All Forum Posts by: Douglass Belt

i wanted to get feedback on if anyone has invested in flagstaff AZ. I am looking at either short term (vacation rentals) or long term year leases, single family or condo, buy & hold. Let  me know your  thoughts and/ or experience on the rental market there. Thanks!!

thanks @Laura Thorne and @Jake Hartnett. I will inquire!

Hey All- I am looking for a recommendation for a very good Real Estate attorney in the Minneapolis area that has experience with Family Limited Partnerships. Thanks!

Hey all,

  I apologize for the lack of response to your feedback as  have been traveling quite a bit for work lately. Thank you everyone for the input and you gave me a lot to think about. i thought I would update you on this situation for those that are interested. 

In short, i am passing on the deal and here is why. The deferred maintenance, selling price ($6+M), a lawsuit, and logistics all make this not worth it.  It is a 40 year old building and as I did a lot of inspecting of the property, there is quite a bit of repairs needed. (New roof on one section, HVAC, mold, illegal utility hook ups, sewer replacement, and elevator issues. Also, I found out that there is a lawsuit being filed from one of the tenants regarding mold issues, among other things. Also, with a full time job now, I think getting this deal up and running would be a full time job in itself and I just can't do that at this stage in my life with my family. I would like to in the future own a small retail building but do not feel that this would be a good "First Deal" in that arena!

  Again, thanks to those who provided input and expertise in this area. I really appreciate it and my takeaway was that this was a deal where, on the surface looked like a creative and doable deal, in reality, it was much more complicated for a "first timer" and should be for a more experienced investor.

Thank you for your responses and input @Joel Owens, @Dan Wallace, @Jessica Wilson. I did wonder if the current set up as a Family Limited Partnership would pose a problem. It sounds like it just makes this more tricky and perhaps not worth the expense. My point I was trying to describe regarding taxes was that instead of the family selling the property outright, and paying tax on say, $6M, then tax again on each partners share, they could sell to me, act as the bank, where I pay the partners a share monthly (e.g. $10K/month/partner)  and get taxed on the smaller portion over a 20 year timeframe (for instance). Again, no idea if this would/is feasible but trying to be "Creative". I do agree with you Dan that I will contact an accountant to run the scenario by them and go from there. 

I am very interested in commercial real estate, retail to be specific. I have watched this property for many years and learned a great deal about tenants, managing, etc over that time and feel like this would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to capitalize on somehow. Perhaps my almost "emotional" attachment and excitement about this property is clouding my judgment. I suspect it is somewhat like homes....."there will always be another....."

Good Morning!!

I scanned the vast corners of the Forums to find a discussion on this topic to no success, however, I am fully aware it may be my fault for missing it, or looking in the wrong places. That said, my question is this:

Does anyone have experience with seller financing of a retail strip center?

My situation is this: There may be an opportunity to buy a true NNN retail building that is owned outright by my in-laws. It is 100% full, and they may be looking to sell as it was passed onto the kids a few years ago as a Ltd Family Partnership. The 4 kids want to sell it now since the father just passed a few weeks ago. My thought is this- Rather than sell if for what I am guessing is around $6-8M and taking a huge chunk out for taxes both Fed and state, and then divide the leftover pie 4 ways, ($1m each??) is rather to sell it to us, and we provide each of them (4 Adults total) a monthly payment, almost like an annuity. I know you can do this with other types of properties such as SFH, or Multi's and my thought is, is there any reason you cannot do something like this on a retail building?

Has anyone done this type of thing with a retail center? If so, is this more/less complicated to do than other types of real estate as mentioned above? I would like to know how to structure this, and how to present this to the family in a professional way. I would be very interested in talking to someone and "Pick their brain" on how to go about something like this. Thanks!

Hey Guys,

   This sounds good and the Great Dane in Fitchburg works perfectly! Sunday works well, however would earlier in the day work around noon or so? It would work better for me but if the group likes 5 better than I can try to make it work.

I am game too for a group meetup. Sat or sun mornings for me may work. Keep me posted!

hi James, 

I am more than willing to meet up to discuss and would be more than willing to attend anything you set up or if you want to meet for coffee sometime

Oh good, that is good to know about Janesville. I always thought there is good opportunity there but not sure what the "climate" is like. thanks @Johann Kleisch!