All Forum Posts by: Nick Myerhoff

Thanks for the advise. It's a valid point. It may be that my sellers are just not ready to part with their properties. Perhaps I should be discussing what they will do with their money after the sale and get them excited about that.

I live in the san francisco bay area and my goal has been to buy one building every year through the downturn. I have my eye on a nice 9 unit building but my partner is saying that with the European debt crisis there might be better buying opportunities in the months to come. Any ideas out there about buying? Is it better to buy or hold for 3 months?

Nick Myerhoff
http://www.bayapartmentbroker.wordpress.com/

Branden, are you talking about adding to the principal pay down? If so I would suggest squirreling away the money rather than paying down the mortgage. You can never have enough cash reserves when investing especially now. You may find a great deal and need that money. I would open a separate account and start saving again for another purchase down the road.

Hi Darren, perhaps you should consider trading into commercial property. One of the great reasons I stick with multi family housing is because there are no limits to the amount of loans you can have and they are easier to qualify for now. You can buy an apartment building with 20% down and still cash flow in many areas. I think it's a great strategy to buy smaller buildings and exchange them into larger cash flowing assets.

Hello Eric, it sounds like you are waiting for bank approval or even investor approval. It could take a long time. Hopefully you have a good agent helping you. My suggestion is that you don't wait for anyone or anything. If you are actively investing, you need to get people in your corner that are going to be aggressive and communicate very well. Perhaps you need to put more feelers out there and increase your sphere of influence.

I have met with two apartment building owners in the past month who have decided not to sell. I am a broker and wondering if anybody has had experience helping their clients jump off the fence and actually agree to sell their property. Many owners have an emotional attachment which hampers the process.

Daniel, this is a great question. If you lived near me I would love to meet with you but the strategies are the same. There are so many ways to start buying cash flow properties, it is very creative. My suggestion is to read as many books as you can and come up with a budget. Go to network events and get to know a couple investors and brokers in your area. I think the best kind of property to start with is a duplex or triplex. Buy it for the med to long term, about 5-10 years min. Partners can be great but don't wait to find the perfect person, just go for it, but research carefully before jumping in. I would recommend financing but not over leaveraging yourself. Try to put 40% down if you can and get a longer term loan, 7 years if possible.

I bought a short sale 4-plex last year and it took months to get it done. While i would agreee its not a good idea to just write one offer and wait, it also can pay to be persistent. The way I closed on my purchase was to be very aggressive. I called the agent all the time and when she needed something I got it to her quickly. I would suggest getting on the phone often and making the agent your friend as much as possible.

This is a great question. I own multiple properties some with partners. Recently one of my partners has insisted that we put our 4-plex into an LLC for liability protection. My other partner who owns many properties does not want to bother with the LLC, but rather has excess umbrella coverage and landlord protection policies. All my reading points towards the higher your net worth, the more you need an LLC for protection.