How Real Estate Investors Get Fix-and-Flip Funding Without Hard Money | Sean Duncan

Sean Duncan (00:00)

Hard money lenders are just I don’t want to say people who are greedy, but they’re trying to charge you three, four, five discount points, 5% at closing to be able to do.

That loan, right? And then they also are charging you 12%, 13%, 14% interest on your hard-money So they’re providing you the loan, right? And they’re giving you the deal. But by the time you go through rehabbing the home, by the time you fix it up, by the time you sell it and all the closing costs involved, you’re left with hardly no profit at all. And guess who made the money? It was the hard money lender, not the investor.

Meghan Escobar (01:07)

Hello everyone welcome back to Real Estate Pros Podcast hosted by Investor Fuel I am your host today Meghan Escobar and I have the pleasure of sitting down with a gentleman by the name of Sean Duncan founder of My Choice Home Loans and he’s out here doing things a little bit differently than your traditional

lending company and I’m gonna bring him on the screen and let him share his story. But at the end of the day, I do think that the audience here is going to really be able to walk away with some helpful, useful information on different loopholes that we can take to get funding outside of, hard money lending and things like that. So Sean and I had the opportunity to discuss the details of his business, how he’s able to go about it.

Really excited to bring that on the show today, Sean. Thank you for joining.

Sean Duncan (01:54)

Thank you so much.

Meghan Escobar (01:56)

Absolutely. So diving in here, people might hear a loan company and just think, that’s what you do, right? you loan money and you have to go by certain guidelines. And a lot of people may have certain stipulations that prevent them from getting loans from traditional banking. for people who might not be familiar, Sean, with your world, can you give us a 30,000

foot view of why you do things a little bit differently at My Choice Home Loans.

Sean Duncan (02:24)

Yeah, for sure. So we made it our mission to be able to help people in whatever background or situation you come from. So if you’re a business owner, self-employed, haven’t filed taxes in three years, we want to help you. If you’re somebody who’s had credit problems, struggling to get your credit to be acceptable by banks, you may not actually have to get your credit to that certain level.

In order for us to help you. so we really enjoy helping people from the person who has the best credit and looking for the lowest rate and the best deal to the person who’s down on their luck and trying to get to that level where they can’t purchase a home, or the investor that is looking to do more flips and so they need more capital, fixing flips, or the landlord who has 10 rental properties.

And wants to buy 10 more. these are all kind of services that we provide. And so that’s what we specialize in

Meghan Escobar (03:20)

That’s awesome. And when we were talking, one thing that stuck out to me is the way that you talked about how you’re helping individuals who, in an untraditional fashion. You mentioned fixing flips and being able to offer funding without hard lending.

Mm-hmm. And you also mentioned something just now, helping business owners who might not have the traditional credentials behind what a bank is requesting for approval. How are you able to work through those loopholes for people?

Sean Duncan (03:50)

Well, because we’re brokers, we’re not like a bank, per se. And so we’re not beholden to one bank’s criteria or one bank’s policy guidelines or one bank’s selection of products. I used to work at a bank and I was always stuck because people would come to me that I knew I could help. But the bank’s policy was no, we’re not going to do that one.

Or they didn’t want to do that type of loan or help that type of person. And so when I started My Choice Home Loans I really wanted to be able to offer solutions to those people. So in the example of hard money lending,

Hard money lenders are just I don’t want to say people who are greedy, but they’re trying to charge you three, four, five discount points, 5% at closing to be able to do.

That loan, right? And then they also are charging you 12%, 13%, 14% interest on your hard-money So they’re providing you the loan, right? And they’re giving you the deal. But by the time you go through rehabbing the home, by the time you fix it up, by the time you sell it and all the closing costs involved, you’re left with hardly no profit at all. And guess who made the money? It was the hard money lender, not the investor.

