All Forum Posts by: Vahe Ohannessian

Hi Kristian, are you asking about resources for getting the funding, or what to do once he has the funding?  Depending on his experience and tolerance for risk, he could be a money partner for investors who have deals but not the cash. But it's hard to advise without more details about the situation.

Investment Info:

Large multi-family (5+ units) other investment.

Purchase price: $600,000
Sale price: $4,200,000

Purchased land with existing 3 rented townhouses (separate building) and approvals for 11 more units. Purchased for $600,000, using 50% seller carry-back and 50% private money from two individuals. Converted 3 rental townhouses to condos and sold them first, paying off the debt, leaving remaining land free and clear with approvals to build. Obtained construction financing to build 11 units. Presold all units using on-site open houses during construction using Virtual Reality.

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

I'm an architect and builder and this is what I absolutely love - designing and building new projects, and in this case, acting as my own client!

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

I found the deal on a Bigger Pockets post by a wholesaler who had already negotiated a price with the owner, but was not able to get what he was asking for. We simply wrote an agreement that I would pay him an agreeable fee for bringing me the deal, in exchange for connecting me directly with the sellers. I met with the sellers and negotiated a lower price that worked for them, including the sellers financing 50% of the purchase price. I paid the Bigger Pockets wholesaler later as agreed.

How did you finance this deal?

This property and the strategy was very unique. The sellers were an older couple who did not want to complete the 14-unit project. They had built a 3-unit building but couldn't sell in 2008-2009, so they rented. I purchased it a decade later with land and approvals for 11 more units as a 2nd building. Sellers held 50% of purchase price, and 50% came from two private lenders. I converted and sold the units as condos, paid off the debt. The free and clear land allowed me to get construction loan.

How did you add value to the deal?

The creative financing was a major value-add. And since I'm a licensed architect and contractor, I was able to streamline a lot of the moving parts to the project and maintain control. I'm also a licensed RE agent but I decided to hire a broker friend who was the #1 agent in Attleboro and North Attleboro for many years, and she did a great job! We put our ideas together and collaborated on a couple of open houses during construction using Virtual Reality which we do in my design practice.

What was the outcome?

Overall I would say this was a moderately successful project. The COVID shutdown was a major factor in slowing us down, including financing for construction. We ended up buying construction materials at the worst time of inflation, but we also sold the units pretty close to the peak of the market.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

If your deal is not a straightforward transaction, especially if there's "phased" construction or anything that's out of the norm, GET AN ATTORNEY WITH EXPERIENCE IN THAT SPECIFIC UNIQUE SITUATION! In my case my first attorney had done multi-unit residential projects but not a "Phased" development. So at one point after selling the 3 units, I did not own anything legally! It took 6 months to clean up the legal docs with unit owners, their lenders, and my new attorney so I could build on my land!

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

Attorney Michael Larosa is amazing! mlarosalaw.com
Lori Seavey Realty Team: LoriSeavey.com

Investment Info:

Large multi-family (5+ units) other investment.

Purchase price: $600,000
Sale price: $4,200,000

Purchased land with existing 3 rented townhouses (separate building) and approvals for 11 more units. Purchased for $600,000, using 50% seller carry-back and 50% private money from two individuals. Converted 3 rental townhouses to condos and sold them first, paying off the debt, leaving remaining land free and clear with approvals to build. Obtained construction financing from semi-private lender. Property had already been approved for 11 units but I redesigned the interiors to maximize space and create open layouts. Obtained permits and built 11 units in one L-shaped building. We conducted open houses on site during construction with "Virtual Reality experience" of finished product. As a result all 11 units were sold with P&S agreements signed during construction in fall of 2021. All sales closed upon obtaining occupancy permits in spring of 2022.

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

I'm an architect and builder and this is what I absolutely love - designing and building new projects, and in this case, acting as my own client!

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

I found the deal on a Bigger Pockets post by a wholesaler who had already negotiated a price with the owner, but was not able to get what he was asking for. We simply wrote an agreement that I would pay him an agreeable fee for bringing me the deal, in exchange for connecting me directly with the sellers. I met with the sellers and negotiated a lower price that worked for them, including the sellers financing 50% of the purchase price. I paid the Bigger Pockets wholesaler later as agreed.

How did you finance this deal?

This property and the strategy was very unique. The sellers were an older couple who did not want to complete the 14-unit project. They had built a 3-unit building but couldn't sell in 2008-2009, so they rented. I purchased it a decade later with land and approvals for 11 more units as a 2nd building. Sellers held 50% of purchase price, and 50% came from two private lenders. I converted and sold the units as condos, paid off the debt. The free and clear land allowed me to get construction loan.

How did you add value to the deal?

