November 15, 2025 • 38 mins
What if the fastest path to your next profitable flip isn’t a bank at all—but an asset-based loan that closes in days, not weeks? We sit down with Susie from Rehab Wallet to demystify hard money lending for fix-and-flip investors and show why speed, structure, and clear math can beat sticker-rate anxiety. From no-credit underwriting to next-day draws, we walk through a funding model built by investors who understand real timelines, real budgets, and real-world hiccups.
We start by separating myths from mechanics: how hard money compares to banks and private lenders, why higher annual rates can still be smarter on a six-month timeline, and how no prepayment penalties plus quick closings can translate to better offers and bigger spreads. Then we dig into the numbers that matter—ARV built on true comps, the 65/70% rules that anchor your max offer, and the down payment and LTV ranges that keep risk in check. Susie shares candid examples of deals saved by accurate comps—and deals stopped when “wishful ARVs” didn’t hold up.
Execution is where profit lives. You’ll hear how to line up a general contractor before you write offers, build a scoped budget that won’t blow up mid-project, and use a photo-based draw app to pay crews the next business day so you don’t lose labor to other jobs. New investors learn how to present a fundable deal—team, comps, scope, and exit plan—and what it takes to “graduate” into better terms and multiple concurrent projects. We also cover practical negotiation leverage with 7–10 business day closings and why having a reliable hard money partner can win you deals when private money falls through.
If you’re ready to move from curious to confident—running the math, writing tighter offers, and closing faster—this conversation gives you a clear playbook and a lender’s-eye view. Subscribe, share with a friend who’s ready to flip, and leave a review to tell us what deal analysis topic you want next.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:01):
You're listening to the Flip Houses Like the Girl
podcast, where we educate,empower, and celebrate everyday
women who are facing theirfears, doubling family and
business, embracing theiraudience, and wholeheartedly
facing their dream of flippinghouses.
Each episode delivers honest andgoodness tools, tips, and
(00:21):
strategies you can implementtoday to get closer to your
first or next successful houseflip.
SPEAKER_01 (00:32):
Welcome back to Flip Houses Like a Girl podcast.
This is the show where wehighlight real stories of
everyday women who are learningto flip houses and create
freedom for themselves and theirfamilies.
I'm Blair, one of the coacheshere with the Flip Sisters.
I've been flipping houses forsix years and have done 30
(00:52):
flips.
Today we're excited to introduceyou to Susie.
Susie is the sales manager withmy favorite hard money lender,
Rehab Wallet.
Rehab Wallet is a hard moneylender based in Charleston,
South Carolina.
They are my personal favoritehard money lender because they
are so easy to work with.
The company was founded by areal estate investor who kind of
(01:16):
just got tired of all the extraunnecessary paperwork and hoops
that other hard money lendersmade investors go through.
Oh, and don't let me forget tomention the founder Kelly
Garrett is a badass lady.
And the current team isprimarily almost all women, and
all of them are 100% badass.
(01:40):
So let's go ahead and dive in.
I know a lot of you listeningwould love to know how are the
ladies on your podcast and yourprogram funding these flips?
I know I personally had no moneyor credit when I started.
So I know it was one of thebiggest hurdles for me to get
over mentally when I started toflip houses.
(02:01):
Learning about hard moneylenders or HMLs for short will
hopefully get you to see thereare lenders out there that want
to lend you money and work withyou.
So, Susie, thank you so much forjoining me today.
I'm so excited that you're hereand can't wait to dive in and
ask you some of our listeners'burning questions.
SPEAKER_02 (02:23):
Awesome.
Thank you so much, Blair, forhaving me.
I am delighted and reallyhonored to just be here and be
able to share some of the tipsand tricks that I've learned
over the years.
A lot of people are not familiarwith hard money lender, so would
love to just share a little bitof what we do and how we do it.
SPEAKER_01 (02:39):
Awesome.
Well, thank you again so muchfor being here.
Um, so first let's do a littlebit of education, right?
Like we hear the term hard moneyloans, hard money lending, HMLs.
But like for someone who's brandnew to real estate investing,
how would you explain what ahard money lender is and how
that's different from, say, likegoing to my local bank and
(03:02):
getting a loan for a home?
SPEAKER_02 (03:04):
Great question.
I get this a lot.
Regardless of how experiencedsometimes a borrower is or an
investor is, whether they'vedone some deals and pay for it
cash and now they're looking toscale or someone brand new
looking to get started.
They sometimes have had zeroexperience with a hard money
lender.
So I love sharing what we do andhow we compare.
(03:26):
So most people have heard what atraditional lender is, your Bank
of America, your Wells Fargo,your local banks.
They are probably going to beyour lower interest rates, 30 to
45-day closings, a lot ofpaperwork.
And I mean a lot of paperwork.
And again, I can't stressenough, a lot of paperwork.
(03:46):
Typically, minimum credit score,that will determine your rates,
or in some cases, an immediatedenial based on just you don't
meet the minimum creditrequirement.
Some people might have heardwhat a private lender is, and
they're a little bit different,uh, less time on closing,
sometimes 14 to 21 days, alittle bit less paperwork than
(04:08):
your traditional, you know, Bankof America, uh Wells Fargo guys
most of the time do require aminimum credit score.
But one of the things we havefound with a lot of private
lenders or private money lendersis they run out of funds.
So someone either looking to dotheir first deal or you know
what, I have three or four Ineed money for.
(04:28):
We kind of call those guys, youknow, they left me stranded at
the altar.
So I went, you know, I'm ready.
I've got the address and thering.
And I I, anyways, they they dosometimes run out of funds.
So a hard money lender for us,we don't pull credit.
There's no income, no assetverification.
And I get a lot of times peopleasking, Susie, do you really not
pull credit?
Or do you do a soft pull insteadof a hard pull?
(04:51):
No, we really don't even havethe system capacity to be able
to pull credit.
Beginning, middle, or end, wewill not ask you for your social
security number.
Uh, we don't even lend toindividuals, we lend to
entities.
So, no, we do not pull credit.
Very little paperwork for a hardmoney lender, especially us.
(05:11):
So we don't pull your bankstatements, we don't require
your W-2s.
Sometimes I'll get clients thatsend me a whole file and they're
like, I just had this preparedfor the last lender.
So I'll just send you that.
And I'm like, oh gosh, pleasedon't.
Um I don't want all of that.
So we're a lot easier to workwith.
We don't run out of funds.
(05:31):
We have we have plenty of moneyto go around, but you know, and
I like to be honest on thedifference between your
traditional, your private, andyour hard money.
Traditionals, you're gonna pay alittle bit less interest rates,
right?
Even though right now less isstill a lot.
Um, hard money, you're gonna paya little bit higher interest
rates.
So it depends on what you arelooking for.
So I often talk to a lot of ourclients and say whether you have
(05:54):
excellent credit and you don'twant people pulling it because
you're gonna close on five, sixdeals a year and you don't want
someone pulling it that often.
Or you're working on rebuildingyour credit and you're just
right about that 670, 675 tobecome really attractive and you
don't need anybody pulling it.
Either way, like I said, wedon't have a way to pull those
credits.
So that's the main differencebetween working with a hard
(06:16):
money lender is just the ease ofbeing able to close and we work
with investors.
That's what we do.
We don't lend to individuals.
So we're looking to help thoseinterested in ideally fix and
flip loans.
SPEAKER_01 (06:29):
Yeah, and that's one of the things that like I
personally love about workingwith you guys is that you do
understand, like from the otherside of the table, you
understand what it's like to bean investor.
Most entrepreneurs, we hatepaperwork.
Like if you hand me a wholestack of paper and you want me
to fill it out, I'm probablylike not gonna do it or I'm
gonna wait till the last minutebecause I have to.
(06:51):
So I love that your loan processis so easy.
I literally, for those of youwho are looking into it, I go
online, I fill out a form, andthey get back to me.
It's it's very minimalinformation.
And also the no credit thing ishuge.
I think a lot of people getstuck in that like people's
credit scores equates to liketheir, I don't know, worthiness
or something.
And I took people it's 2025 andlike COVID happened and things
(07:15):
happen, and you may havesomething like I went through a
divorce, which is why my creditgot like crashed because my
ex-husband just thought youcould spend money, you know.
And I was like, well, we gotbills, but you know, like hold
on a second.
So I had to rebuild mine.
It didn't make me a badinvestor, it didn't make me a
bad borrower.
And so I love that you guys areasset-based and that you're
(07:35):
looking at like the projectitself, because uh that's just
to me, is puts you heads above alot of people.
SPEAKER_02 (07:42):
Um yeah, and you mentioned Kelly Garrett as our
you know main founder and andmanaging partner.
Um, she fix and flip homes for18 years in Charleston.
And um, she took all that redtape that a lot of her lenders
would use on her and said, man,this is just a lot of work.
Um, so and that's how she builtuh really wallet.
(08:03):
And most of us, you'll find ourinvestors ourselves, whether we
buy and hold or we fix and flipourselves.
So I think it helps that youhave a team that Kelly has
handpicked and built around herthat we all can see and can help
and can guide an investor withintheir journey.
