All Forum Posts by: Brad L.

Normally when someone says C- or D+, it's definitely a D area. If your criteria was B only and this was a solid C, I'd say do more due diligence and maybe consider it. However, D is a completely different ballgame.

When it comes to my own personal investing, I set my criteria when I started and haven't swayed yet. Almost did once, and looking back I would have regretted it. Probably would have made money, but not worth it.

Originally posted by @Jay Hinrichs:

Originally posted by @Brad L.:

I didn't realize you close at 9 AM tomorrow, my advice obviously wouldn't work on a 4 business hour timeline. 

Did the attorney/title company not send out a title commitment, which showed this old unsatisfied mortgage, prior to this afternoon or did they miss the mortgage in their title search? If so, that's pretty bad and I'm confused on how your Lender got your loan this far.

Regardless, good luck. I hope it works out for you.

closings have gotten so sloppy over the years you have to pretty much demand to get a copy of the title commitment thye just don't send them to you.. but most buyers just trust their closer to say title is good or not.  

That's unfortunate, very different from here. Always have title commitment in hand 10 days before closing at the latest.

I didn't realize you close at 9 AM tomorrow, my advice obviously wouldn't work on a 4 business hour timeline. 

Did the attorney/title company not send out a title commitment, which showed this old unsatisfied mortgage, prior to this afternoon or did they miss the mortgage in their title search? If so, that's pretty bad and I'm confused on how your Lender got your loan this far.

Regardless, good luck. I hope it works out for you.

Full disclosure, recording a satisfaction of mortgage here is only $30.00 and may be significantly more expensive in your municipality.

If I were in your situation and if I had your same concerns I would have the Lender overnight the unrecorded satisfaction of mortgage to my attorney and I would take it to the Register of Deeds myself to have it recorded.

However, I don't really see this any differently than if the Seller were to have a currently active mortgage. Just get proof, in writing, from the Lender that the mortgage was paid in full and the satisfaction of mortgage will be recorded within xx days. Would be the same if they were paying off a mortgage at closing and the Lender had to provide a payoff letter.

Just my $0.02

@Daniel Burant I just listed my home for a $300 flat fee mls listing, with 2% to buyer’s agent. Shop around

@Ned Carey In WI we actually have a lot of side-by-side duplexes that are one tax parcel #. In my city of 35,000 there are at least 50 of them. To answer OP’s question, at least here, there is a huge difference in side-by-side vs. upper/lower with side-by-side typically commanding higher rent and having a higher quality applicant pool. That being said, to be fair our side-by-sides were generally all built in 1990 or newer, while the upper/lowers are significantly older.

@Dawn Young You can ask local banks what they've seen for cap rates on self-storage in the area to see if the price that works for you is a realistic offer. Just because one hasn't sold recently doesn't mean there hasn't been a new loan/refi that required an appraisal.

@Dawn Young Although I live within 10 minutes of our facility, I’m still transitioning into using combination disc locks and online rent payments. Tenant calls initially, and I tell them to download the lease from the website, review it, ask any questions. Then they need to pay the month’s rent + deposit, after which I assign unit number & they complete the lease and return it to me. After I have lease + rent and deposit, I provide combination to the lock on the unit. The combination can be changed after a tenant vacates. I used to use padlocks, but it‘s expensive up front and also re-keying when keys get lost, and I had to meet with tenants to provide the key. I understand this system isn’t perfect, but it should keep me from wasting time meeting tenants when about 25% of callers never show up to the scheduled meeting anyways. Last, timing is everything in storage. If you get a call and can’t meet right away, a lot of renters will just move to the next facility on their google search. So being able to lease without having to meet gives you the ability to put a renter in a unit at any time, even if you’re out of town.

There's definitely still money to be made, but are you considering new build or purchasing an existing facility? There are a ton of value-add opportunities out there for self storage, which makes purchasing an existing facility a much better option in my opinion. Obviously a lot of facilities are overpriced right now, but finding absentee owners with dilapidated facilities isn't super difficult. The main advantage purchasing an existing facility provides is some income while you are stabilizing the property; even if the owner only has 30% occupancy, that's better than starting from scratch with debt service payments. I know others may disagree, and that's fine.

I own one facility locally, and am looking to purchase another locally within the next 6-8 months. I am only interested in investing in facilities within a 20 minute drive from me, but I know there are a lot of self-storage operators making good money remotely by having kiosk systems in place. I just need to be more hands-on with my investments. I cut the grass, plow the snow, etc.

When you say he isn’t listed as the owner, where are you looking? Property tax websites are unreliable, as they are typically only updated around the time tax bills are sent out, which is only once a year in my county. Theoretically, property could change hands multiple times without property tax website ever being updated. If you’re looking through chain of title on the register of deeds, that’s a different story.