So, we look for options.

we have fix and flip banks that love fix and flip loans and they offer really low rates and they don’t take advantage of the person. And you can still get the loan done the same way you do in a hard money situation. So people just don’t know about it. And so that’s why I’m here to help them.

Meghan Escobar (05:57)

That’s really awesome. I love that. And another thing that I think caught my attention was you mentioning how you’re moving into offering different products when you do go through these eras of right now you mentioned wherein that the buyer demand is low. Clearly your business thrives off of buyers. And so, you are looking into different ways to

offset that, happening in the business. Talk to us a little bit about what your, vision is with that or what the goal is with that.

Sean Duncan (06:28)

Well, we want to be able to offer and go deeper in relationship with our clients. So not only do we want to be able to offer more in the way of other services they might be in need of, for example, insurance, for example, they might need help with their taxes or they might need help in other areas. So things that we can do to help expand the business and also help people meet more of their needs. because we already have

A ton of folks that we’ve helped that know, like, and trust us. So why not help them more? and build those relationships even deeper.

Meghan Escobar (06:59)

Yeah, absolutely. I think that’s an incredible idea. And you’re also staying within your industry too. these are products and services that people need once they get funding, right? So why not? okay, now every operator, every entrepreneur that I know has a moment where things got real. Maybe this is a deal that had gone sideways or a time that they had to pivot really fast. And Sean, you’ve got some years in the game. You said

twenty four years you’ve been in and out of the industry. So would you mind sharing one of those moments for us?

Sean Duncan (07:32)

a time when a deal went south.

Meghan Escobar (07:33)

Yeah, just thinking about a moment as an entrepreneur. Maybe this was you transitioning from corporate life into building my choice or something that kind of sticks to you that you could go back to and think, that was a really trying time. Wasn’t sure if I was gonna make it through, but something

Sean Duncan (07:50)

Yeah.

Meghan Escobar (07:51)

better maybe something better came out on the other end or

Sean Duncan (07:53)

When I left the corporate world, I had a division of about 30 loan officers I was in charge of, right? And my job every day was helping them on their complaints or helping them get deals done, figuring out solutions for customers. but when I left that and our bank went through a layoff period where they said, Hey, we’re laying off all the top-end salary people and

We’re trying to cut costs. So they just basically offered me to go into a loan officer role. And I said, No, I’m not going to do that. I’ll just go be a loan officer on the outside. And I get paid a higher commission. And so when that first happened, it was me and my wife had three kids. I was like, Man, I gotta make some money fast. And so that was a challenging point in my life. that was back in 2014

And I had an office. it was a little closet they put me in at this company. And they said, All right, make it happen. I was like, what? What in the heck did I do? And so I just picked up the phone and started dialing people, cold calling, realtors, everybody I could think of. hey, I want to help you, I wanna, get in business with you. Can I take you to coffee? and I was attending open houses every weekend.

probably one year I attended a hundred open houses to meet new buyers and realtors. And I even bought, a hundred open house signs so I can go help realtors get more people to their open house. and it was a period there where it was a hustle game. But after one or two years in the outside world doing loans on my own, I was able to

match and exceed what I was making as an area manager at the bank. So I was like, okay, I’ve made it. I’m gonna stick with this.

Meghan Escobar (10:10)

Love that. thank you for sharing that. And I think that’s the kind of stuff that people just don’t talk about enough. And clearly what separates people who are here for a transaction versus those who are in the game long term. what do you feel is the next real big move for you and My Choice Home Loans?

Sean Duncan (10:29)

we wanna recruit. I have a passion to help people, but not only people that need housing or need loans or need businesses. I wanna help people that are coming up in the industry. So I love to train and mentor people. And so I’m looking to hire like three to four young loan officers who

don’t know anything who just really need a hand holding. those are the people that I’m looking for and kind of pour some energy into and help them become producers like myself. that’s kind of what my focus is.

Meghan Escobar (11:02)

Right. And do you feel like you’re on track to create that new team? Is that something you’re, currently working towards recruiting or?

