Concord is a city in Cabarrus County, North Carolina and has a population of just over 105,000 people. It’s the largest city in Cabarrus County and it’s the second biggest city in the Charlotte metropolitan area. It is the 10th biggest city in the state as well as one of the fastest growing economies in the state. It has a motto of “High Performance Living,” and was the winner of the All-America City Award in 2004. Being only 20 miles away from Charlotte, Concord is a terrific place to live and work, and it’s home to both Concord Mills and NASCAR’s Charlotte Motor Speedway.
According to Niche, Concord is one of the best places to live in North Carolina. It gives its residents a sparse suburban feel, and is a place most people won their homes. There are lots of parks and green space in Concord, and it’s a place that’s home to many young professionals and families. It has great public schools, is very diverse, and the median home value of $206,600 and median rent of $963 make it a relatively average to below average place in terms of affordability, compared to the rest of the country.
Right now, Concord is a seller’s market. Homes are selling very fast and for higher than listing price, and supply of homes in Concord is not meeting demand. Concord is a housing bubble where buyers are getting into bidding wars over the desirable property in the suburb.
Real estate investors in the Concord area should look into hard money loans. Hard money loans are also known as short-term bridge loans and last resort loans, and their biggest advantage in a seller’s market like Concord is their very fast speed of approval. Hard money loans can be approved in a couple of days, as opposed to traditional mortgage loans, which take a month or more to be approved. This is a huge advantage for investors since it helps them put down bids fast and be more competitive investing in real estate.
Hard money loans can be approved so quickly because they’re based on the property, not the credit score of the borrower. To be fair, credit still matters since most hard money lenders require minimum credit scores of 600 to 620, and a good credit score often helps an investor get a better interest rates. But hard money loans determine the terms and rates of the loan based on the after repair value of the property. They use the property as collateral — if a borrower defaults on a mortgage, there’s the conventional foreclosure that is very judicial and costly. If a borrower defaults on a hard money loan, it’s a much simpler process. The lender becomes the homeowner and takes on the property, which means they will try to flip the home themselves and make a significant profit.
This is a significant risk for hard money lenders. And this risk is reflected in more unforgiving rates and terms — hard money loans are more expensive, need to be repaid in a shorter amount of time, and have lower LTV ratios. They have higher interest rates of 8–15%, compared to the just over 4% interest rates of traditional mortgage loans. Hard money loans also have repayment periods of more or less a year, which are much shorter than the 30 year repayment periods of your average mortgage.
It’s important to only trust the best hard money lenders for your real estate transaction, which is why we at Hard Money Lenders IO have made a list of the best hard money lenders in Concord.
