Lending Club works and even one that completely misunderstood the folio program.
Considering the thousands of people who transact business with Lending Club, 138 complaints on various issues is to be expected, particularly since those complaints go all the way back to 2013.
Miscellaneous Complaint Websites
Whether they are accurate or not, websites have popped up all over hosting criticisms of various companies. The dead giveaway is often found in the name of the site. It might be something like “LendingClubIsARipoff.com” or “BurnedByWalmart.com”. Those are of course fictitious names, but I hope you get the point.
I’m a little bit leery of such websites for a few reasons:
They are often started by someone who has an ax to grind with the company
People are far more likely to complain than they are to complement a business
Complaint sites tend to be a collection point for malcontents to complain and support one another
People often complain about problems that are actually their own fault, but they don’t think so
People can be incredibly nasty on the web, because they think that they can make comments anonymously
This isn’t to say that I don’t think any complaints showing up on these sites are legitimate. Some almost certainly are, it’s just that they are buried by the din of complaints by people who mostly seem interested in sounding off.
One site and I came across in regard to Lending Club is one called ComplaintsBoard.com. Just the name makes it obvious what kind of consumers they are going to attract.
Most of the complaints listed on the site related to pre-approvals that were not followed by actual approved loans from Lending Club. This is a common practice in the lending industry, and I have no doubt that this is the case with Lending Club as well. Guilty as charged!
Other complaints included requests for extensive documentation, which is another characteristic of the lending industry that borrowers don’t completely understand. Origination fees are also a common complaint. People are incensed that they have to pay them, even though Lending Club makes it clear on the website that these fees are charged on virtually all loans.
There is another report on Lending Club on a site called Ripoff Report (what did I tell you about those website names?). The article starts out with a convincing sounding case against Lending Club, and if you only read the first few paragraphs, that’s the impression you will come away with.
But by the end of the article, the reviewer makes it clear that his experience came as a result of a scammer was posing as a Lending Club representative, but was actually not affiliated with the company. In fact, Lending Club doesn’t even make loans in his state!
What CBS News Had to Say About Lending Club
This review actually took place back in late 2013, but I’m including it because it specifically focuses on the investment side of Lending Club.
.large-leaderboard-2-multi-105border:none !important;display:block !important;float:none !important;line-height:0px;margin-bottom:15px !important;margin-left:auto !important;margin-right:auto !important;margin-top:15px !important;max-width:100% !important;min-height:250px;min-width:250px;padding:0;text-align:center !important;The article – The Lending Club – a critical review – chronicled the experience of Alan Roth, who invested on the site. This was the gist of his primary complaint:
“Yet, between September 7, 2012 and the end of March 2013, my Lending Club statement shows I earned an annualized yield of 11.08 percent…the 11.08 percent annualized return was pure fantasy, and that fantasy applies to the whole group of Lending Club investors. See, my $121.38 profit included $100.22 of principal and interest from four delinquent notes. If I excluded delinquent loans, I calculated my annualized return to be about 1.60 percent. Less than a month later, two of those notes went into default and suddenly my 11.08 percent annualized return dropped like a rock…(Lending Club officials) acknowledged the fact that delinquent loans are not written down in value until they default and that until then the full value (minus missed payments) is part of the calculation of overall investor returns. I do think that Lending Club is overstating investor return — and probably significantly.”
I’ve had an investing account with Lending Club, and my returns were much closer to those reported by Lending Club. They were certainly better than the 1.6% that the CBS News article reported. I can’t say that I agree with the writer of the CBS article.
Another source of validation in favor of the higher returns on Lending Club comes from Larry Ludwig at InvestorJunkie.com. Larry is one of the most objective people on the web when it comes to reviews, largely because investing is what he covers. Late in 2015, Larry reported the following:
“I started with Lending Club in May 2009 with just $1,000 ($925 deposited, $75 in sign-up bonus) in my account. As of September 2015, I have over $22,000 invested and my current ROI is 9.34%. I have over 768 current loans, and currently 132 have defaulted.”
As a postscript to the CBS News report, I should add that Allan Roth indicated near the end of the that he might continue to invest on the platform nonetheless. That sounds a whole bunch more like an endorsement than an indictment of Lending Club.
Wouldn’t you agree?
Putting Lending Club Complaints in Perspective
If you do a web search to investigate complaints against just about any company, you will come up with a long list of websites. I think this is part of the natural tendency of people to complain a lot more than they compliment, and to yell a lot louder when they do.
Yes, there are a large number of complaint sources on the web, but there are far more sites and reviews that are highly complementary of Lending Club and the way they do business. My own first-hand experience as an investor is an example. I just don’t have much to say about Lending Club that’s truly negative.
It also seems that many of the complaints originate from people who are looking to borrow money on Lending Club, and were either denied, or did not get the rate or terms that they expected. But it’s not unusual for people to apply for loans, and then to be dissatisfied with how the arrangement worked out. In many cases, borrowers and lenders are just natural enemies.
There are complaints floating around about Lending Club, and I’m not recommending that you ignore them. But at least from an investor standpoint, you can test the waters with a small amount of money, before committing larger sums. The opinion that matters most is your own, and Lending Club does give you the ability to develop that before you plunge in fully.
What is your opinion about Lending Club or the other peer to peer lending sites? Do you have any substantial complaints about the service?
If you are familiar with peer-to-peer (P2P) investing through sites such as Lending Club and Prosper, then you may be interested in learning about NSR Invest. The company provides a software service that works with major P2P lenders in helping investors on those platforms to better manage their portfolios.
