Investing in multi-family
Hi all,
I am a complete newbie to real estate investing. I have a condo rental but that is something I rented out after I moved out of it and did not want to sell. So it was not bought with investment in mind. Although I am not losing money on it, I want to expand my investing portfolio.
I have a few questions about buying multi-family properties:
1. What papers should I be inspecting before I go into inspecting the units?
2. What are possible red flags or concerns while inspecting the units?
3. If the tenants are currently under lease, do I have to wait for the lease to end before I increase the rent or make any rehab? what about the ones who are on the month-to-month leases?
4. Can I use rental condo equity with HELOC to pay the 25% down?
5. Is it wise to use interest-only loans or better to go with traditional lending?
TIA.
Most Popular Reply
Hi Anand,
Great questions!
1. I always try to get the rent roll and expenses over the last year or two. This will give you an idea of what the existing tenants are like and what expenses you can account for.
2. Was the previous landlord taking care of the property? I've found that if the property is in distress, the distressed tenants follow that. Also, you'll get a chance to do a walk through of what the units look like and what they'll need. I always take a note book to write down any things that I would want fixed, then readjust my numbers after a more accurate estimate of rehab/getting tenants out.
3. The current owner can ask the tenants if they want to move before the transition to new owner. If you notice a bad tenant in a month to month, you can have them out before you close. You typically can't raise rents mid-lease.
4. That's a great option! If you have enough equity, you can use a HELOC on your condo. It would just be finding the correct lender.
5. This depends on what you want to do with the property. If you plan to use the BRRRR method, finding a PM and getting them to pay for the MFH and you refinance down the road, interest only payments with the PM during that process would be perfect. If you just plan on buy and hold strategy, I would recommend traditional financing. You could still add value and refinance down the road.