We have 85% return investor ratefor a reason.
(08:24):
People like us.
You know, we care about therelationship.
It's not a transaction to us.
It's really we want them to besuccessful.
We don't want the property back.
So if a hard money lender or ifrehab wallet tells you no, don't
do that deal, you probablyshouldn't do that deal.
And we'll explain why.
We'll explain, you know, so andwe'll we'll dig deep a little
bit into those things.
SPEAKER_01 (08:45):
Yeah.
And that's I tell people that'sso awesome too to have like that
extra set of eyes.
It's not that you're trying tolike kill the deal, so to speak.
It's you're just making sureit's solvent.
And for me, especially like, youknow, when you're a first-time
flipper, or like maybe you'vedone one, and honestly, there's
a lot of people out there whojust who've done one or two and
got lucky, and now we're like,okay, now we're trying it, it's
helpful.
(09:05):
So you mentioned somethingearlier.
I know it's a hot topic aroundthe water cooler, is interest
rates.
But there's so much more to aloan structure than interest
rates.
Can you kind of talk us througha little bit about like loan
structure and terms as far as ahard money loan goes for an
investment property?
SPEAKER_02 (09:25):
Yes, absolutely.
And I think it's important foryou know the audience to
understand don't get stuck onthat interest rate, right?
First of all, it's annualized.
So if it is a, you know, for usat Rehab Wallet, a standard
rate, because we don't collectanything, in fact, don't give us
anything, you know, it's alittle high.
But you're gonna take thatamount, you're gonna multiply it
(09:47):
by that interest rate and divideit by 12.
And that's what your monthlyinterest payment will be every
single month.
People look at a hard moneyinterest rate at 1375.
It's for us a standard six-monthloan, and they're like, oh my
gosh, it's so high.
You know, your traditional banksare at six or seven percent,
you're paying twice as much.
Yeah, but the duration of theloan's only gonna be six months.
(10:10):
And, you know, if let's assumeyou close today, you're gonna
skip the first month and thenyou're gonna pay the second
month.
So we've had success where someborrowers exit us way before the
term of the loan.
There's no prepaid penalties,you can exit at any time.
And I think sometimes that justcreates a little of anxiety or
maybe some confusion wherepeople are like, you know, I
(10:31):
just don't want a loan for yearsat a 13475.
And we have to say we don'teither.
We're gonna break up at sixmonths.
Where the loan value, but it'snot long term.
Yeah.
Yeah, this is not a long-termgoal.
This is, you know, our goal isto help you find a great deal
that makes sense that you'regonna purchase the property,
(10:52):
it's gonna be on sale and notfor sale.
You're gonna make some money atthe beginning, and then you're
gonna exit us.
And if your goal is to flip itand take the profit and use the
capital for another investmentor keep it as a long-term
rental, that's that's up to you.
But we're we're done after sixor nine months.
We're we helped you do it.
We helped you rehab it now, itbecomes a very attractive
(11:14):
property to either sell orrefinance that with a long-term
lender.
SPEAKER_01 (11:19):
Nice.
And I loved your explanation ofit being annualized because I
think that's a key part thatmost people miss.
And plus, I like to remindborrowers too like you have to
pay something, right?
Like someone is offering you alarge sum of money for you then
to turn around and use it, andthen you make a large sum of
(11:40):
money to take home.
So it's to me, it's more thanfair to pay an interest rate so
that I can then turn around andmake a large sum of money.
Like it's a total win-win forme.
And especially when you guysbroke it down and explained it,
it's annualized.
And then you kind of realized,oh, cool.
So, like, you know, if it's 12months annualized, but I only
have the house for three to sixmonths, I'm really only paying
(12:01):
half of that.
So I'm kind of right there wherethe bank was anyway.
And I had all these pluses.
One of those major pluses is thespeed and flexibility.
I'm gonna kind of like ask thisquestion, but also give a
scenario because you kind ofmentioned it earlier and you
guys were awesome and helped meout in a situation.
(12:21):
I had a private money lender whodrew out the morning of clothes.
Uh, they decided that they werejust not comfortable with the
situation.
You know, they may not haveactually had all the funds.
I don't know.
But all I know is I was, youknow, on my way to the closing
table and I didn't have themoney for the close.
So I reached out to Rehab Walletand you guys actually, I think,
(12:44):
turned it around in like 24, 48hours.
Like it was so fast.
And so knowing that I have thatability, especially when I go to
even to make offers, like I'llalways kind of make a buffer
because again, pay like I haveto do things, right?
But you guys are and hard moneylenders in general are usually
have like speed and flexibility.
To me, that's one of the bigdraws.
(13:06):
So, like, you know, obviouslythere's one-off situations and
you guys were super helpful withthat.
But like, what would be like astandard expectation of like a
hard money lender?
Like, how long if I go make anoffer tomorrow, like how long?
And I wanted to use a hard moneylender, like how long should I
put up my contract?
Seven to ten days, business daysis very realistic for us.
SPEAKER_02 (13:27):
Yeah.
Now that's on your goal.
Yeah, we have all your LSCdocuments, we've got your ID,
we've got, you know, the fewpaperwork that we require, we
can typically close within fivedays.
I'll tell you what slows us downis not our end, our team, or
what we have to do.
It's sometimes the closing firmor the insurance agent can't
quite get us the quote on time.
(13:48):
And we need those things toclose.
So it's interesting when aborrower applies today, they
automatically get an email thatfrom Rehab Wallet that says,
Have you talked to your closingfirm?
Have you found an insuranceagent?
Because if you want to closequicker, we can too.
What those are the things thatsometimes stop us.
So, yeah, uh a brand newborrower for us, seven to ten
(14:10):
business days.
It also helps them negotiate insome cases a lower price on that
purchase price because we canclose super quick, but we have.
It's interesting you mentionedyour loan, but we've closed a
loan in as little as eighthours.
Um, again, title was ready,right?
Insurance was ready, somebodyelse broke up with them.
We won't mention any but anynames, and then we came into the
(14:33):
rescue, and yeah, we were ableto fund it.
So our team is is great.
We take a lot of pride in that.
Um, we want our borrowers to beable to close, and we understand
that saves them time and money.
Um, you don't want to start, youdon't want to lose the deal,
then you lose your escrow.
We don't want you to, you know,potentially have an amendment uh
to the contract and then youknow have a new closing date and
(14:54):
then the sellers requesting moremoney down, you know, whatever
the case is.
So, yes, uh speed andflexibility is really critical
and important to us.
When someone fills out anapplication, our sales team and
and our loan originators, um,within 24 hours, we're going to
email you.
Whether we have questions aboutthe deal, we want to better
understand what you're trying todo and what you need and how do
(15:16):
we best structure it so that itmeets your needs.
Or, you know, here's your termsheet.
Let's go.
Let's get it going.
SPEAKER_01 (15:24):
Yeah.
And that's, I think that'simportant because I tell people
all the time like there's moreto an offer than just the price.
And sometimes the speed is whatwill set you apart.
You know, I always ask sellerslike what works best for them,
and I try to accommodate theirtimeline.
And honestly, some of it is likeI've had sellers that have
approached me and it's, youknow, somebody's left them at
(15:47):
the altar, so to speak, at theclosing table.
And, you know, so we do havethings like title, and it's easy
for me to get the insurance formy agent.
And so then I can confidentlysay, well, you know, hey, let
me, the deal makes sense.
Let me call this lender.
And then you guys come back andyou're like, yeah, okay, well,
you know, two days, and then Ican tell the seller, like, hey,
(16:07):
super quick here.
And they may be looking at twodifferent people's offers
because, you know, we knowthere's multiple investors out
there and multiple people makingoffers.
And it really helps set youroffer ahead of everyone when
you're you have that speedability.
Then maybe someone who's goingthrough a traditional bank loan
and they're like, okay, we'regoing to start over at like day
30.
And that person, you know, inthe back of their head, they're
(16:29):
going, Oh my God, I got to paythe lights for another 30 days.
I got to pay, you know, theinsurance, the taxes.
And maybe they don't have themoney.
A lot of times, you know, I dealwith people that have inherited
properties.
So are that they're foreclosing.
There is, there is a timelineand being able to be that
solution backed by, you know, anHML and like rehab wallet.
(16:49):
It just helps.
It makes a win-win foreverybody.
SPEAKER_02 (16:52):
Yeah.
And I'll tell you, we've alsotold borrowers from the
beginning or the get-go, like,that is not a great offer.
Um, I know that the seller'sagent is telling you it is the
deal of the year, but you'reoverpaying for that property.
Yeah.
Um, so we'll dig a little bitdeep on some of the most common
missed things that we arelearning because unfortunately,
(17:14):
there's just sometimes not a lotof great agents out there.
And that could really set apart,especially a brand new fix and
flipper to making money on theirfirst deal, or it being a really
learning opportunity.
SPEAKER_01 (17:26):
So yeah, I do see that a lot.
I know a lot of people thatlisten in know I'm an agent as
well as an investor.
Um, and that is something I seecommonly.
