When Jon Shipley, a Senior Vice President at Longhorn Investments, thinks about horror stories, he doesn’t think about ghouls and gore. Instead, he thinks about the poor decisions real estate investors make when choosing their contractors. “Making the wrong choice in a contractor can completely change the outcome of any deal, no matter how good the numbers look on the front end,” Shipley said. After nearly a decade in the business, Longhorn Investments ought to know. “We encourage our investors to get multiple bids and request referrals from previous clients before making a decision,” he added.
Shipley has seen thousands of real estate deals come and go, and he believes that choosing the right contractor is one of the most important decisions a real estate investor will face. “The wrong contractor can turn any potentially profitable deal into a financial nightmare,” he said, insisting that it is “irrelevant” whether that deal is a flip or a rental if the contractor is not the right fit. “Longhorn recommends every investor do these four things before hiring a contractor:
- Evaluate your options in advance so you don’t have to scramble to find help once a deal is under contract.
- Get at least three references from each contractor.
- Verify proper insurance and licensing and confirm that a contractor is willing and able to pull permits if necessary.
- Never make a choice on price alone.
About Longhorn Investments
Shipley said that Longhorn is particularly eager to participate in Think Realty’s National Conference & Expo in Dallas, Texas, on February 24-25, 2018. Longhorn is one of the most established money lenders in Texas and, Shipley noted, among the most creative. “We offer a traditional hard money product, but we also offer something unique called the Longhorn One-Time Close,” he said. This product enables real estate investors buying rentals to “go from hard money to a long-term mortgage in one simple close,” Shipley explained. He noted that the product helps investors save money and avoid additional qualifying requirements when going from a short-term loan to a long-term product. “We simply convert our hard-money rate to a low interest rate amortized over 30 years.” he said, “We are excited to introduce this product to the investors at the Think Realty Expo.”
Longhorn Investments started as a family business in 2008, when CEO Michael Hoffman teamed up with his mother to become the original investors in a loan used to finance a flip. Today, the company is one of the largest direct hard-money lenders in Texas, and the group formed a fund in 2011 to accommodate the need for additional capital. “To date, we have funded over 2500 loans and have about $75 million in capital available to lend while operating in only 12 major markets throughout the United States,” Hoffman said.
Meet Longhorn Investments III representatives in person, get a personal explanation of the new Longhorn One-Time Close loan, and find out more about how Longhorn works closely with investors on both the borrowing and lending sides of real estate at the Think Realty National Conference & Expo in Dallas, Texas, on February 24-25, 2018.
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