Buying real estate via land contract

[Zach Powell]

Hello everyone, I've never posted anything until now but I've been on here reading, learning, absorbing for a few months now and I haven't seen this topic fully discussed so maybe we can use my own situation to help not only myself but others in the future.

So let's start at the beginning...

Oh wait first I should mention I'm in Lancaster Ohio. I've seen several people from Columbus on here so I'm sure that's relevant.

Ok here we go

11/1/12 I move into 1 of 4 duplexes for 500 a month.

7/1/16 I receive a letter from my landlord offering me a chance to buy the building I live in on land contract. Wheels start turning I go back to him and say I'd like to buy all 4 buildings.

We negotiate the price of 85k a piece he keeps all deposits as money down we file the land contract with the courts and on 9/1/16 they're mine. Initial balance... $335,000

Math is I pay him 3,000 a month for payment, insurance, taxes etc. 8 units at 500 a month = 4,000 a month. Cool 1,000 bucks a month profit.

Upon buying there's an empty unit so on day 1 I get all the keys go in it's completely destroyed. I spend about 4,000 fix it all up the way I want it and rent it at 600 so I'm negative but I've now made it all nice and upped the rent 100 bucks

(He still rents from me 4 1/2 years later best tenant I could ever ask for).

I do this again 2 months later when some people move out not nearly as expensive maybe like 800 bucks in supplies plus my time.

So that's the pattern I've used and they've all been at 600 a month the past 2 1/2 years so now it's 1,800 a month I make. But I've never really made any profit because I like putting the money back into my investment via fixing things up (that's one of the reasons why I like real estate) Keep in mind I fix everything myself unless it's out of my realm and I hire someone but that's only happened once. I'm adding all of this to also explain for someone not involved in real estate yet but who wants to get into it. The pride you gain from doing this yourself and not using contractors is very gratifying for me personally.

Anyhow, back to the financial stuff. Land contract expired in Sep. but due to never ending covid issues we haven't closed yet.

I initially met with a couple bankers and it seems I have an issue. My income on my taxes is out of wack by alot. I go through a never ending (all legal) process to keep my income on paper as low as possible like 22k a year to protect myself from a ruthless b*** ex and her just as bad lawyer.

So here's the big question... How do I finance the remaining 290K ? You see the numbers... Great positive cash flow...

I've gotten pretty good with comps and figures all over the whole city of Lancaster and I'm very confident each building will get appraised right now in this market for 125k at the very lowest to 150k at the highest. Zillow (wherever they get their numbers) has them at 140 a piece which tells me I might be correct.

As I see it I have multiple options.

1) Ammend last year's tax return and file this year's taxes at some much higher amount bite the bullet pay a bunch of taxes but give the bank the numbers they want.

2) Sell them and make a potentially huge profit.

I don't like this option I want these buildings I've put 100s of hours of my time into these (they're kinda like my kids at this point)

3) Extend land contract till I figure it out

4) See what you great people here think.

I don't even know what happens after I post this as far as if I get notifications or what if you all reply.

So thank you all for taking the time to read this and I can't wait to see what people smarter than me think.