As people like agents willadvertise something as a great
investment opportunity, or I'llhave another investor call me,
or someone from our program willbe like, hey, this agent said
this was awesome.
I'm not taking anything awayfrom agents.
(17:48):
Uh, there are wonderful agentsout there who are really
fantastic at like yourtraditional, traditional bank
mortgage, traditional liketransaction.
Um, but maybe they don't havethe education on what goes into
the back end as far as thefinancing goes and the holding
costs and everything and trueconstruction costs.
So it's again, it's superawesome for borrowers that they
(18:10):
have your extra set of eyes andsuper expertise to kind of help
them because I unfortunately Ido see that a lot where people
have been led to believe thatsomething is a great investment.
They purchase it and then whenthey go to sell it, it's, you
know, they find out it wasn't.
SPEAKER_02 (18:25):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
So we, you know, we we loveguiding and supporting.
Um, we'll we'd love to fund it,but we want to make sure at the
end of the day that borrower isgonna walk away with a great
deal.
SPEAKER_01 (18:35):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So speaking of that, like fromyour perspective as a lender,
like when you're looking atdeals and evaluating them, what
helps you guys make thatdecision?
Like, do we fund this or do wenot fund this?
SPEAKER_02 (18:50):
Yeah.
So I think it's important tolook at your neighborhood,
right?
What's your next door neighbor?
What's the property across thestreet look like?
I think a lot of times we'llget, we call it wishful ARVs,
which stands for after repairvalue.
Like you really prayed hard thatthe after repair value comes at
this market.
We just had a deal that did notclose because you know, the ARV
(19:14):
the borrower gave us wassignificantly higher than what
our agent came in.
And when we asked of furtherdetails of how did you analyze
that ARV, they said, well, youknow, they gave us an address.
Well, let's look at that addressthat you based it on.
Well, that's a four-bedroom,three-bath, 2,200 square foot
home.
And you're buying athree-bedroom, two-bath, 1200
(19:37):
square foot from.
Like that's not comparing itapples to apples.
So, well, we don't have in-houseagents.
We do hire someone, it's a thirdparty.
You know, we do look atproperties to we want to make
sure that aligns, right?
We also don't fund in most cases100%.
So there is some skin in thegame uh from the borrowers.
If you're a first-time fix andflipper, we want you to bring
(19:59):
20% down of that purchase priceto the loan.
If you're inexperienced, meaningyou've done at least two deals
in the last two to three years,we want you to bring 10% in as a
down payment for just thepurchase price.
We'll still fund 100% forfirst-time fix and flippers.
We will only lend up to 65% ofthat loan to value.
(20:21):
If you're inexperienced, we'llgo a little bit higher, 70%.
So sometimes a lot of borrowersjust don't know how to calculate
that math, right?
So I love teaching it.
I love 100% teaching it.
Let's take that ARV that someonegave you, whether it's an agent
if you're working with an agent,or you came up with that number
yourself, you know, multiply ittimes 0.7 if you're experienced,
(20:45):
0.65 if you're not, minus yourrehab cost, whatever numbers
left should not exceed whatyou're offering on the purchase
price.
And if it's not there, thendon't make it be like don't push
the deal, right?
You can either go back to theseller and try to negotiate that
price because you have X amountof work that needs to be done,
or there's no comps that reallypush that ARV to a little bit
(21:09):
higher number where you knowthey're they're wanting to sell
that property for a highervalue, that it's just not there.
So I love teaching the mathaspect of it so that people
truly understand how tocalculate because it does help.
Another advice that I often tryto hear and listen to when I
talk to borrowers is do youalready have someone that's
(21:31):
going to be doing the work foryou?
If you're not a generalcontractor yourself, if you're
not in that industry somehowconnected, that's gotta be your
first step, right?
So you you want your lender, youwant to know who's gonna give
you the funds, but you also wantto know who's gonna do the work
for you.
And if you're not gonna put yourhands and you're gonna dig in
and do it yourself, that couldalso make or break your deal.
(21:53):
So we listen for that.
We listen, you know, we we askthose questions.
Do we require, you know, you touse a general contractor?
If it's your first deal, we do.
If it's your second or third, wedo not, but we still want to
know that you have thatrelationship.
We've talked in some cases somesome borrowers, and they're
like, Well, you know, 17 yearsago I used to fix it flip.
Well, you know, 17 years later,things have changed a little
(22:15):
bit, right?
So we want you to have thoserelationships kind of someone
you can pick up the phone.
And and realistically, sometimesyou break up with them too.
Sometimes you have to let go ofthat general contractor for A,
B, or C reason.
Well, who's your plan B?
Do you have a plan B?
Was plan A your only plan?
Because that slows down yourprogress, right?
(22:36):
Now you have to go find ageneral contractor or find some
subs to do some of the maybeunfinished work, and that delays
the time that you can finishyour project, which means it
delays the time that you canlist the property if your intent
is to flip it, which guess what?
Now you've you're paying extraholding cost, which means you're
paying extra fees to us becausewe signed a six-month term, but
(22:59):
now it's gonna take you ninemonths.
So some of those things I thinkit's important when someone's
interested in going to getstarted, right?
Um, yes, you got to set up yourLLC.
Yes, you have to have yourbusiness account.
Yes, you have to find out who'sgonna give you the loan, but
it's as equally important tofind somebody that's gonna do
the work.
SPEAKER_01 (23:18):
Yeah, absolutely.
And like one of the things thatwe teach really heavy on is what
we call our go criteria.
And we teach women how to usedata to look at like where is
the median price point?
What are buyers buying, likeconfiguration-wise, square foot,
bedroom, bathroom, so that whenwe put our houses on the market,
(23:40):
like they're a desirable housein a price point that people are
purchasing in.
And we also talk a lot aboutcomps.
We do a lot of education on howto pull proper, like I love that
you used apples to apples,because that's kind of our
phrase.
We're like, listen, they've gotto be as close as possible, like
square footage, age, bedrooms,bathrooms, finishes, like to
(24:04):
what you're gonna put when youput it on the market.
So I love that you kind ofmentioned that because it'll,
you know, hopefully when peoplehear me say it now, they're
gonna be like, it's not justflair.
SPEAKER_02 (24:13):
No, really.
I mean, I don't believe it.
We we, you know, we base ourlending decision on that asset
and on that after repair value.
So if that number is way off,two things could happen, and
neither you want.
One, you need to bring moremoney to closing because your
down payment just doubled insome cases, or two, deals off.
(24:37):
So neither one of them arereally great.
So you want to make sure thatafter repair value, gosh, if we
could do a whole class on afterrepair value and how to
calculate it because it's it'sso critical, right?
The agents want to sell theproperty.
So, in some cases, they're gonnatell you a lot of things that
you just need to check andverify.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (24:55):
Yeah, absolutely.
And I love that you mentionedthat you kind of are willing to
help with the math portion.
Math has never been my strongpoint at all.
And I I kind of understood whenI first started, but like when
you start throwing in like loanto value, and then you're adding
an ARV and like loan to ARV, andI was like, oh my gosh, like
swimmy head.
(25:16):
I was not lucky enough.
I don't know that you guys werearound when I did my first flip.
And I actually had a terribleexperience at close.
I ended up needing a lot moremoney than they had originally
told me.
And because it was a commercialloan product, like they didn't
have to give me the CD threedays or closing disclosure with
all the information on it.
So I was told one thing on aThursday evening, I showed up
(25:38):
Friday clothes, and the attorneywas like, oh no, you need like
$9,000 more.
And I was like, well, but why?
Like, but they had not properlytalked me through the math.
And then once, you know,somebody did, I was like, oh,
okay.
Now, luckily, I was luckyenough.
I had a private lender whohelped me fill in the gap there
(25:59):
and everything turned out well.
But for like a lot of people,that would be a make or break
moment.
And they would be like out ofthe deal, you know, especially I
love that you guys do it earlyand up front and are willing to
educate because I think that'ssuch an important conversation
just so that people understandlike, hey, what am I what do I
need to come to the table with?
Can I come to the table withthat?
Um, and if I can't, then I needto go renegotiate my deal until
(26:23):
it makes sense.
SPEAKER_02 (26:25):
Yes, 100%.
And I'll tell you, Rehab Wallethas been around for five and a
half years.
We haven't always lended tofirst-time fix and flippers.
We just started this program in2025.
And the reason we do it now isbecause so many of us are
investors ourselves.
So we understand it.
We can hold your hand, we canguide you a little bit more.
(26:45):
But I'll tell you, I will have,I don't know, six, seven text
conversations per day withfirst-time fix and flippers that
have not yet applied for a loan.
They're looking, they're walkingproperties with their agents,
and they'll send me, Susie,here's the address, here's what
they're offering, or here's whatthey want for the property,
here's what I want to offer.
And I will text them back andtell them here's what your
(27:05):
monthly interest payments willlook like, here's about what
your closing costs will looklike.
And I will tell them there's nomeat in that bone.
Like you next.
You have seven on the list, thatone's not it.
So I think sometimes it's okayto ask for help, right?
Because you don't want to sign acontract or get under contract
(27:26):
or put an offer down, and thenthat's not a properly a property
that we would probably lend to.
