All Forum Posts by: Demetri T.

I rent a downtown unit to several college boys.   They are great, always pay on time and are actually quite respectful to neighbors.  However, we don't have dedicated parking and they have to park on public streets.  There are a couple of spots very close to the unit that are only for 2 hour parking.  They called me to see if there was anything I could do about all the parking tickets they were getting for parking in the short term parking spots. 

I am not sure what they wanted- my only answer was- "stop parking there".  

Before I knew about Bigger Pockets I had purchased two houses (both initially as primary residences) and two commercial buildings (the first one where I had my office).   But it had been several months and I had several rejected offers and struggles finding another deal.  I was getting annoyed and reading up on ideas on how to finance deals and how to find them when I stumbled upon BiggerPockets.  Literally the day I registered with BiggerPockets I got a phone call at my office...

I am a lawyer (personal injury aka ambulance chaser) by trade and my CPA called to see if I could handle a landlord tenant case for a client of his with an apartment complex.  I told him I didn't and gave him a referral for another lawyer.  A minute later I sent back a one sentence email to my CPA saying "...but I will buy the place from him".  At that point I knew nothing about the project but small town connections are how I got my other projects.  He put me in contact with the owner and it really snowballed from there.

We met and discussed his complex- he said it was 24 units and gave me some back of a napkin numbers.  I did some more research on the property and it looked really good.  He had sold it on a contract before and had to take it back from that buyer 5 years ago.  He had subsequently cleaned it up- both physically and improving the tenants.  

Apparently I could not have picked a better time to ask about buying the apartments.  He had a problem tenant which I knew.  But he had been retired for several years and it seemed like a good time to get out of the apartments.  Then on top of that his wife was having some health issues and it just seemed providential that I came along at just that moment.

We both came to the same price and then they decided they didn't really even want as much money down as I was offering- they didn't want the tax hit.  So they ended up carrying nearly the entire contract because all they wanted was the income monthly from me.

Long story short, 2 days shy of my 36th birthday I closed on a 24 unit complex less than two months after I had ever heard of it.  My favorite part of the story is that it wasn't for sale.  

Another fun part is that I ended up using a line of credit for the down payment so I literally have no cash out of pocket on this one.  This is actually kind of deceptive because I have another property I am in the middle of refinancing and this will clear out that line of credit almost immediately- but still I used my other property to buy this one... so its not that deceptive.

Joe,

I'm here in Oregon as well.  I would just keep shopping it to another bank.  If your value is correct just tell them how much $$ you need to purchase and tell them they can have the first mortgage.

Most banks just want the LTV (loan to value) to be 70%. Sounds like you got a banker who didnt know what to do. If it is your first property maybe the banker is just being cautious with you...?

If you keep having trouble feel free to PM me and I'll put you in touch of some of the banks I use down here.

Demetri

I'm from a small town just south of Portland.  I started (and still am) an attorney but I find a great deal more pleasure (and much less stress) out of my growing real estate holdings.  So far I am only a buy and hold guy with a couple of commercial buildings and a couple of houses.  Everyday I am looking to expand.  I am a firm believer that there is nothing new under the sun so just looking for what works.