I came across this forum a few minutes ago, and decided to get some help to my problems.

I have looked up hundreds of “hard money” lenders in California statewide and in Los Angeles California, however none of them seem to have a Better Business Bureau report. So I have no way of knowing if these companies are legit or shady or are a fly by night company. How do I locate a good and reputable Hard Money lender company in todays market . . . Especially with todays changes with consumer loans and credit . . . With special regards to how things have changed since the subprime mess over the past two years.

In my case, I want to pay off about 100K in revolving credit debt, since my interest rates have all been raised to between 20% to 29.99% over the past several months. I am self employed, and my travel business has taken a catastrophic hit due to the economy over the past 2 years. I currently have a mortgage that I am current with, yet with the subprime fiasco and revolving credit interest rates steadily going up, I can no longer keep up, yet I do not want to file for bankruptcy or do one of those debt reduction plans (since one of those plans will crucify my credit report as bad as a bankruptcy will) since my credit is good (a FICO score of 733), and I figure I have over 150K in non-mortgage equity currently in my house.

Yesterday, I talked with my previous lender (who later sold my mortgage to another company), and he said that a hard money loan would be good in my case (to try to pay off all/most of my revolving credit). Even the many changes in the financial lending industry over the past 2 years, my previous lender felt confident that there is at least a few reputable hard money lending companies out there that can help me in my case (self employed, spotty and very low income due to the economic changes, yet having my approximate 150K of equity in my house, etc.), yet he said that I would end up paying somewhere between 12% to 18% on such a hard money loan and that I may be able to secure a loan of only $75,000.

Can someone here help and advise me? Thank you.

Wilson