So I love running numbers,especially for my first time
fixing flippers and being ableto help them and guide them.
You know, there's so manyquestions and they hear so many
different things.
And you will sometimes attend alot of REI meetings or belong to
a lot of groups, and sometimesyou just I don't know who to
(27:47):
listen to.
So I love to be able to closesome of those gaps and just do
the numbers.
I I didn't major in math, butI've always been in business in
some capacity.
So I I numbers I can do it withmy eyes closed.
SPEAKER_01 (28:01):
Yeah, and that's one of the things that we encourage
our students to do.
And like go talk to the expert.
And it's okay to be afirst-timer and it's okay to ask
questions.
Like that is they want to earnyour business.
And, you know, it needs to be wewe always talk about
relationships.
But like, so let's talk a littlebit.
I'm so excited that you guysdecided to offer a program for
(28:22):
first-time flippers.
Again, you know, shameless plughere.
I just think that you guys areawesome.
So to be able to hand offfirst-time flippers to you for
me is just really amazing.
Um, but for someone who iscoming to you, as I'm, hey, I'm
new, I've never flipped a housebefore, like, how can they
(28:42):
present themselves and the dealthat they're looking at like in
the best light?
Like, what would you, whatadvice would you give to
somebody to come across as, youknow, somebody that you'd want
to continue that conversationwith?
SPEAKER_02 (28:56):
Yes.
So I'll tell you first what wedon't want because of those
coming easy, right?
So we don't want someone thatsays, I have a property, I want
to buy it.
And when I start askingquestions like, what are you
gonna offer and what is yourrehab budget?
Then we get a blank stare or ablank response of, I have no
idea how much the rehab's goingto be, right?
(29:18):
So you want to, when you look ata property and you walk it
through, you know, get thosequotes, have that relationship,
understand about how much workneeds to be done to that
property, because that valuewill also be added into the
loan.
So, as important as your afterrepair value is, we want to know
that you understand about whatyour scope of work would look
(29:38):
like.
Big difference if you'rebudgeting$50,000 and then the
project ends up being$85,000.
Well, once the loan is closedwith rehab wallet, we can't give
you that difference.
Then that will have to eitherhalt your project or you'll have
to come up with the money someother creative way.
So a lot of times I like to hearfrom a first Time fix and
(30:00):
flipper that they're workingwith an agent, that they know
who the general contractor isgoing to be, or someone that
they're going to partner.
Sometimes they can partner withsomeone that has done a deal, or
um, someone that's gonna guidethem, right?
So, you know, I'm my buddy, he'snot gonna be on the deed, he's
not gonna be on the loan, buthe's done, you know, a handful,
or they have this mentorship,and I have someone that I'm
(30:22):
working with that can keep aclose eye with me and help me
understand some of these umpotential hiccups and obstacles
and risks that will probablyhappen, most likely, on your
first deal because you don'tknow what you don't know.
So a lot of times I just wantthem to understand one, we are a
hard money lender, we can closequickly, but we are relying on
(30:44):
you to tell me what you know,meaning that after repair value,
we based our loan on that dis onthat number, right?
We based our decision on theasset itself.
So we're gonna look at thatproperty.
So know who your neighbors, youknow, if there's a property next
door to you that's a total dump,that I don't know, just a dump,
you know, it's gonna make yoursto sell a little bit harder.
(31:08):
So knowing that up front isgonna be important.
And then again, buying aproperty that's on sale and not
for sale.
Don't get excited that, oh myGod, I just got a deal and I
think it's a great one.
Is it really a great one?
Or are you just interestedbecause the house came out on
the market?
Um, don't fall in love withthese properties.
If your intent is to fix andflip them or rent them, you're
(31:28):
not gonna live in it.
So don't fall in love.
Go find that property and thatdeal that is truly on sale and
not for sale.
But again, I can't stress thenumbers, right?
That 70% rule or 65% rule, dothe reverse math and truly
understand are you overpaying orunderpaying for that property?
SPEAKER_01 (31:46):
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, that's such greatadvice.
And I think you also kind ofsummarize some pitfalls that
you've seen from, you know, newflippers, some season flippers,
I'm sure.
So speaking of, we've actuallykind of done some funny play on
words here a lot with likemarriage and wedding dress and
the ring, and I love it.
(32:07):
Um, because I do tell peoplelike this is a relationship
business, and you want to builda relationship with the lender
that does start from that firstphone call.
So thank you for sharing, youknow, how people who are
reaching out to you for thefirst time as a first-time
flipper, you know, can open thedoor to that relationship.
So let's say, like, okay, I didmy first, my first flip and I'm
(32:29):
looking to move forward and Iwant to do more.
You know, do you have any adviceto give investors about building
like a long-term relationshipwith hard money lenders?
Um, because like as you'vepointed out, and what I love
about hard money lenders isy'all don't run out of money.
Um when we're when we're talkingabout scaling or you're doing
two or three projects at a time,you know, that's where hard
(32:52):
money lenders are just such agreat asset to have because of
that portion.
Yeah.
So kind of talk to me a littlebit about that.
Like, what does it look likewhen you want to move forward
with somebody, or maybe evenlike what did they do in their
loan that makes you not want tomove forward with them?
SPEAKER_02 (33:09):
Sure.
Yeah, I think, you know,communication is key from the
get-go, right?
And it goes with our saying ofdo what you say you're gonna do
and don't just sugarcoat certainthings at the beginning, right?
If you tell us you're gonna adda bedroom to that house, then
add a bedroom to the house.
If you say you're going to makeyour monthly interest payments,
then don't be late on yourmonthly interest payments.
(33:31):
If you say you're going to exitthe loan in six months, then
exit the loan in six months.
So a lot of times it's just dowhat you say that you're gonna
do because we do check andbalance that at the at on the
back end.
But you know, for us, someonethat does a first-time fix and
flip loan with us and they exitthat one successfully, they
automatically graduate to ourbetter terms.
(33:52):
So you no longer have to put 20%down.
Now you can only put 10% down,and now you're not limited to
one deal with rehab wallet.
Now you can do multiple deals atthe same time.
So that's that's critical for usbecause we do, you know, you
from your draws, um, which Idon't know that we talked a lot
about the draw process, how wehold that rehab budget as as in
(34:15):
our escrow and it's released asdraws, right?
So we use a third-party app now.
You're not waiting on athird-party inspection.
A lot of hard money lendersschedule an agent to come in to
inspect the work that you did.
We don't do that.
We understand the value, andKelly Garrett understands the
value and has instilled that inus that the relationship that
(34:36):
you start and that you keep withyour general contractor or your
subs is so important.
But the best way they break upwith you is you don't pay them.
Absolutely.
We don't want to hold thosefunds.
So, you know, scheduling aninspection like a lot of hard
money lenders do delays yougetting that payment.
So we don't need, we don't dothat.
We use a third-party app, youdownload that app into your
(34:59):
phone, you take pictures of whatyou have completed, you submit
that via email, and then boom,next business day, you get your
funds deposited into youraccount.
So a lot of times I like to tellmy borrowers submit that on a
Thursday morning, you will haveyour funds eight o'clock on
Friday morning.
And now you can pay your team,you can keep the project going.
Because what a lot ofcontractors do is if you don't
(35:21):
pay me today, I'm taking anotherjob on Monday because I need to
keep my crew paid, right?
So we don't want to damage thatrelationship.
That's critical for us, and weknow it's critical for you to,
you know, ultimately exit theloan successfully.
SPEAKER_01 (35:35):
Yes.
Yeah, absolutely.
Um, well, Susie, thank you somuch for being here with us
today and kind of reallyintroducing our audience to, you
know, not only hard moneylenders and kind of answering
some questions, but also rehabwallet um in yourself because
you're wonderful in yourself andyou're you're just so great to
talk to and you do such a greatjob of educating.
(35:57):
And I think people, I reallywant to lean on that and let
people know how important thatis because there are lenders out
there who don't care.
And they will just take yourmoney and they will see you in
12, six months, nine months.
They'll foreclose on your house.
They don't care.
Like they're like, oh, sorry,that was your bad decision to
buy that house.
So I love that you guys offerthat sort of you know
(36:17):
partnership in a way and nurturethat relationship moving
forward, and everyone'ssuccessful and it's just it's a
win-win.
So I just, it's so cool.
SPEAKER_02 (36:27):
Thank you.
Yeah, I mean, we take a lot ofpride.
We don't unfortunately, morefortunately, lend in all states.
Um, we purposely stay prettylocal.
So we do, you know, handful ofstates, North, South Carolina,
Georgia, Virginia.
We just added Tennessee andcertain areas in Ohio.
But yeah, anybody within ourteam, you can pick up the phone
and we will answer.
(36:48):
So you don't have to press twoto then go to three to then
press four to then realize I'velost where the heck I'm supposed
to press things.
Like one of us will pick up thephone.
SPEAKER_01 (36:57):
So yeah, that's so awesome.
Well, again, thank you so much.
I really appreciate you.
Thank you.
