Questions to ask a professional

[John Lewis]

Hello BP Community,

I currently own a shared living home that cash flows great and for my next purchase I really want to focus on acquiring multi-family/commercial properties. I plan on taking the lawyer that helped me with closing on the current investment property that I own out to lunch again and I wanted to know some good questions to ask him about multi-family/commercial investing.

I am seeking a small commercial building 5 to 10 units in a C neighborhood here in St. Louis, MO or surrounding counties.

My wife and I should have 20 to 30k tucked away to put toward down payment.

Questions: 

How much of your own money have you used when purchasing your commercial deals?

Do you have any real estate broker referrals?

Mortgage broker referrals?

Do you have a tenant screening service that you recommend?

What's your take on partnering to have more contribution to down payment and possibly acquiring more units?

Were you able to get repair costs financed?

How much per door have you paid for your properties?

What is the most amount of units that you would ever consider house hacking. 4 maybe but is 10 too many to where you may want to live somewhere besides 9 other people knowing that you're the owner?

At what point did you bring in a management company?

Any advice would be helpful, I love BP and I watch the podcast daily. Thank You.

Best,

John