Buying two Duplexs next door to each other mortgage ?'s

[Ben Reiss]

Hello everyone,

I currently have 3 units in Philadelphia, a duplex and a SFH. all are rented to students, SFH recently purchased but after rent increase and a few fixes it should be worth closer to 220K with mortgage around 135K the duplex is closer to 70% ltv worth about 450K. I am in the process of selling a lot in philly and my last property in northern delaware.

I am looking at two properties in the area that are owned by the same person. two 5 year old duplexes with gross rents around $4,500/ month each. he doesn't want to deal with them since he has another income stream from his own company. I have used his company and he is swamped. He recently has asked someone I know about property management, had mentioned selling them earlier this year to me. He just doesn't want to deal with them. But he is making money so he's not in a rush to dump them.

I was wondering if anyone had ever had any luck doing a blanket mortgage on two properties next to each other from the same seller, combined would sell for about 680-700K. The reason I was looking into this as he would give me a better price if I buy both of his units at once. I will have enough to do 1 unit and go through all the hoops of a normal financing that I have dealt with. 25% down on multi, 6 month reserves, ect.

I was looking into the option of commercial financing and if that would allow me to have him carry a few % maybe let me do 20% on both or less. I will have enough to do 20% down on both but not much else. I have a partner/friend that I have worked with before that will lend me the 50K more I would need to do the closing costs, reserves, misc fees.

From my short dealings with commercial lenders they are less concerned with how the money makes it to the table, ie the 50K would be less of an issue with commercial loans then conventional. Has anyone recently had any luck with doing some creative financing with commercial and owner held second? I would love to do both. as they are rented and I know the area in depth. I have done very well with the units I have and the area is all college rentals.

There is a few months before I would be needing to move on these. I know I will be contacting tons and tons of mortgage companies, brokers and banks. just wanted to know if this was feasible or this was completely out of possibility.

Thanks for any ideas,

Ben