All right, and thank you so muchfor joining us today on the Flip
House's Like a Girl podcast.
I hope you found someinspiration and practical
takeaways from Susie'sinterview.
Remember, every successful flipstarts with one brave decision
(37:21):
to get in the game.
And you don't have to do italone.
If you're ready to take the nextstep forward, flipping your
first house, we'd love for youto learn more about the Flip
Sisters program.
It's the leading coachingprogram and community designed
specifically for women acrossthe country who are ready to
flip houses in their localmarkets.
(37:42):
To connect with us, check outthe program, or to just get
inspired by more stories likethis one, visit us at
www.theflipsisters.com.
And as always, thank you forlistening, subscribing, and
sharing this podcast with otherwomen who are ready to step into
the world of flipping houses.
Until next time, keep going,keep growing, and remember, you
(38:05):
absolutely can do this.
You're listening to the Flip Houses Like the Girl
podcast, where we educate,empower, and celebrate everyday
women who are facing theirfears, doubling family and
business, embracing theiraudience, and wholeheartedly
facing their dream of flippinghouses.
Each episode delivers honest andgoodness tools, tips, and
(00:21):
strategies you can implementtoday to get closer to your
first or next successful houseflip.
SPEAKER_01 (00:32):
Welcome back to Flip Houses Like a Girl podcast.
This is the show where wehighlight real stories of
everyday women who are learningto flip houses and create
freedom for themselves and theirfamilies.
I'm Blair, one of the coacheshere with the Flip Sisters.
I've been flipping houses forsix years and have done 30
(00:52):
flips.
Today we're excited to introduceyou to Susie.
Susie is the sales manager withmy favorite hard money lender,
Rehab Wallet.
Rehab Wallet is a hard moneylender based in Charleston,
South Carolina.
They are my personal favoritehard money lender because they
are so easy to work with.
The company was founded by areal estate investor who kind of
(01:16):
just got tired of all the extraunnecessary paperwork and hoops
that other hard money lendersmade investors go through.
Oh, and don't let me forget tomention the founder Kelly
Garrett is a badass lady.
And the current team isprimarily almost all women, and
all of them are 100% badass.
(01:40):
So let's go ahead and dive in.
I know a lot of you listeningwould love to know how are the
ladies on your podcast and yourprogram funding these flips?
I know I personally had no moneyor credit when I started.
So I know it was one of thebiggest hurdles for me to get
over mentally when I started toflip houses.
(02:01):
Learning about hard moneylenders or HMLs for short will
hopefully get you to see thereare lenders out there that want
to lend you money and work withyou.
So, Susie, thank you so much forjoining me today.
I'm so excited that you're hereand can't wait to dive in and
ask you some of our listeners'burning questions.
SPEAKER_02 (02:23):
Awesome.
Thank you so much, Blair, forhaving me.
I am delighted and reallyhonored to just be here and be
able to share some of the tipsand tricks that I've learned
over the years.
A lot of people are not familiarwith hard money lender, so would
love to just share a little bitof what we do and how we do it.
SPEAKER_01 (02:39):
Awesome.
Well, thank you again so muchfor being here.
Um, so first let's do a littlebit of education, right?
Like we hear the term hard moneyloans, hard money lending, HMLs.
But like for someone who's brandnew to real estate investing,
how would you explain what ahard money lender is and how
that's different from, say, likegoing to my local bank and
(03:02):
getting a loan for a home?
SPEAKER_02 (03:04):
Great question.
I get this a lot.
Regardless of how experiencedsometimes a borrower is or an
investor is, whether they'vedone some deals and pay for it
cash and now they're looking toscale or someone brand new
looking to get started.
They sometimes have had zeroexperience with a hard money
lender.
So I love sharing what we do andhow we compare.
(03:26):
So most people have heard what atraditional lender is, your Bank
of America, your Wells Fargo,your local banks.
They are probably going to beyour lower interest rates, 30 to
45-day closings, a lot ofpaperwork.
And I mean a lot of paperwork.
And again, I can't stressenough, a lot of paperwork.
(03:46):
Typically, minimum credit score,that will determine your rates,
or in some cases, an immediatedenial based on just you don't
meet the minimum creditrequirement.
Some people might have heardwhat a private lender is, and
they're a little bit different,uh, less time on closing,
sometimes 14 to 21 days, alittle bit less paperwork than
(04:08):
your traditional, you know, Bankof America, uh Wells Fargo guys
most of the time do require aminimum credit score.
But one of the things we havefound with a lot of private
lenders or private money lendersis they run out of funds.
So someone either looking to dotheir first deal or you know
what, I have three or four Ineed money for.
(04:28):
We kind of call those guys, youknow, they left me stranded at
the altar.
So I went, you know, I'm ready.
I've got the address and thering.
And I I, anyways, they they dosometimes run out of funds.
So a hard money lender for us,we don't pull credit.
There's no income, no assetverification.
And I get a lot of times peopleasking, Susie, do you really not
pull credit?
Or do you do a soft pull insteadof a hard pull?
(04:51):
No, we really don't even havethe system capacity to be able
to pull credit.
Beginning, middle, or end, wewill not ask you for your social
security number.
Uh, we don't even lend toindividuals, we lend to
entities.
So, no, we do not pull credit.
Very little paperwork for a hardmoney lender, especially us.
(05:11):
So we don't pull your bankstatements, we don't require
your W-2s.
Sometimes I'll get clients thatsend me a whole file and they're
like, I just had this preparedfor the last lender.
So I'll just send you that.
And I'm like, oh gosh, pleasedon't.
Um I don't want all of that.
So we're a lot easier to workwith.
We don't run out of funds.
(05:31):
We have we have plenty of moneyto go around, but you know, and
I like to be honest on thedifference between your
traditional, your private, andyour hard money.
Traditionals, you're gonna pay alittle bit less interest rates,
right?
Even though right now less isstill a lot.
Um, hard money, you're gonna paya little bit higher interest
rates.
So it depends on what you arelooking for.
So I often talk to a lot of ourclients and say whether you have
(05:54):
excellent credit and you don'twant people pulling it because
you're gonna close on five, sixdeals a year and you don't want
someone pulling it that often.
Or you're working on rebuildingyour credit and you're just
right about that 670, 675 tobecome really attractive and you
don't need anybody pulling it.
Either way, like I said, wedon't have a way to pull those
credits.
So that's the main differencebetween working with a hard
(06:16):
money lender is just the ease ofbeing able to close and we work
with investors.
That's what we do.
We don't lend to individuals.
So we're looking to help thoseinterested in ideally fix and
flip loans.
SPEAKER_01 (06:29):
Yeah, and that's one of the things that like I
personally love about workingwith you guys is that you do
understand, like from the otherside of the table, you
understand what it's like to bean investor.
Most entrepreneurs, we hatepaperwork.
Like if you hand me a wholestack of paper and you want me
to fill it out, I'm probablylike not gonna do it or I'm
gonna wait till the last minutebecause I have to.
(06:51):
So I love that your loan processis so easy.
I literally, for those of youwho are looking into it, I go
online, I fill out a form, andthey get back to me.
It's it's very minimalinformation.
And also the no credit thing ishuge.
I think a lot of people getstuck in that like people's
credit scores equates to liketheir, I don't know, worthiness
or something.
And I took people it's 2025 andlike COVID happened and things
(07:15):
happen, and you may havesomething like I went through a
divorce, which is why my creditgot like crashed because my
ex-husband just thought youcould spend money, you know.
And I was like, well, we gotbills, but you know, like hold
on a second.
So I had to rebuild mine.
It didn't make me a badinvestor, it didn't make me a
bad borrower.
And so I love that you guys areasset-based and that you're
(07:35):
looking at like the projectitself, because uh that's just
to me, is puts you heads above alot of people.
SPEAKER_02 (07:42):
Um yeah, and you mentioned Kelly Garrett as our
you know main founder and andmanaging partner.
Um, she fix and flip homes for18 years in Charleston.
And um, she took all that redtape that a lot of her lenders
would use on her and said, man,this is just a lot of work.
Um, so and that's how she builtuh really wallet.
(08:03):
And most of us, you'll find ourinvestors ourselves, whether we
buy and hold or we fix and flipourselves.
So I think it helps that youhave a team that Kelly has
handpicked and built around herthat we all can see and can help
and can guide an investor withintheir journey.
We have 85% return investor ratefor a reason.
(08:24):
People like us.
You know, we care about therelationship.
It's not a transaction to us.
It's really we want them to besuccessful.
We don't want the property back.
So if a hard money lender or ifrehab wallet tells you no, don't
do that deal, you probablyshouldn't do that deal.
And we'll explain why.
We'll explain, you know, so andwe'll we'll dig deep a little
bit into those things.
SPEAKER_01 (08:45):
Yeah.
And that's I tell people that'sso awesome too to have like that
extra set of eyes.
It's not that you're trying tolike kill the deal, so to speak.
It's you're just making sureit's solvent.
And for me, especially like, youknow, when you're a first-time
flipper, or like maybe you'vedone one, and honestly, there's
a lot of people out there whojust who've done one or two and
got lucky, and now we're like,okay, now we're trying it, it's
helpful.
