All Forum Posts by: George Fitz

@Larry Watson Another vote for @Scott Meyers. I attended one of his academies and found it extremely useful. I'm in the business now and have relied heavily on the knowledge I learned there. Hearing about what you're looking to do, I think you'd get a lot out of attending.

@Christopher George No rsvp necessary. All you need to do is show up. It's very laid back. They do it every second Saturday of the month- same time, same place. Jeff usually posts something on BP reminding people.

Here you go, courtesy of Jeff:

LA Unofficial BP meetup

Time of Event:04/9/2016 at 11:00AM
Location:The UnUrban Cafe, 3301 Pico Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90404
Fee to Attend:Free

Come join us for some great networking. Meet with fellow investors and BPers? What help do you need to move onto the next step?

Meet with fellow investors in the LA area.

Time of Event: 4/9/2016 from 11:00AM to 2.00PM

Location: The UnUrban Cafe, 3301 Pico Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90404

Parking: There is 2 hour FREE parking on Urban Ave and metered spots on Pico Blvd

@Larry Watson There are several top-notch self storage management companies that provide full turnkey operations for you and will also advise you during feasibility and construction. This may be where you want to start. Feel free to PM me if you want any names. You will need enough scale to justify the cost, but it's the way to go in my opinion. Let the experts run it and get it leased up while you focus on the next deal. 

Can you negotiate a cap when you go to refi the 7/1 ARM? That's the first thing I'd try.

Welcome Christopher. And nice last name :-) 

@Jeff Greenberg hosts a meetup for LA area investors every 2nd Saturday of the month. I've been to a few and it's a great place to network with fellow investors without costs or pitches.  

Is your partner agreeable to a 50% stake? If so, form an LLC and get going. I don't work with partners normally, but people find deals and then bring in other people's money to close them all the time. I don't think you're missing anything, as long as you have an agreeable partner. Of course, make sure you have an attorney looking out for you before you sign off on the partnership agreement.

@Account ClosedMost states keep the LLC filings online on the their secretary of state's website. These will normally list the LLC members along with their mailing addresses. A lot of times the tax bill address will be the business address and will not have the owner's names. These letters probably end up in the hands of a bookkeeper. But I've had really good luck getting letters through to owners by finding their home or office addresses from the LLC filings. And if there are multiple partners, you'll usually get an address for each so that you can send them each a letter.

Lots of good suggestions so far. Have you talked to any banks about getting a loan yet? Do you know where the financials need to be in order to get the debt you want?  I'd imagine the lack of cash flow is going to be a barrier, so owner financing seems the logical way to go. Here are a few options to try:

1) 100% owner financing.

2) Bring in multiple silent partners and raise enough of a cash downpayment to obtain financing.

3) Sign a purchase agreement with current owners, contingent on getting the NOI up to a certain number that will ensure financing. Then, take over management yourself, paying yourself commission on new occupancies. Once you get the property up to the target NOI, apply for the loan and close the sell. Low risk to you, but you might have a hard time getting the owners to sign off on this deal.

4) A similar approach to #3, but if sellers won't go for the purchase agreement, get a right of first refusal.

Good luck, and let us know what happens.

The SBA is a great recommendation. I talked to a couple of SBA lenders when I was shopping my sefl-storage loan and I was told that the downpayment is based on how the property performs. Evidently there is actually no minimum downpayment from what I understand. I know for sure they will go as high as 90% LTV. I didn't go with them as the rates are little higher, but still pretty good. PM me if you want a couple of contacts at banks that specialize in SBA loans for self-storage. Good luck!