The creative financing was a major value-add. And since I'm a licensed architect and contractor, I was able to streamline a lot of the moving parts to the project and maintain control. I'm also a licensed RE agent but I decided to hire a broker friend who was the #1 agent in Attleboro and North Attleboro for many years, and she did a great job! We put our ideas together and collaborated on a couple of open houses during construction using Virtual Reality which we do in my design practice.

What was the outcome?

Overall I would say this was a moderately successful project. The COVID shutdown was a major factor in slowing us down, including financing for construction. We ended up buying construction materials at the worst time of inflation, but we also sold the units pretty close to the peak of the market.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

If your deal is not a straightforward transaction, especially if there's "phased" construction or anything that's out of the norm, GET AN ATTORNEY WITH EXPERIENCE IN THAT SPECIFIC UNIQUE SITUATION! In my case my first attorney had done multi-unit residential projects but not a "Phased" development. So at one point after selling the 3 units, I did not own anything legally! It took 6 months to clean up the legal docs with unit owners, their lenders, and my new attorney so I could build on my land!

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

Attorney Michael Larosa is amazing! mlarosalaw.com
Lori Seavey Realty Team: LoriSeavey.com

Hi Josh, glad to see you working your way to success!

I'm just outside of Boston so I don't do Western MA but if you can message me some information on the deals you have, I may be able to find someone that can work with you. For each of your six deals, provide an address, and what you'd like to do with it - wholesale, flip, rehab and rent, etc.

Look forward to hearing from you!

Vahe Ohannessian

Thank you all for your responses. They determined that there were additional requirements for them to do the loan which I could not meet, so we've parted ways. Perhaps that's a sign that they weren't just looking for an upfront fee from me and they're legit, but I can't be sure.

For those who were asking, the terms were 10% and anywhere between 5-10 points, which we didn't get far enough to nail down.

Hi everyone, just curious if anyone has heard of or done any business with David Shell, of Secured Lending Solutions? The website looks legit, there's a picture of him and his wife Shelley Shell. I'm using the phone number on the website to speak with him directly. And there's a physical address in Ohio on the website, along with a PO for their second location in Tennessee. I also found a registration of the LLC and his name on the OHIO.gov website, though it was only filed recently on June 12, 2023.

The website www.SecuredLendingSolutions.com comes up fine on my office computer and my phone, but at home my anti-virus program says the website is being blocked because it's "infected" with a "URL:Blacklist". I looked that up and that's not technically an infection, it's just saying the site may not be safe so the anti-virus blocks it. That's the only thing that's making me wonder if this could be a scam. Other than that nothing fishy in my conversations, no upfront fees being asked for, just a private loan of $200K-$300K on a property with over $1M equity.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

@Kaustubh Johri If I understand correctly, your friend purchased a property that was rehabbed and completed, and later found out that the permit was not closed. I myself am an architect and contractor, and that happened to me by mistake. I completed a construction job for a homeowner, a couple of years later they were trying to sell it, and they couldn't sell it until they closed out the open permit. This came up because the buyer had a good attorney who did their homework at the city and found out there was an open permit. So the sellers (my clients) contacted me, I cooperated and got the inspector to come out and review my work and close out the permit. In your friend's case, the closing actually happened with an open permit on the property. The fact is that the permit should have a licensed contractor's name on it - the person who applied for the permit. On a rare occasion it could be the previous owner/seller but it's probably a third party contractor. What I would do is, contact the seller and see if they will resolve it. If they don't cooperate, find out who pulled that permit - most jurisdictions nowadays have an online record that is public - if not, they can go to the building department and find out. Then reach out to whomever pulled that permit, and ask them to deal with the city and close out the permit. If they don't cooperate, their license could be put in danger by someone like your buyer friend who can file a claim at the state against their license. I hope this helps.

@Julia Tran I agree with @Sonny Vu. I'm an architect myself, and it sounds like you don't need a licensed architect or structural engineer unless you're opening up walls that are load-bearing. Even if you are, an architect may be able to provide a beam size for one wall that needs to be openned up. I do that using software for simple structural design. More complicated structural changes would need a structural engineer. But back to the bottom line, there's a difference between a licensed architect and a designer. For simple jobs, a designer will be much less expensive to get the plans you need for permit. I would take up @Sonny Vu's offer to connect you with his contacts.

@Sara Blouin I'm an architect with an office in Watertown, MA. I've done work all around the greater Boston area including as far as Hingham and Cohasset. We're fairly busy but if you want to run your needs by me I can assess and see if we can help you or give you some direction. Send me a PM and we'll go from there.

Best regards,

Vahe Ohannessian, AIA

@Cody Beard Can you let me know what you actually found about privatemoneygoldmine.com that made you believe it's a scam?

Thanks!

Vahe Ohannessian