All Forum Posts by: Alecia Loveless

Investment Info:

Small multi-family (2-4 units) buy & hold investment in Lancaster.

Purchase price: $240,000
Cash invested: $65,000

Beautiful 4-plex in prime condition. Has needed very little maintenance. Coin op washer and dryer.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Was looking for a multi family and found this on the MLS a little outside my home community.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

Looking on the MLS. Tried to negotiate the price a little lower to make the numbers better but the seller was firm and then the appraisal was spot on.

How did you finance this deal?

Conventional 30 year. 25% down.

How did you add value to the deal?

Haven’t done much it’s the nicest multi I’ve seen in this region in the 20 years I’ve been investing.

What was the outcome?

I’m enjoying owning it and so far the tenants have been great!

Lessons learned? Challenges?

I think when the keys to the laundry machines got transferred to me they didn’t all make it to me. The transfer happened post closing and I have a feeling one set stayed with the third party delivery person as I don’t seem to be getting much cash from them. Days that I am at the property frequently I receive a lot of money relatively, and if two weeks or so goes by I might only get $6 which is 3 loads. I suspect someone is taking the money. I’m working on a solution currently.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

Charlie Crannell of Peabody Smith Realty from their Franconia New Hampshire Office is my go to for everything real estate.

Then if you can source a deal BRRRR away!

@Ryan Newport I feel slightly better about the policy I just signed for a 2 building 3 unit that was $1956 that they said I could rebuild both buildings for $457,000.

The agent told me $50,000 of cyber coverage was $80 more and $100,000 of cyber coverage was about $150 more. This was the first time I have been offered this or have even heard of it. For any who do not know as I didn’t it’s in case you keep tenants data on your computer or with a company like apartments.com and it gets hacked and stolen and you are sued you can pay to settle with your tenants.

@Mich Copper If you have your own handyman he could move the two stoves at their expense to ensure nothing gets damaged. However for sure I’d insist on a plumber/gas company hooking up the lines billed to me and then I’d bill them for it.

@Bryan Rodas Hi Bryan. For a non-resident occupied rental you will need a 25% down payment plus your closing costs which are usually 3-5% of the purchase price but might be a big higher in NJ.

The mortgages will be based on your DTI, Debt to Income ratio which takes into consideration outstanding debts compared to your income and assets. If you are buying a rented multi family many banks will consider at least some of the rental income into this ratio as well.

I would recommend talking to a local bank or credit union to see what you can get pre approved for, this pre approval usually lasts 3-4 months. If you don’t think your timeframe is that fast you can get prequalified which will at least give you a ball park figure of what you amount you can buy. But you should start getting your documentation together so you will be ready when the time comes to submit it.

If neither you nor your father is handy I would probably steer clear of a BRRRR right now because most of the good contractors are all booked for the summer already which would give you holding costs until you could get someone to work on your property, materials are through the roof, and real estate prices are through the roof which means unless you buy a real dump you'll not be real likely to get something under market value. Some people still are getting stuff under value, I just think until you have a little experience it might be best to wait.

I think buy and hold is great, I’ve got several. I’m in a small market and if I had 40 more I could rent them all.

If you divide it in half and buy 2 that’s great, or a small multi if you can find one that works and get several rents might be better.

@Brennen Bridgeford There’s no time like today to pick a state and town and start building your team. The Midwest seems to be one of the hottest spots for new investors with one of the lowest costs of entry. There are great realtors, good property managers, and a lot of inventory to choose from. The cash flow is reported to be solid.

With a little interviewing you can find a great realtor who will help you find an excellent property in a solid neighborhood.

I know you can do this! I just started looking at the MLS one day and found my own property. It's harder to do out of state, but I've got the best realtor! He was with me every step of the way. Your realtor will be too!

Make that call today! Change your future!! Best of luck!

@Keenan Munro In the single families the tenant is responsible for all snow removal. However if there is a huge snowfall or a bunch accumulates you should have the roof cleared off.

In my small multis the tenants are responsible for shoveling out their own walkways and cars but I have the driveways plowed and sanded or salted accordingly. If there was only one sidewalk I might negotiate with one tenant to have it shoveled and sanded or salted. I’d pay for the sand/salt. Once again remember to do the roof if there is accumulation.

You also might want to dictate where snow can be plowed to or moved to. In one of my houses tenant plowed all the snow right up to the front of the house then as it melted it leaked through the wall and into the bedroom damaging the wall and flooring.

@Kegan B. I’d recommend doing both the walk through with the inspector and the contractor.

I am buying a property that I had my contractor walk through and he gave me some estimates to finish an unfinished unit but didn’t really find much wrong with the two buildings on the site.

I had the inspector out and he found some major issues. My contractor got a second contractor to come give an estimate on the repairs the inspector had found. This second contractor had run a very large construction company in Massachusetts for about 25 years and now works “retired” jobs for his past time. He quoted me $100,000 to fix the issues.

At that point I decided I could take or leave the property and lowered my offer by $100,000. The seller countered and I said no, I was firm at the new low price. The realtor advised the seller to take it. She did. I’m about to close on my new property.

Im in the process of lining up the workers to begin repairing the problems, but without both the inspector and the contractors I would have either gotten a dangerous building, or not gotten a deal on it.

@Mary Jay In my state the bank is responsible for creating an Assignment of Leases which is then given to the buyer and it says the leases have been transferred to the new owner.

I am in the process of buying a new building, scheduled to close on Monday. Monday we discovered the bank at my previous closing did not provide me with the Assignment of Leases. My loan officer has been trying to find the documents from the February 2021 closing, no one has them. Today I had to contact all of the tenants in that building to have them sign a new lease. One lease was up for renewal, one tenant was happy to help, one man was suspicious and is “thinking it over” and the fourth tenant I have not heard from yet.

I’ve had to ask the Seller for an extension of the closing.

Make sure you get whatever your state requires for the Assignment of Leases. If it’s bank provided like mine, or something else. I’m paying the price of a newbies mistake.

@Chad Chalmers I’d stick with BiggerPockets and the pro membership for the content on it. The bookstore is great, the calculators will help you analyze all sorts of deals, there’s free webinars once a week, and the podcasts and the forums are great as you’ve discovered. For me $5,000-20,000 is a down payment or the start of one. I wouldn’t waste it on a guru.

In my market you can get a work horse property, nothing glamorous, that will rent for about $950 a month for $85,000 if you wait for it to come on the market. You may have to put some sweat equity into it initially like painting the interior or some yard sprucing up, but it will cash flow $150-200 after the mortgage, taxes, and expenses are paid each month which isn’t bad. So with that $20,000 instead of a guru you can put down 20% on your first deal and pay for closing costs too.

In other markets you can find ok deals for $50,000-60,000. Particularly in the Midwest. There is a book on Out Of State Investing in the BiggerPockets bookstore if you go that route. The best time to buy your first property was yesterday. The next best time is today. Learn first, but save your money to buy with.