1st deal in 7 years

[Jay Orlauski]

As some of you know , my wife an I have been looking for a fourplex or triplex situation for about 5 months now. Compounding our challenges to getting an offer accepted is the fact that we are going to be owner occupied and going FHA. Multiplexes have been ridiculously cheap in the fresno area , so wholesalers and all cash buyers have been swooping up everything as soon as they hit the market. We have made over 25 offers and in some cases offered 30K more than the asking price and were still outbid. We have concessions asking for closing costs and require seller to repair anything FHA requires - so I can understand that many offers probably looked more attractive than ours, especially if they are cash offers - however , we agreed in the beginning what we were willing to ask for and where we would bend.

After 5 months of near hits, we finally found the perfect place. A triplex of 2b/ 1b units single story with 1 car garage and laundry room. All newer fixtures and tile floors and counters in all units -
its located on a quiet cul de sac and has plenty of parking and no neighbors to either side.

The owner has had it for long time and did want to sell to a flipper or manager , but wanted an owner occupied buyer so he was even though we offered 14k less than his asking , he came back at 205k and is paying towards closing , and all FHA required repairs.

It's a really amazing payoff after all these months of searching. We are really excited about getting back into property management. I am considering looking for more property as soon as the dust settles and see if maybe I can wholesale it - try to make enough for a down on another multiplex - perhaps a duplex this time since the down will have to be 20% as it would not be owner occupied.

In any case, I wanted to share this experience with everybody and remind anyone who has not been getting offers accepted that if you stick to it and keep going after properties - it's a numbers game and persistence pays off. personally , as frustrated as I have been getting, I still feel lucky that it only took us 5 months - my sister took 6 months just to get an SFR offer accepted and I have seen a lot of other horror stories on the site.

The mortgage will be $1162 and the it is fully rented right now at $750- 775 a month. We couldn't be more pleased. At this point the only thing ( i think) that could mess things up is if the appraisal doesn't come in high enough - fingers crossed. If all goes well we should be closing by mid november. Just in case, we are still looking out for other opportunities. Never give up!!

[Jay Orlauski]

quick update .. the property appraised for $30K less than the agreed upon price. At first I was really disheartened , figuring the seller would run as FHA would not loan on it - but the seller dropped the price by 30K and the deal went pretty smooth. Now that we've had it for a couple weeks and met the tenants - we are still very please with our investment and our incredible luck. Been waiting for the hammer to fall, but so far everything seem to be in good order. There is certainly some deferred maintenance we would like to address , but nothing that is urgent or cutting into our immediate cash flow.