Sean Duncan (11:09)

Yeah, having been an area manager and having that ability to recruit, hire and train people, it’s been a great experience for me to be able to do that more in my current line of work. My hesitation has always been, you recruit, you train, you hire people, you help them become productive, and then, three years later they get a better offer, some other company and they leave.

Right. So it’s real frustrating in this industry because of that. And so that’s kind of why I really want to help someone who needs the help and develop that bond with them over time and hopefully they’ll stick with us for the long term,

Meghan Escobar (11:46)

Absolutely. Well, I love that. So you’re really just looking to expand the business, but in the process, help individuals who are hungry and just brand new to this and grow together. Yeah. That’s great. So I know a lot of people listening in here, Sean, they are either very early on in their journey looking to figure out where they want to fall into the world of real estate.

Or, they’re individuals who’ve been in the game for a long time and are just looking to take things to the next level, learn something new. So I do think that they would benefit from hearing this, when it comes to building relationships, we talked a little bit about this, building network, surrounding yourself with the right people.

what do you think Sean has made the biggest difference for you to be able to be where you are today from somebody starting out in corporate America?

Sean Duncan (12:34)

I think really having a heart for people and caring for people. my faith has been a really important part of my journey. And so keeping God number one and then people number two, and doing what’s right at always for people. And that’s really helped me to kind of navigate the pitfalls in this business.

and also trying to provide value to every customer that we help. so really everything comes out of that relationship with God to people.

Meghan Escobar (13:02)

That’s a really great piece of advice. And something you can’t fake, right? It’s like creating the right relationships in this space is pretty important, especially in the real estate world where it’s a people business. It doesn’t run without people, right?

Sean Duncan (13:16)

one of the things early on that God showed me is that when you call people and you call realtors or whoever you’re calling, don’t look to get, look to give. And so if you’re always looking to give someone and provide them more than what you get and provide them more value, kind of the same thing with social media and influencing, right? you always want to provide more value.

And bless others. And if more people are blessed by you, then they’ll reciprocate and they’ll send you business. The business will come. and that’s really been my journey.

Meghan Escobar (13:50)

Yeah, I agree a hundred percent. I’ve witnessed this first hand myself, so I agree with that. a lot of times people who live in greed wonder why things always fall short.

So yeah, before we wrap up here, Sean, if someone listening in wanted to reach out and connect with you and potentially work with you where are you marketing? What are the areas where you are able to help individuals?

Sean Duncan (14:14)

so we’re in Texas, Colorado and Florida. So if you’re in any of those three states,

Meghan Escobar (14:20)

How would they reach you?

Sean Duncan (14:22)

they can go to my website, you can type in duncan my last name, D-U-N-C-A-N. loans L O A N S .com You can go there. Of course, my phone number’s there as well. You can always reach out to me by phone, email, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube channel. but just search me up, Sean Duncan Mortgage Lender, and you’ll find me on Google.

a lot of the commercial loans don’t require like licensing in every single state like residential is. So we’re able to help most commercial folks anywhere in the US.

Meghan Escobar (14:56)

Good to know. Glad we got that on. And yeah, so we will be sure to provide those links so folks can just tap into all of your connections. don’t even have to go Google search it, but of course you can as well. Well, thank you so much, Sean, for joining. I really did enjoy hearing your story, connect with you, learning about the ways that you are able to help folks

in an untraditional manner, I think it’s definitely needed today with a lot of folks struggling with cost of living, keeping their credit scores up and things like that. So it’s nice to know that there is a solution out there for folks.

Sean Duncan (15:31)

Yeah. Yes, ma’am

Meghan Escobar (15:32)

Absolutely. And for those of you that are listening in, if you got any value from this, please be sure to hit like and subscribe. We’ve got more conversations coming in just like this with folks like Sean Duncan, who are out here building real businesses in real time with real people. We’ll see you on the next episode.