St. George is the county seat of Washington County, Utah, located near the southwestern border of Utah with Arizona. It is located in the northeastern part of the Mojave Desert and very close to the Pine Valley Mountains, and it is also known for being between Las Vegas and Salt Lake City on I-15. St. George currently has a population of just over 95,000 people, and it is known as the seventh biggest city in Utah and the biggest city in the state not in the Wasatch Front. It is close to several state parks, as well as other national landmarks like Zion National Park and the Grand Canyon. St. George is also home to Utah Tech University.
According to Niche, St. George is one of the best places to retire in Utah. It has a sparse suburban feel and is a place where most people own their homes. It is known as a diverse city with great weather, and it has a lot of health and fitness opportunities, outdoor activities, jobs, and is very accessible by commute. It also is well-known for its parks. It is home to many young professionals and retirees and has many jobs between Utah Tech University and other major employers. St. George has above average public schools, and it has a median home value of $302,300 and a median rent of $1,088.
Right now, as of June 2022, St. George is a seller’s market. It’s a city where there is more demand than supply, and it’s a housing bubble where homes are selling very fast and for higher than listing price. St. George is a city where investors are constantly getting into bidding wars for the best real estate in town.
Buyers in St. George should look into hard money loans. Hard money loans are also known as short-term bridge loans and last resort loans. They are also known for being used in real estate transactions where an invest buys a home in disrepair and then flipping them for a profit. Hard money loans give a tremendous advantage in St. George of having very fast speeds of approval. They can be approved in a few days, whereas traditional mortgage loans can take a month or more to be approved. While buyers using traditional financing can lose out on desired properties, hard money loans make investors instantly competitive.
However, investors should also be aware of the plethora of risks that come with hard money loans. Hard money loans are known for their higher interest rates, shorter repayment periods, and lower LTV ratios than traditional mortgage loans. They’re known for being very expensive and hard to pay off — their 8–15% interest rates are well above the interest rates of even skyrocketing mortgages (5.6% for 30 year mortgages right now). They also need to be repaid within a year, which is significantly faster than how fast traditional mortgage loans need to be paid off (15 to 30 years on average). Since they have lower LTV ratios, hard money loans require higher down payments to show greater buy in from investors.
The reason hard money loans are so different from mortgages is because they don’t depend on the credit score of the borrower as the asset. Instead, hard money loans depend on the property. They use the property as collateral. If an investor defaults on a hard money loan, the lender takes on the property instead of the bank foreclosing on it.
For all these reasons, it’s important to be very selective when choosing hard money loans. That’s why we at Hard Money Lenders IO have made a list of the best lenders in St. George.
