Owner Occumpied Multi-Family Owner in Tempe, AZ

[Denny Robert]

Hello all,

I'm Denny, and I'm originally from southern Illinois near St. Louis. I'm an ASU grad, and ended up staying in Tempe after graduation. My wife and I spent a year teaching English in China. April is a wedding photographer, and I'm a man with (too) many hats.

As a kid I always had an interest in owning rental properties. My parents never had them, and we never rented. I'm not sure where I got the idea from, but it always seemed like a good one.

Three years ago I bought a triplex in Tempe using 3.5% down FHA owner occupied financing. It's a great place - one unit is a 3/2 with a 2 car garage, and the other two units are 2/1's that rent for $850/mo.

I started building a relationship with the old man who owns the fourplex next door, and he has agreed to sell that place to me this year with owner financing. We haven't arranged terms yet, but using what I've learned on Bigger Pockets I'm aiming to make it a deal that cash flows correctly.

My biggest hurdle is figuring out how to find more deals like this. I don't have a lot of extra money for big down payments. How do I find more properties that will owner finance? Do I need to send mailers, or call owners? I started making a spreadsheet of tri and fourplexes within my area and who owns them. Do I reach out to all of them or filter them somehow?

Anyways, I've been lurking on BP too long, so I'm glad to finally get involved here and really start learning and helping.

Best,

Denny

[Denny Robert]

Originally posted by @Steve Olafson:

How much is your triplex worth now?  You could sell and roll into a larger building.  Seems like you bought at the right time.

Properties in general are hard to find right now.  Over time though, you can keep rolling into larger buildings.

Hey Steve,

I definitely bought at a good time. I probably have somewhere around $100k in equity in the building. I was actually thinking about selling this morning. The only hitch on that is the unit I live in has a 2 car garage for all my tools - kind of rare for a triplex. I would have to use some of the equity to buy a SFM for myself or find another handy place for my tools.

I had a small win yesterday. I called one of the for rent signs in my neighborhood - he owns two fourplexes - and asked if he was interested in selling. He said he promised his wife he would sell them before he turns 70, which is next year! If I can lock down seller/private financing for this deal and the neighbors fourplex this might turn out to be quite a year!