Smyrna is a town in Rutherford County, Tennessee, and it has a population of just over 53,000 people. It is a suburb of the Nashville area, and Smyrna is known for being one of the best places to retire in America. Smyrna is named after the ancient Greek city of Smyrna, and it is known for being home to an old Air Force base. Now, it is home to many building plants, including a Nissan manufacturing plant and an aluminum company. Nissan is one of the biggest employers in Smyrna, employing about 8,400 workers. Smyrna is a very friendly town that’s close to Nashville, and it has lots of green space and historic sites.
According to Niche, Smyrna has a sparse suburban feel and most people in Smyrna own their homes. It is a very diverse place that’s home to many families and young professionals. It has great public schools, and Smyrna is an affordable place to live with a median home value of 189,800 and a median rent of $1,033.
Right now, Smyrna is a seller’s market. It is a place where demand is outpacing supply, and where real estate investors are getting into bidding wars over ideal real estate in the state. It is a housing bubble where it’s hard for new investors to break into.
Hard money loans might be the best way to invest in real estate in Smyrna. Hard money loans are known as short-term bridge loans and last resort loans, and they’re mostly used for real estate transactions like fix and flips, long-term rentals, and construction projects. The biggest advantage of hard money loans in a seller’s market like Smyrna is they can be approved very quickly. They can be approved in a couple of days, which is significantly faster than the approval speed of traditional mortgage loans, which take more or less a month. This fast speed of approval gives investors who use hard money loans an instant advantage over other real estate investors, since they can put down very fast financing.
Hard money loans use the property as the asset and collateral. It’s not like credit score doesn’t matter in a hard money loan, because the majority of hard money lenders don’t lend unless the borrower has a credit score of 600 to 620. Also, the vast majority of hard money lenders will give you a better interest rate if you have a strong credit score. Still, the default process is different between hard money loans and traditional mortgage loans. If a borrower defaults on a mortgage, the bank initiates a foreclosure that can be very lengthy and costly. But if a borrower defaults on a hard money loan, the lender takes on the property in a very quick process. Every hard money lender prepares themselves for this possibility before approving a hard money loan.
Because of this, hard money loans also come with a lot of risks. They come with higher interest rates, shorter repayment periods, and lower LTV ratios than traditional mortgage loans. Hard money loans have interest rates around 8–15%, repayment periods around a year, and LTV ratios around 65–75%, which are all significantly less forgiving than the interest rates of traditional mortgage loans.
Because of this, it’s essential to only trust the best hard money lenders. That’s why we at Hard Money Lenders IO have compiled a list of the best hard money lenders in Smyrna.