All Forum Posts by: Eric Mcginn

It’s been a long journey since I’ve posted this. 
Weve been doing the STR thing.

Started on VRBO and Airbnb but then got rid of VRBO to make is simpler. 

I think we have a 4.86 stars which I’m proud of. 
here is the listing. 
https://abnb.me/j6PKj7nEodb

being an hour and a half away, I’ve been lucky to find a full time neighbor who has done the cleaning. 

But it’s been a lot of work. 
WAAAAY more than my LTRs on the other side of the country. 

So after more than two years self managing, I’m going to move on to Vacasa management company and hopefully enjoy a more hands off approach while allowing for profits by everyone via faster turn over and price optimization. 

We worked our way up to $125 for weekends but it still just barely covers the mortgage and all expenses. They think they can get $180 for it and I’m happy to let them at this point. 

We got an excellent deal on our beautiful Rimforest Cabin and the numbers just barely work out so be willing to look long term too, our estimated value is up ~50% in 3 years!! and at the end of the day, we get to go use it some weekends and it is absolutely wonderful. We went sledding and enjoyed driving our old beast 1990 explorer 4x4 places no one else could go, and enjoying the beauty of it all! 

 Thank you for the response! Ok that's more or less what I was thinking although I didn't quite realize how problematic it can be to refinance a condo, agent mentioned issues with one since it's all investor owned but didn't realize it was a common issue. I'm not that into the idea of a condo anyways so I'll be taking that off my list of possibilities. 

I'll start with the main question,

How hard is it to cash out refinance a SFH Vs duplex vs quadplex vs a condo?

Any of the above would be a long term rental, not a primary residence for me, the owner. What's the difference like in actuality? Any caveats? Looking to make my next purchase largely based on the liquidity because right now I'm having a minor issue with that. 

I have a bunch of equity in my first deal which went fantastically and is cash flowing well and gained tons of value. I was ready to use some equity to buy a restaurant building when covid hit, my local bank killed the deal. I looked into alternative financing to leverage my equity to purchase the building and hit a wall. 

It wasn't the restaurant aspect, it was my property that I wasn't able to refinance with ANYONE

it's currently a portfolio loan with local credit union. I bought it as two duplexes on one lot, one condemned with structural damage the other ok. I bought it hard money loan and tore the condemned building down then refid with credit union and then worked with city to place a HUD approved mobile home (1979 I think) on a slab foundation etc etc. It looks great, tenants love it and get a great deal on rent.

Anyways, that's the problem for refinancing. No one will refinance with mobile home on property, no, it's not the year. It's the fact that it's there. And I assume because it's part of the recently appraised value which I was hoping to utilize. 

It's pretty convoluted to explain but what I've decided to do is stick with my bank and work with them to use every penny of my accessible equity to buy another property outright which I will be able to later easily leverage with any national Bank. So I just want to make sure if I get a duplex there won't be any issues Im not thinking of. 

How do you find your buyers? Just regular agents? 

All in Maine 
Let me start with my latest deal, which is falling apart. Restaurant building for $80k, I was going to get a second mortgage on my 3 unit rental with my current bank to be the downpayment restaurant building. They spooked, decided to drop it, so I’ve been looking at other banks. 
Turns out the restaurant and coronavirus issue isn’t my only issue. The property in which I have a ton of equity (relative to myself) is a duplex with an additional single wide on a foundation for a total of 3 units. It was appraised recently at $283k when I used $45k of it’s equity towards a down payment on a quad plex and I owe $78k on the original mortgage. 

So my issue I guess is an issue of liquidity. Banks are saying the won't refinance with a mobile home on the property. I want to pull and utilize that equity to hopefully realize a gain on it, but my current bank (commercial loan, LLC, local bank portfolio loan), is currently preventing me from doing that, at least to use towards a downpayment (or even full payment!) of this restaurant building.

Additionally, in the future (maybe a year or two) I would like to use some of the equity towards a downpayment the next state over which the local bank doesn’t do mortgages on. 
How can I pull my equity? 

@Jacob R. Crosby 

Nice, it's a great neighborhood! I'm the proud new owner of 1 Allen St. 

I put in about 70 hours the past 5 days fixing it up and am at a good point now where I can hopefully relax for a little bit and collect rent haha. 

How about you? You are purchasing under your name or you have LLC? What areas?

 Hi Jacob, did you end up investing? 

I just bought a 4plex in Springvale neighborhood of Sanford Maine, seems like it will work out very nicely. 

I was lucky to get into Biddo early with a 3 unit but now the market there is unaffordable, so I'm really liking the prospect of Sanford. I'm not super familiar with the town but worked near Smittys commuting from Arundel for several months about 10 years ago and it seems like it's got better since then in terms of general condition of buildings and roads etc. Seems like it's on an upward trend? But it's a bit hard to find much actual data on it. 

I think Sanford needs something for the community to come together around. More parks and beaches and ice skating at the ponds maybe? It's a beautiful area and I plan to invest a bit more, can't beat the prices. 

my lender is a local credit union that I believe would love to have it in their portfolio, so that should be an issue. 

Just the the property that is. It’s currently occupied by a great Jamaican restaurant. The numbers work out well, low sales price, should appreciate well over time. Why shouldn’t I want to own a restaurant? 
I currently own a duplex, sfr, and a quadplex. 
The price is so low that it wouldn’t even be a huge deal if it were vacant for a few months and to be honest I do want to open a brew pub with my brother some day. But for now it seems to be doing well as is.