NSR Invest will be particularly beneficial for people who want to invest in P2P loans, that don’t fit the do-it-yourself investor mold, and prefer to have a generous amount of help and support in the process.
In addition to helping individual investors, NSR Invest also enables financial advisors to offer plug-and-play Marketplace Lending investment opportunities to their clients.
About NSR Invest
Based in Denver, Colorado, NSR Invest began operations early in 2015, through the merger of Lend Academy Investments and Nickel Steamroller. The company is a registered investment advisor, bringing innovative financial products centered around a private fund and individually managed accounts. NSR Invest now assists thousands of clients managing more than $100 million in P2P loan investments.
The company specializes in the investing side of P2P lending sites. P2P lending is sweeping the lending world, by bringing borrowers and investors together on the same platforms to create loans without using the services of traditional banks. That direct relationship is resulting in what are often lower interest rates for borrowers, yet higher returns for investors. The elimination of the “middle man” – a.k.a., the bank – makes that possible, because it eliminates the lending costs that are part of mainstream banking.
NSR Invest works to streamline the investment process for P2P investors. Investors on P2P platforms must sift through hundreds of loans in order to find those that meet their own personal lending criteria. They must also build a portfolio of loans – or slivers of loans referred to as “notes” – that will minimize their downside risk.
That’s where NSR Invest comes into the picture. They provide the following resources to P2P investors:
Proprietary credit algorithms that target a higher rate of return, while reducing default risk
Auto-investing execution speeds allow faster access to the best quality loans
The ability to make P2P lending a totally hands-off effort for the investor
They provide a team committed to providing you with an “awesome experience” at every point in the investing process
In short, NSR Invest takes the mystery out of P2P investing, empowering you to improve your returns, while expending less effort in the process. They act as an investment management service for P2P investing, which frees up your time for better things.
Due to regulatory issues, NSR Invest is not yet available in the following nine states: Alabama, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee.
How NSR Invest Works
NSR Invest works with Lending Club, Prosper, and Funding Circle, and you can add those platforms to your NSR Invest platform right from the NSR Invest site. The site has full API integration with all three P2P platforms.
Fully-managed accounts. As the name implies, these accounts are directly managed by NSR Invest. They provide higher target returns, with lower target risk and volatility, all with a hands-off investment strategy, that requires little effort from the investor.
Fully managed accounts provide three account strategies:
Conservative – this strategy targets a 5% net return (after fees and expenses)
Balanced – this strategy targets a 7% net return
Assertive – this strategy targets a 10% net return
As of October 31, 2015, NSR Invest has achieved net performance of 5.48% on the Conservative strategy, 10.44% on the Balanced strategy, and 11.42% on the Assertive strategy. If these are better than the returns that you are now getting through your investments with Prosper or Lending Club , you need to check out NSR Invest.
Self-directed accounts. With these accounts you can choose to either use pre-built NSR Picks credit models, or fully customize your own investment strategy. You can also use a combination of methods.
Minimum account balance. Fully managed accounts require a minimum of $10,000. Self-directed accounts require a minimum of $5,000.
Accounts with NSR Invest can be canceled at any time, but require 14 days notice.
NSR Invest Features and Benefits
NSR Invest offers several advantages to the person who wants to invest in P2P loans, but either doesn’t fully understand that process, or doesn’t want to put in the time and effort that are necessary to build a large, well diversified portfolio of loans and notes, especially across several P2P platforms.
Back-test filter. This tool allows you to create and test your own filtering strategies. And once tested, you can use these strategies to create an auto investing capability.
Pricing and fees. NSR Invest charges fees only on the amount of idle cash and any investments made by NSR Invest, and only then when the aggregate balance of your account exceeds $20,000. For example, let’s say you have $100,000 in cash, and $50,000 in notes invested through Lending Club before signing up with NSR Invest. The fee would be charged only on the $100,000 in uninvested cash, and not on the existing $50,000 in notes that you already hold.
There are no setup fees of any kind when you begin the program. The annual fee on self-directed accounts is calculated on an account-by-account basis, and uses a mathematical equation to determine specifically what that will be. No estimated ranges are provided.
On Fully Managed Accounts, the annual fee is 0.60% of the account balance.
IRA and Trust accounts. You can set up an IRA through NSR Invest, and even roll over an existing 401(k) account into the IRA. You may also be able to set up a trust account, depending on the P2P platform that you are working with.
P2P Fund. This is something of a mutual fund for P2P investment platforms that is available through NSR Invest. The fund invests in loans originated by Lending Club, Prosper, Upstart, and Funding Circle. The fund targets a 10% net return after fees and expenses.
The minimum to invest in the fund is $250,000 – you must be an accredited investor in order to invest in the fund. The fund charges an annual fee equal to 1.5% of the investor’s account balance, charged on a monthly basis (0.125%).
Will NSR Invest Work For You?
If you have been attracted by the interest rate returns on P2P loan investments – and who wouldn’t be – you may want to consider doing it through NSR Invest. The service can handle investment selection for you, as well as the execution of purchases and the maintenance of your portfolio.
P2P investing can be highly rewarding, but it does require a considerable amount of time and attention. NSR Invest can remove that burden from you, and help you to best accomplish a low risk, high return portfolio balance.
If you have been toying with the idea of investing in P2P loans, or you are already doing it now but finding it tedious and time-consuming, give NSR Invest a try. Whether you are ready to invest 20,000 dollars or need to know what would be the best way to invest 500000 dollars, Good Financial Cents is here to help you!