How to handle 42 houses on 2 blocks.

[Bob Hank]

I was approached the bank I use about buying 42 house between 2 blocks (all the house on the 2 blocks). All the houses are currently owned by bank; at one time it was all owned by one person. Most of the house are currently rented and there a mix of 2/1.5 3/2 and 3/1.5.

So far I have been able to go through about half of them and Monday I will be going through the rest. I have been running the numbers on fixing and selling or fixing them up renting them. All the properties have a 90 day move out for selling.

How would you handle this?
I don't think I could get a decent rent with out doing work to them.
Selling them off with out putting work into them would not give a decent return.
If I did go for this I would need to sell about half of them or I would tie up to much cash. I try to stay away form loans.
At first the rentals would not max out on rent because of the houses around them.
The first few I would sell would not do very well because of the lack of higher end comps.
Putting to many on the market at once would flood the market.
From talking to the bank it looks like they will stagger selling them over 3 months, but they want to get ride of all of them in the next 9 months.

[Steve L.]

What are they currently renting for? Is the bank willing to give you financing or a temporary line of credit along with the purchase?

Those numbers sound pretty desirable if they are accurate.

38,500 total cost for $950/month

Multiplied out by 42 is 1,617,000 investment for 39,900/month

Using the 50% rule you are at 14.8% cap rate.

I would buy them all, have the bank add some financing and rehab the ones slowly as they become vacant (unless all the tenants are not paying).

If you do want to sell them, I would suggest doing a couple "owner-finance" deals or "friendly sales" to set the comps in the neighborhood.