(09:05):
So you mentioned somethingearlier.
I know it's a hot topic aroundthe water cooler, is interest
rates.
But there's so much more to aloan structure than interest
rates.
Can you kind of talk us througha little bit about like loan
structure and terms as far as ahard money loan goes for an
investment property?
SPEAKER_02 (09:25):
Yes, absolutely.
And I think it's important foryou know the audience to
understand don't get stuck onthat interest rate, right?
First of all, it's annualized.
So if it is a, you know, for usat Rehab Wallet, a standard
rate, because we don't collectanything, in fact, don't give us
anything, you know, it's alittle high.
But you're gonna take thatamount, you're gonna multiply it
(09:47):
by that interest rate and divideit by 12.
And that's what your monthlyinterest payment will be every
single month.
People look at a hard moneyinterest rate at 1375.
It's for us a standard six-monthloan, and they're like, oh my
gosh, it's so high.
You know, your traditional banksare at six or seven percent,
you're paying twice as much.
Yeah, but the duration of theloan's only gonna be six months.
(10:10):
And, you know, if let's assumeyou close today, you're gonna
skip the first month and thenyou're gonna pay the second
month.
So we've had success where someborrowers exit us way before the
term of the loan.
There's no prepaid penalties,you can exit at any time.
And I think sometimes that justcreates a little of anxiety or
maybe some confusion wherepeople are like, you know, I
(10:31):
just don't want a loan for yearsat a 13475.
And we have to say we don'teither.
We're gonna break up at sixmonths.
Where the loan value, but it'snot long term.
Yeah.
Yeah, this is not a long-termgoal.
This is, you know, our goal isto help you find a great deal
that makes sense that you'regonna purchase the property,
(10:52):
it's gonna be on sale and notfor sale.
You're gonna make some money atthe beginning, and then you're
gonna exit us.
And if your goal is to flip itand take the profit and use the
capital for another investmentor keep it as a long-term
rental, that's that's up to you.
But we're we're done after sixor nine months.
We're we helped you do it.
We helped you rehab it now, itbecomes a very attractive
(11:14):
property to either sell orrefinance that with a long-term
lender.
SPEAKER_01 (11:19):
Nice.
And I loved your explanation ofit being annualized because I
think that's a key part thatmost people miss.
And plus, I like to remindborrowers too like you have to
pay something, right?
Like someone is offering you alarge sum of money for you then
to turn around and use it, andthen you make a large sum of
(11:40):
money to take home.
So it's to me, it's more thanfair to pay an interest rate so
that I can then turn around andmake a large sum of money.
Like it's a total win-win forme.
And especially when you guysbroke it down and explained it,
it's annualized.
And then you kind of realized,oh, cool.
So, like, you know, if it's 12months annualized, but I only
have the house for three to sixmonths, I'm really only paying
(12:01):
half of that.
So I'm kind of right there wherethe bank was anyway.
And I had all these pluses.
One of those major pluses is thespeed and flexibility.
I'm gonna kind of like ask thisquestion, but also give a
scenario because you kind ofmentioned it earlier and you
guys were awesome and helped meout in a situation.
(12:21):
I had a private money lender whodrew out the morning of clothes.
Uh, they decided that they werejust not comfortable with the
situation.
You know, they may not haveactually had all the funds.
I don't know.
But all I know is I was, youknow, on my way to the closing
table and I didn't have themoney for the close.
So I reached out to Rehab Walletand you guys actually, I think,
(12:44):
turned it around in like 24, 48hours.
Like it was so fast.
And so knowing that I have thatability, especially when I go to
even to make offers, like I'llalways kind of make a buffer
because again, pay like I haveto do things, right?
But you guys are and hard moneylenders in general are usually
have like speed and flexibility.
To me, that's one of the bigdraws.
(13:06):
So, like, you know, obviouslythere's one-off situations and
you guys were super helpful withthat.
But like, what would be like astandard expectation of like a
hard money lender?
Like, how long if I go make anoffer tomorrow, like how long?
And I wanted to use a hard moneylender, like how long should I
put up my contract?
Seven to ten days, business daysis very realistic for us.
SPEAKER_02 (13:27):
Yeah.
Now that's on your goal.
Yeah, we have all your LSCdocuments, we've got your ID,
we've got, you know, the fewpaperwork that we require, we
can typically close within fivedays.
I'll tell you what slows us downis not our end, our team, or
what we have to do.
It's sometimes the closing firmor the insurance agent can't
quite get us the quote on time.
(13:48):
And we need those things toclose.
So it's interesting when aborrower applies today, they
automatically get an email thatfrom Rehab Wallet that says,
Have you talked to your closingfirm?
Have you found an insuranceagent?
Because if you want to closequicker, we can too.
What those are the things thatsometimes stop us.
So, yeah, uh a brand newborrower for us, seven to ten
(14:10):
business days.
It also helps them negotiate insome cases a lower price on that
purchase price because we canclose super quick, but we have.
It's interesting you mentionedyour loan, but we've closed a
loan in as little as eighthours.
Um, again, title was ready,right?
Insurance was ready, somebodyelse broke up with them.
We won't mention any but anynames, and then we came into the
(14:33):
rescue, and yeah, we were ableto fund it.
So our team is is great.
We take a lot of pride in that.
Um, we want our borrowers to beable to close, and we understand
that saves them time and money.
Um, you don't want to start, youdon't want to lose the deal,
then you lose your escrow.
We don't want you to, you know,potentially have an amendment uh
to the contract and then youknow have a new closing date and
(14:54):
then the sellers requesting moremoney down, you know, whatever
the case is.
So, yes, uh speed andflexibility is really critical
and important to us.
When someone fills out anapplication, our sales team and
and our loan originators, um,within 24 hours, we're going to
email you.
Whether we have questions aboutthe deal, we want to better
understand what you're trying todo and what you need and how do
(15:16):
we best structure it so that itmeets your needs.
Or, you know, here's your termsheet.
Let's go.
Let's get it going.
SPEAKER_01 (15:24):
Yeah.
And that's, I think that'simportant because I tell people
all the time like there's moreto an offer than just the price.
And sometimes the speed is whatwill set you apart.
You know, I always ask sellerslike what works best for them,
and I try to accommodate theirtimeline.
And honestly, some of it is likeI've had sellers that have
approached me and it's, youknow, somebody's left them at
(15:47):
the altar, so to speak, at theclosing table.
And, you know, so we do havethings like title, and it's easy
for me to get the insurance formy agent.
And so then I can confidentlysay, well, you know, hey, let
me, the deal makes sense.
Let me call this lender.
And then you guys come back andyou're like, yeah, okay, well,
you know, two days, and then Ican tell the seller, like, hey,
(16:07):
super quick here.
And they may be looking at twodifferent people's offers
because, you know, we knowthere's multiple investors out
there and multiple people makingoffers.
And it really helps set youroffer ahead of everyone when
you're you have that speedability.
Then maybe someone who's goingthrough a traditional bank loan
and they're like, okay, we'regoing to start over at like day
30.
And that person, you know, inthe back of their head, they're
(16:29):
going, Oh my God, I got to paythe lights for another 30 days.
I got to pay, you know, theinsurance, the taxes.
And maybe they don't have themoney.
A lot of times, you know, I dealwith people that have inherited
properties.
So are that they're foreclosing.
There is, there is a timelineand being able to be that
solution backed by, you know, anHML and like rehab wallet.
(16:49):
It just helps.
It makes a win-win foreverybody.
SPEAKER_02 (16:52):
Yeah.
And I'll tell you, we've alsotold borrowers from the
beginning or the get-go, like,that is not a great offer.
Um, I know that the seller'sagent is telling you it is the
deal of the year, but you'reoverpaying for that property.
Yeah.
Um, so we'll dig a little bitdeep on some of the most common
missed things that we arelearning because unfortunately,
(17:14):
there's just sometimes not a lotof great agents out there.
And that could really set apart,especially a brand new fix and
flipper to making money on theirfirst deal, or it being a really
learning opportunity.
SPEAKER_01 (17:26):
So yeah, I do see that a lot.
I know a lot of people thatlisten in know I'm an agent as
well as an investor.
Um, and that is something I seecommonly.
As people like agents willadvertise something as a great
investment opportunity, or I'llhave another investor call me,
or someone from our program willbe like, hey, this agent said
this was awesome.
I'm not taking anything awayfrom agents.
(17:48):
Uh, there are wonderful agentsout there who are really
fantastic at like yourtraditional, traditional bank
mortgage, traditional liketransaction.
Um, but maybe they don't havethe education on what goes into
the back end as far as thefinancing goes and the holding
costs and everything and trueconstruction costs.
So it's again, it's superawesome for borrowers that they
(18:10):
have your extra set of eyes andsuper expertise to kind of help
them because I unfortunately Ido see that a lot where people
have been led to believe thatsomething is a great investment.
They purchase it and then whenthey go to sell it, it's, you
know, they find out it wasn't.
SPEAKER_02 (18:25):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
So we, you know, we we loveguiding and supporting.
