Portfolio Loan suggestions from those who have done it before

[Adam Gerig]

Want to get some insight from some people who have done it before.  I currently own an estimated worth of about $710k worth of homes and duplexes(according to me) and owe around $188k between mortgages and land contract balances.  The bank I am dealing with will want 25% down and my plan is to take the equity from properties I own free and clear.  I'm thinking I'll get around $330k loan with 25% coming from equity in my properties meaning I'll clear around $250k.  

Am I asking for too much or not enough?  I'd like to leverage myself so I can continue to buy properties at a discount and then let them season 6 months and take a package to the bank and do the same thing over and over.  

Anyone who has done this previously I'd love to get their insight of what they did.  Or how you would structure it to maximize the return.  My plus to doing this is I lock in a lower rate than I can borrow money from private lenders and a longer time frame as well.  

I can see things in my market not lasting long and stuff going quicker and quicker here and would like to strike while the iron is hot so to speak. Also, my initial thoughts are that in the next 5 years mortgages are going to be at a higher rate and I'd rather lock in my 5% rate now even though it will adjust in 5 years according to the market. It's essentially a 15 year loan with an arm option at year 5 and year 10. That being said I still think I can outpace private lending by borrowing from bank and then if things do get to high ARM wise I can have an investor buy-out the loan I owe bank and pay them a lower rate.

Sorry for rambling I've been working on getting this in place for 2 years now and finally think I am to the point where I'm seriously thinking about pulling the trigger.  Thanks for any insights guys!

[Chris Martin]

Try to have the ability to file releases for each property or set up a D-T/mortgage per property. If a tranche is, say, 10 properties for $700K, ideally have 10 D-T so you can swap out financing over the next N years... where N can be any number. If the bank says no, figure out why (usually they see future revenue in refi fees) then negotiate to get what you want. So, 1 closing but X (e.g. 10) D-T filed... costs a few bucks up front, but it will be worth it later.