First Time Invester- Hard money and Duplexes

[Sedgrid Lewis]

This is my first time investing so I am a total newbie. I have been presented an opportunity from a landlord that is older and way behind on his property taxes. He has listed his three duplexes on mls for 170K. Since I'm new to investment, conventional loans have become a problem because local lenders only want to place a mortgage on one property at a time.

Is it best to take out a hard money loan on just one duplex and try to refinance within 12 months or to secure all three with hard money? My strategy is to buy and hold instead of flipping.

[Account Closed]

@Sedgrid Lewis I'm not super smart in hard money, but I know that with the hard money terms you'd probably receive, you'd need a lot of cash reserves before jumping in. Holding a hard money loan for 1 year could end up being very expensive.

Hopefully someone with more experience can chime in - but this could be an option of the landlord and yourself are patient: buy one property at a time, wait 6 months, and then cash out refinance. Then take that cash to purchase the next property. Then repeat. It would also give you time to ensure each property is stabilized and rented. This would get some cash flow in your pocket to help give you a peace of mind rather than jumping in with three right away and having your feet to the fire.

If the landlord is hesitant of this idea - you could pay him a "stipend" each month for holding the property for you. At the end of the day, this would still be cheaper than doing hard money I would imagine. Just an idea!