to buy or not to buy?

[Troy Young]

Someone asked me to buy their building, I figured I'd gather some of your thoughts.

It's 4 large storage units (each unit is about 22x40 and 16 ft. high), with 2 apartments above the storage units (a two bedroom and a 3 bedroom). All units have gas, water and electric and are all on separate meters. It's about 10 years old.

Price: $200,000 (He said he paid $30k for the lot, $20k to run utilities, $170k to build the building so overall he paid about $220k for it).

Land contract with $0 down for 10 years at 5% and payments about $2,121 a month. Taxes and insurance are a little under $250 a month. Currently he has the storage units rented for $225 a month and the apartments rented for $400 a month (total of $1700).

I expect to be able to raise the rents to $2200.

As is it's horrible cash flow and income for this purchase price (I bought a triplex this year for $19k that brings in over $1400 a month). But since he's financing it... if I keep it rented and people paying, it's as if I just have to pay taxes and insurance on the building for 10 years and he's giving it to me for free. It's hard to turn down a nice asset that someone else is paying for.