Um, we'll we'd love to fund it,but we want to make sure at the
end of the day that borrower isgonna walk away with a great
deal.
SPEAKER_01 (18:35):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So speaking of that, like fromyour perspective as a lender,
like when you're looking atdeals and evaluating them, what
helps you guys make thatdecision?
Like, do we fund this or do wenot fund this?
SPEAKER_02 (18:50):
Yeah.
So I think it's important tolook at your neighborhood,
right?
What's your next door neighbor?
What's the property across thestreet look like?
I think a lot of times we'llget, we call it wishful ARVs,
which stands for after repairvalue.
Like you really prayed hard thatthe after repair value comes at
this market.
We just had a deal that did notclose because you know, the ARV
(19:14):
the borrower gave us wassignificantly higher than what
our agent came in.
And when we asked of furtherdetails of how did you analyze
that ARV, they said, well, youknow, they gave us an address.
Well, let's look at that addressthat you based it on.
Well, that's a four-bedroom,three-bath, 2,200 square foot
home.
And you're buying athree-bedroom, two-bath, 1200
(19:37):
square foot from.
Like that's not comparing itapples to apples.
So, well, we don't have in-houseagents.
We do hire someone, it's a thirdparty.
You know, we do look atproperties to we want to make
sure that aligns, right?
We also don't fund in most cases100%.
So there is some skin in thegame uh from the borrowers.
If you're a first-time fix andflipper, we want you to bring
(19:59):
20% down of that purchase priceto the loan.
If you're inexperienced, meaningyou've done at least two deals
in the last two to three years,we want you to bring 10% in as a
down payment for just thepurchase price.
We'll still fund 100% forfirst-time fix and flippers.
We will only lend up to 65% ofthat loan to value.
(20:21):
If you're inexperienced, we'llgo a little bit higher, 70%.
So sometimes a lot of borrowersjust don't know how to calculate
that math, right?
So I love teaching it.
I love 100% teaching it.
Let's take that ARV that someonegave you, whether it's an agent
if you're working with an agent,or you came up with that number
yourself, you know, multiply ittimes 0.7 if you're experienced,
(20:45):
0.65 if you're not, minus yourrehab cost, whatever numbers
left should not exceed whatyou're offering on the purchase
price.
And if it's not there, thendon't make it be like don't push
the deal, right?
You can either go back to theseller and try to negotiate that
price because you have X amountof work that needs to be done,
or there's no comps that reallypush that ARV to a little bit
(21:09):
higher number where you knowthey're they're wanting to sell
that property for a highervalue, that it's just not there.
So I love teaching the mathaspect of it so that people
truly understand how tocalculate because it does help.
Another advice that I often tryto hear and listen to when I
talk to borrowers is do youalready have someone that's
(21:31):
going to be doing the work foryou?
If you're not a generalcontractor yourself, if you're
not in that industry somehowconnected, that's gotta be your
first step, right?
So you you want your lender, youwant to know who's gonna give
you the funds, but you also wantto know who's gonna do the work
for you.
And if you're not gonna put yourhands and you're gonna dig in
and do it yourself, that couldalso make or break your deal.
(21:53):
So we listen for that.
We listen, you know, we we askthose questions.
Do we require, you know, you touse a general contractor?
If it's your first deal, we do.
If it's your second or third, wedo not, but we still want to
know that you have thatrelationship.
We've talked in some cases somesome borrowers, and they're
like, Well, you know, 17 yearsago I used to fix it flip.
Well, you know, 17 years later,things have changed a little
(22:15):
bit, right?
So we want you to have thoserelationships kind of someone
you can pick up the phone.
And and realistically, sometimesyou break up with them too.
Sometimes you have to let go ofthat general contractor for A,
B, or C reason.
Well, who's your plan B?
Do you have a plan B?
Was plan A your only plan?
Because that slows down yourprogress, right?
(22:36):
Now you have to go find ageneral contractor or find some
subs to do some of the maybeunfinished work, and that delays
the time that you can finishyour project, which means it
delays the time that you canlist the property if your intent
is to flip it, which guess what?
Now you've you're paying extraholding cost, which means you're
paying extra fees to us becausewe signed a six-month term, but
(22:59):
now it's gonna take you ninemonths.
So some of those things I thinkit's important when someone's
interested in going to getstarted, right?
Um, yes, you got to set up yourLLC.
Yes, you have to have yourbusiness account.
Yes, you have to find out who'sgonna give you the loan, but
it's as equally important tofind somebody that's gonna do
the work.
SPEAKER_01 (23:18):
Yeah, absolutely.
And like one of the things thatwe teach really heavy on is what
we call our go criteria.
And we teach women how to usedata to look at like where is
the median price point?
What are buyers buying, likeconfiguration-wise, square foot,
bedroom, bathroom, so that whenwe put our houses on the market,
(23:40):
like they're a desirable housein a price point that people are
purchasing in.
And we also talk a lot aboutcomps.
We do a lot of education on howto pull proper, like I love that
you used apples to apples,because that's kind of our
phrase.
We're like, listen, they've gotto be as close as possible, like
square footage, age, bedrooms,bathrooms, finishes, like to
(24:04):
what you're gonna put when youput it on the market.
So I love that you kind ofmentioned that because it'll,
you know, hopefully when peoplehear me say it now, they're
gonna be like, it's not justflair.
SPEAKER_02 (24:13):
No, really.
I mean, I don't believe it.
We we, you know, we base ourlending decision on that asset
and on that after repair value.
So if that number is way off,two things could happen, and
neither you want.
One, you need to bring moremoney to closing because your
down payment just doubled insome cases, or two, deals off.
(24:37):
So neither one of them arereally great.
So you want to make sure thatafter repair value, gosh, if we
could do a whole class on afterrepair value and how to
calculate it because it's it'sso critical, right?
The agents want to sell theproperty.
So, in some cases, they're gonnatell you a lot of things that
you just need to check andverify.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (24:55):
Yeah, absolutely.
And I love that you mentionedthat you kind of are willing to
help with the math portion.
Math has never been my strongpoint at all.
And I I kind of understood whenI first started, but like when
you start throwing in like loanto value, and then you're adding
an ARV and like loan to ARV, andI was like, oh my gosh, like
swimmy head.
(25:16):
I was not lucky enough.
I don't know that you guys werearound when I did my first flip.
And I actually had a terribleexperience at close.
I ended up needing a lot moremoney than they had originally
told me.
And because it was a commercialloan product, like they didn't
have to give me the CD threedays or closing disclosure with
all the information on it.
So I was told one thing on aThursday evening, I showed up
(25:38):
Friday clothes, and the attorneywas like, oh no, you need like
$9,000 more.
And I was like, well, but why?
Like, but they had not properlytalked me through the math.
And then once, you know,somebody did, I was like, oh,
okay.
Now, luckily, I was luckyenough.
I had a private lender whohelped me fill in the gap there
(25:59):
and everything turned out well.
But for like a lot of people,that would be a make or break
moment.
And they would be like out ofthe deal, you know, especially I
love that you guys do it earlyand up front and are willing to
educate because I think that'ssuch an important conversation
just so that people understandlike, hey, what am I what do I
need to come to the table with?
Can I come to the table withthat?
Um, and if I can't, then I needto go renegotiate my deal until
(26:23):
it makes sense.
SPEAKER_02 (26:25):
Yes, 100%.
And I'll tell you, Rehab Wallethas been around for five and a
half years.
We haven't always lended tofirst-time fix and flippers.
We just started this program in2025.
And the reason we do it now isbecause so many of us are
investors ourselves.
So we understand it.
We can hold your hand, we canguide you a little bit more.
(26:45):
But I'll tell you, I will have,I don't know, six, seven text
conversations per day withfirst-time fix and flippers that
have not yet applied for a loan.
They're looking, they're walkingproperties with their agents,
and they'll send me, Susie,here's the address, here's what
they're offering, or here's whatthey want for the property,
here's what I want to offer.
And I will text them back andtell them here's what your
(27:05):
monthly interest payments willlook like, here's about what
your closing costs will looklike.
And I will tell them there's nomeat in that bone.
Like you next.
You have seven on the list, thatone's not it.
So I think sometimes it's okayto ask for help, right?
Because you don't want to sign acontract or get under contract
(27:26):
or put an offer down, and thenthat's not a properly a property
that we would probably lend to.
So I love running numbers,especially for my first time
fixing flippers and being ableto help them and guide them.
You know, there's so manyquestions and they hear so many
different things.
And you will sometimes attend alot of REI meetings or belong to
a lot of groups, and sometimesyou just I don't know who to
(27:47):
listen to.
So I love to be able to closesome of those gaps and just do
the numbers.
I I didn't major in math, butI've always been in business in
some capacity.
So I I numbers I can do it withmy eyes closed.
SPEAKER_01 (28:01):
Yeah, and that's one of the things that we encourage
our students to do.
And like go talk to the expert.
And it's okay to be afirst-timer and it's okay to ask
questions.
Like that is they want to earnyour business.
And, you know, it needs to be wewe always talk about
relationships.
