Chattanooga is the fourth biggest city in Tennessee. It is the county seat of Hamilton County, and is located in southeast Tennessee, close to both Georgia and Alabama. Chattanooga has a population of just over 181,000. It is one of the biggest cities in East Tennessee along with Knoxville. Chattanooga is known as “Scenic City” the scenery around Chattanooga, like mountains and ridges. It is very close to other major cities, including Nashville, Knoxville, Atlanta in Georgia, and Huntsville in Alabama. Chattanooga is home to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Jeff Rohde at Roofstock says Chattanooga is a transportation hub for the southeastern part of the United States. It is a great rental market, with 40% of households renting, as well as very rapid population growth of 8%.
According to Niche, Chattanooga is a very diverse city, racially and economically. It has a dense suburban feel and is a place most people own their homes. There are many restaurants and green space within Chattanooga, and many young professionals live in Chattanooga. It has above-average public schools, and Chattanooga has a very affordable city with a median home value of $167,500 and a median rent of $859.
Chattanooga is a great place to invest in real estate for single and multi-family investors because of its very hot real estate market. It is currently a seller’s market and a place where demand is outpacing supply. Prices are high and homes are selling very fast. It is a place where real estate investors are getting into bidding wars over the best real estate in the city, and a housing bubble because of a very hot market.
Hard money loans might be the best way to invest in real estate in Chattanooga. Hard money loans are an alternative source of financing to traditional mortgage loans, and they’re often used for real estate transactions like fix and flips and long-term rentals. Hard money lenders give investors a huge advantage in a seller’s market like Chattanooga — they can be approved in a couple of days, whereas traditional mortgage loans can take a month or more to be approved. This is a very fast speed of approval that gives investors an advantage due to fast financing.
The reason hard money loans can be approved so quickly is that they’re based on the property as the asset. They don’t depend on the credit score of the borrower like traditional mortgage loans. They do have minimum credit scores of 600 to 620 and a good credit score most certainly doesn’t hurt the borrower — it can lead to a better interest state on a loan. But hard money loans use the property as collateral. If a borrower defaults on a mortgage, the bank forecloses on the property, but if a borrower defaults on a hard money loan, the lender becomes the homeowner in a very quick process. A lender often prepares themselves for this possibility so they can flip the home and make a profit themselves.
This means hard money loans often come with lots of disadvantages, as well. Hard money loans have higher interest rates, shorter repayment periods, and lower LTV ratios than traditional mortgage loans. They have interest rates of 8–15%, repayment periods of around a year, and LTV ratios of 65–75%.
It’s important to get the best hard money lenders to get the best terms and rates on hard money loans. That’s why we at Hard money Lenders IO have made a list of the best hard money lenders in Chattanooga.