Listing agents will throw your offer in the garbage unless your offer is attached to proof of funds. No exceptions. You could be the Dali Lama with a brief case full of Benjamins and they will not look at your offer. Getting an approval letter from a lending institution can take weeks and by the time you get that letter, there is 95% change your property is no longer available. If you are paying cash, you just need to show a screen shot of your bank statement OR get a statement of funds from your banking institution.
If you can get a loan, we highly recommend it. The number one reason is you can leverage your money to get a better return on your cash. The second reason is because you can hedge against a wrong purchase if the property doesn't appraise to the loan amount.
Sometimes. If the property is owned by Wells Fargo or Bank of America, your cash is not king. If a competing offer has a Bank of America loan letter and you have cash, you will be beaten by the buyer who has the loan. The reason is because Bank of America makes more money on the loan that the selling of the asset. The same is true with Wells Fargo. When you see the properties on the site, you will notice that the ownership is shown to help you decide on which properties to make offers on.
Generally Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Chase are best unless you are a local who belongs to a credit union. If you you have a job (get a yearly W-2) you should try Bank of America, Wells Fargo or Chase. If you are self employed and/or have a dubious credit score, you will have to get paper from a mortgage broker. Our preferred mortgage professionals are listed on our site so you can get more detailed rates and information from them.
Hard money is expensive. Generally these are at about 5 points up front and 10% interest only with a principal balloon at the end of 3 years. These "bridge" loans are not recommended unless you are very experienced and/or have a large lump sum coming due.
There are a few available and many of these are available from our pool of existing investors. HOWEVER, you are paying a premium on the purchase and paying a premium interest rate. Since there are so few available, this type of transaction rarely occurs.
In the old days, you could close the property and then get a line of equity or refinance the house. Those days are over. The minimum curing period is 6 months and most major lending institutions are at least 1 year.