Lewistown is the second biggest city in Maine, and the county seat of Androscoggin County. It is between Augusta and Portland, and it is known for having a very low cost of living, great health care, and a very low crime rate. It is a safe city to live in and has had significant growth recently. It has the largest French speaking population in America, which gives it the nickname of “Little Canada” and “Petit Canada.” Lewistown is also home to the only basilica in Maine, and has a population just over 37,000 people.
Lewistown is one. of the best places to retire in America. It has a dense suburban feel and is a place where most people rent their homes. It has. a median home value of $150,100 and a median rent of $748, which means it is a very affordable place for the quality of life in the town. Lewistown is home to many restaurants, easy access to the Androscoggin River, trails, parks, and a lot more. Many festivals take place in the town every year.
Right now, Lewistown is a seller’s market. It’s a place where demand is rapidly outpacing supply, and where there’s a housing bubble that’s leading homes to sell fast and for higher than listing price. Investors in Lewistown know it’s a very desirable place to live, and as a result, there are bidding wars in the town for the best real estate in town.
Hard money loans might be the best way to invest in real estate in Lewistown. Hard money loans are also known as short-term bridge loans and last resort loans, but their biggest advantage in a seller’s market like Lewistown is they can be approved extremely quickly. Often, mortgages take too long to be approved. They can take more than a month, at which point an investor or buyer may have lost out on a desirable property to invest in real estate. By contrast, hard money loans can be approved in a couple of days, which means investors have access to fast money to bid. This fast speed of approval is essentially money in the real estate investment world in cutthroat markets.
The reason hard money loans can be approved so quickly is because they have a different asset from traditional mortgage loans. Hard money loans use the property as the asset for the loan, not the credit score of the borrower. Traditional mortgage loans rely mainly on credit and financial standing, and it’s not like these factors don’t matter with hard money loans, but they’re not the primary factors for the loan’s terms and rates. Instead, hard money loans use the after repair value of the property for the terms and rates of the loan. They use the property as collateral, which means if a borrower defaults on a hard money loan, the lender takes on the property. The lender then becomes the homeowner themselves and tries to flip the property for profit.
But it’s not always profitable — sometimes the lender loses a lot of money. Because of this risk, hard money loans have higher interest rates, shorter repayment periods, and lower LTV ratios than traditional mortgage loans. Right now, traditional mortgage loans have interest rates of 5.6% for 30 year mortgages on average, which is incredibly high. Hard money loans have interest rates of 8–15%, which are even higher.
It’s essential to only choose the best hard money lenders, which is why we at Hard Money Lenders IO have made a list of the best lenders in Lewistown.
