Buying Rentals During The Quarantine

[John Spellman]

Hello I'm a pretty new real estate investor i purchased a multi unit property 2 years ago and recently the property next door to me went up for sale, now this property has a same layout as mines and needs to be completely renovated. This property is being under sold as a 4 bedroom 2 bathroom single family but adding drywall in a the middle and the top of the unit and adding a kitchen upstairs can turn it into a 2 unit multi family 3 bedrooms 1 bath upstairs and 1 bedroom 1 bathroom downstairs. With this property connected to mines and me already owning half of the building I can make a good return I can either sell it or refinance it as a 4 unit building that cash flows around 1300 a month. I did the numbers and brought the idea and research to my business partner but he told me its best to wait until this quarantine is over because he believes that we won't get any renters in once we acquire the property and I need him because he has the credit and capital so is this a good time to buy or should I wait until the quarantine is over??????

[Jesse Whitmore]

@John Spellman there’s no sense to me in passing on an opportunity for the sake of waiting when the decision to do so has that waiting built in. You wouldn’t be waiting to pull the trigger on the property, you would essentially be passing it up, and the time it takes to renovate seems like the amount of time to lower your partners anxiety, if he’s being reasonable. I would suggest he read all the other posts in investing during this time, because it’s just anxiety he’s feeling, a good deal is a good deal and buildings need tenants now and 4 months from now. There isn’t a law saying that new tenants don’t pay rent so keep that in mind and stick to your tenant screening process. You’re seeing the same risks you did with the first building, essentially, covid or not.