But like, so let's talk a littlebit.
I'm so excited that you guysdecided to offer a program for
(28:22):
first-time flippers.
Again, you know, shameless plughere.
I just think that you guys areawesome.
So to be able to hand offfirst-time flippers to you for
me is just really amazing.
Um, but for someone who iscoming to you, as I'm, hey, I'm
new, I've never flipped a housebefore, like, how can they
(28:42):
present themselves and the dealthat they're looking at like in
the best light?
Like, what would you, whatadvice would you give to
somebody to come across as, youknow, somebody that you'd want
to continue that conversationwith?
SPEAKER_02 (28:56):
Yes.
So I'll tell you first what wedon't want because of those
coming easy, right?
So we don't want someone thatsays, I have a property, I want
to buy it.
And when I start askingquestions like, what are you
gonna offer and what is yourrehab budget?
Then we get a blank stare or ablank response of, I have no
idea how much the rehab's goingto be, right?
(29:18):
So you want to, when you look ata property and you walk it
through, you know, get thosequotes, have that relationship,
understand about how much workneeds to be done to that
property, because that valuewill also be added into the
loan.
So, as important as your afterrepair value is, we want to know
that you understand about whatyour scope of work would look
(29:38):
like.
Big difference if you'rebudgeting$50,000 and then the
project ends up being$85,000.
Well, once the loan is closedwith rehab wallet, we can't give
you that difference.
Then that will have to eitherhalt your project or you'll have
to come up with the money someother creative way.
So a lot of times I like to hearfrom a first Time fix and
(30:00):
flipper that they're workingwith an agent, that they know
who the general contractor isgoing to be, or someone that
they're going to partner.
Sometimes they can partner withsomeone that has done a deal, or
um, someone that's gonna guidethem, right?
So, you know, I'm my buddy, he'snot gonna be on the deed, he's
not gonna be on the loan, buthe's done, you know, a handful,
or they have this mentorship,and I have someone that I'm
(30:22):
working with that can keep aclose eye with me and help me
understand some of these umpotential hiccups and obstacles
and risks that will probablyhappen, most likely, on your
first deal because you don'tknow what you don't know.
So a lot of times I just wantthem to understand one, we are a
hard money lender, we can closequickly, but we are relying on
(30:44):
you to tell me what you know,meaning that after repair value,
we based our loan on that dis onthat number, right?
We based our decision on theasset itself.
So we're gonna look at thatproperty.
So know who your neighbors, youknow, if there's a property next
door to you that's a total dump,that I don't know, just a dump,
you know, it's gonna make yoursto sell a little bit harder.
(31:08):
So knowing that up front isgonna be important.
And then again, buying aproperty that's on sale and not
for sale.
Don't get excited that, oh myGod, I just got a deal and I
think it's a great one.
Is it really a great one?
Or are you just interestedbecause the house came out on
the market?
Um, don't fall in love withthese properties.
If your intent is to fix andflip them or rent them, you're
(31:28):
not gonna live in it.
So don't fall in love.
Go find that property and thatdeal that is truly on sale and
not for sale.
But again, I can't stress thenumbers, right?
That 70% rule or 65% rule, dothe reverse math and truly
understand are you overpaying orunderpaying for that property?
SPEAKER_01 (31:46):
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, that's such greatadvice.
And I think you also kind ofsummarize some pitfalls that
you've seen from, you know, newflippers, some season flippers,
I'm sure.
So speaking of, we've actuallykind of done some funny play on
words here a lot with likemarriage and wedding dress and
the ring, and I love it.
(32:07):
Um, because I do tell peoplelike this is a relationship
business, and you want to builda relationship with the lender
that does start from that firstphone call.
So thank you for sharing, youknow, how people who are
reaching out to you for thefirst time as a first-time
flipper, you know, can open thedoor to that relationship.
So let's say, like, okay, I didmy first, my first flip and I'm
(32:29):
looking to move forward and Iwant to do more.
You know, do you have any adviceto give investors about building
like a long-term relationshipwith hard money lenders?
Um, because like as you'vepointed out, and what I love
about hard money lenders isy'all don't run out of money.
Um when we're when we're talkingabout scaling or you're doing
two or three projects at a time,you know, that's where hard
(32:52):
money lenders are just such agreat asset to have because of
that portion.
Yeah.
So kind of talk to me a littlebit about that.
Like, what does it look likewhen you want to move forward
with somebody, or maybe evenlike what did they do in their
loan that makes you not want tomove forward with them?
SPEAKER_02 (33:09):
Sure.
Yeah, I think, you know,communication is key from the
get-go, right?
And it goes with our saying ofdo what you say you're gonna do
and don't just sugarcoat certainthings at the beginning, right?
If you tell us you're gonna adda bedroom to that house, then
add a bedroom to the house.
If you say you're going to makeyour monthly interest payments,
then don't be late on yourmonthly interest payments.
(33:31):
If you say you're going to exitthe loan in six months, then
exit the loan in six months.
So a lot of times it's just dowhat you say that you're gonna
do because we do check andbalance that at the at on the
back end.
But you know, for us, someonethat does a first-time fix and
flip loan with us and they exitthat one successfully, they
automatically graduate to ourbetter terms.
(33:52):
So you no longer have to put 20%down.
Now you can only put 10% down,and now you're not limited to
one deal with rehab wallet.
Now you can do multiple deals atthe same time.
So that's that's critical for usbecause we do, you know, you
from your draws, um, which Idon't know that we talked a lot
about the draw process, how wehold that rehab budget as as in
(34:15):
our escrow and it's released asdraws, right?
So we use a third-party app now.
You're not waiting on athird-party inspection.
A lot of hard money lendersschedule an agent to come in to
inspect the work that you did.
We don't do that.
We understand the value, andKelly Garrett understands the
value and has instilled that inus that the relationship that
(34:36):
you start and that you keep withyour general contractor or your
subs is so important.
But the best way they break upwith you is you don't pay them.
Absolutely.
We don't want to hold thosefunds.
So, you know, scheduling aninspection like a lot of hard
money lenders do delays yougetting that payment.
So we don't need, we don't dothat.
We use a third-party app, youdownload that app into your
(34:59):
phone, you take pictures of whatyou have completed, you submit
that via email, and then boom,next business day, you get your
funds deposited into youraccount.
So a lot of times I like to tellmy borrowers submit that on a
Thursday morning, you will haveyour funds eight o'clock on
Friday morning.
And now you can pay your team,you can keep the project going.
Because what a lot ofcontractors do is if you don't
(35:21):
pay me today, I'm taking anotherjob on Monday because I need to
keep my crew paid, right?
So we don't want to damage thatrelationship.
That's critical for us, and weknow it's critical for you to,
you know, ultimately exit theloan successfully.
SPEAKER_01 (35:35):
Yes.
Yeah, absolutely.
Um, well, Susie, thank you somuch for being here with us
today and kind of reallyintroducing our audience to, you
know, not only hard moneylenders and kind of answering
some questions, but also rehabwallet um in yourself because
you're wonderful in yourself andyou're you're just so great to
talk to and you do such a greatjob of educating.
(35:57):
And I think people, I reallywant to lean on that and let
people know how important thatis because there are lenders out
there who don't care.
And they will just take yourmoney and they will see you in
12, six months, nine months.
They'll foreclose on your house.
They don't care.
Like they're like, oh, sorry,that was your bad decision to
buy that house.
So I love that you guys offerthat sort of you know
(36:17):
partnership in a way and nurturethat relationship moving
forward, and everyone'ssuccessful and it's just it's a
win-win.
So I just, it's so cool.
SPEAKER_02 (36:27):
Thank you.
Yeah, I mean, we take a lot ofpride.
We don't unfortunately, morefortunately, lend in all states.
Um, we purposely stay prettylocal.
So we do, you know, handful ofstates, North, South Carolina,
Georgia, Virginia.
We just added Tennessee andcertain areas in Ohio.
But yeah, anybody within ourteam, you can pick up the phone
and we will answer.
(36:48):
So you don't have to press twoto then go to three to then
press four to then realize I'velost where the heck I'm supposed
to press things.
Like one of us will pick up thephone.
SPEAKER_01 (36:57):
So yeah, that's so awesome.
Well, again, thank you so much.
I really appreciate you.
Thank you.
All right, and thank you so muchfor joining us today on the Flip
House's Like a Girl podcast.
I hope you found someinspiration and practical
takeaways from Susie'sinterview.
Remember, every successful flipstarts with one brave decision
(37:21):
to get in the game.
And you don't have to do italone.
If you're ready to take the nextstep forward, flipping your
first house, we'd love for youto learn more about the Flip
Sisters program.
It's the leading coachingprogram and community designed
specifically for women acrossthe country who are ready to
flip houses in their localmarkets.
(37:42):
To connect with us, check outthe program, or to just get
inspired by more stories likethis one, visit us at
www.theflipsisters.com.
And as always, thank you forlistening, subscribing, and
sharing this podcast with otherwomen who are ready to step into
the world of flipping houses.
Until next time, keep going,keep growing, and remember, you
(38:05):
absolutely can do this.
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