Selling home to purchase apartment complex

[John Smith]

Hello

I am a total newbie looking to purchase my first rental property. I recently came under a lot of financial pressure due to changes in my personal life and money has become extremely tight. I currently have a mortgage on my home with about 200k left, and the home is estimated at a value of 1.2 million.

I want to sell my home and use the earnings from the sale as a down payment for an apartment complex. I was planing to live in one of the units while renting the rest out. I was looking at apartment buildings for sale on loopnet and saw that with the rent from all the units I could make 2x the monthly mortgage. This seemed very appealing to me but again, I'm a total newbie and must be missing something. I really want to change my financial situation and this seems like the best solution.

I wanted to know what I should look out for, and generally how to go about doing a project like this? Also, I don't know if there is a specific type of advisor I could speak to in person about doing this. Maybe it would be smart to go in with an investing partner who has experience but I don't know how to go about finding one. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. 

[James Dainard]

Quote from @John Smith:

Hello

I am a total newbie looking to purchase my first rental property. I recently came under a lot of financial pressure due to changes in my personal life and money has become extremely tight. I currently have a mortgage on my home with about 200k left, and the home is estimated at a value of 1.2 million.

I want to sell my home and use the earnings from the sale as a down payment for an apartment complex. I was planing to live in one of the units while renting the rest out. I was looking at apartment buildings for sale on loopnet and saw that with the rent from all the units I could make 2x the monthly mortgage. This seemed very appealing to me but again, I'm a total newbie and must be missing something. I really want to change my financial situation and this seems like the best solution.

I wanted to know what I should look out for, and generally how to go about doing a project like this? Also, I don't know if there is a specific type of advisor I could speak to in person about doing this. Maybe it would be smart to go in with an investing partner who has experience but I don't know how to go about finding one. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. 

 Hey John,

Congrats on your equity position! Great idea to shift it into apartments.

Make sure you've got a good commercial lender lined up, we've got a couple we can recommend.

In terms of finding a partner, you're in the right place! This site is filled with experts who can give you insight into any questions you might have.