All Forum Posts by: Ian Fisher

Hi all

Hoping I can tap the great collective knowledge here once more...

I own a few properties, all single family, all free and clear. I'm now starting to put leverage on them. Working through the application process on the first one, the lender has insisted I obtain o&e reports on every one of the other properties as a condition before approving this mortgage. These reports evidently cost $150 each - so if I have to do that on a number of unencumbered properties every time I apply for a mortgage on one property, this really starts to add up. Any advice on how to either reduce / remove the cost or the requirement?

Many thanks!

Hi Abby, I may have a lead for you - am in the same boat, living in HK. Send me an email on [email protected] if you like.

Thanks Joe.

Hi all

I rent properties using a property manager, but am quite hands on in that I want to make the decisions myself regarding which rental applications to accept and reject. The property manager provides me copies of the applications, but recently has stopped including the credit reports due to apparently new federal laws. How have others dealt with this? I clearly need access to the credit reports in order to make an informed decision, but this doesn't seem so easy these days. Any thoughts? Many thanks in advance!

Many thanks Dan, will send you a separate reply.

Hi all

I've only recently begun reading BiggerPockets, but let me just say I am already heavily in debt to all of you for a ton of useful information, and can only hope to start repaying that in some small way over time. Apologies that this is a rather long note!

First a little context:

- I've been investing in US real estate for around 5 years now, primarily flipping with a local JV partner (/ service provider: he takes a fee for service and is compensated based on the success of each deal, but does not take an equity position)

- More recently I've become interested in buy-and-hold - for a range of reasons, but primarily because I have recently discovered it should be possible for me to get quite a large amount of leverage (I'm a US citizen living overseas, so initially found that quite difficult, but seem to have found at least a couple of lenders who will work with me)

- As such I am now focused on building up as large a portfolio as I can - to maximize the amount of principal paydown being done by tenants on my mortgages and to leverage the flexibility my employment income gives me as much as possible. I have a pretty healthy amount of my own capital, but am definitely convinced that leverage can rapidly accelerate the growth of my business

- At the same time I've recently converted my Roth IRA into a Roth IRA LLC, and so have those funds available to deploy as well

Now to my questions...

- When it comes to financing, two key limitations I've come up against are

1. seasoning periods. Specifically, the lender I'm currently speaking with will require me to wait 6-12 months after purchase until I can take out a mortgage that exceeds the purchase price. My typical deals (example numbers only) might be 40K purchase, 30K rehab, 100K ARV - so in an ideal world I would want to take out the whole 70K in one shot as quickly as possible after purchasing / rehabbing, whereas currently I'd be limited to taking out 40K first (and in fact plenty of lenders would understandably decline to even lend at that low an amount) and then the remaining 30K after 6-12 months - so two sets of fees and hassle, and more importantly a slower pace of building up the portfolio than I'd like

2. LTV limits. Specifically, the lender I'm currently speaking with will go up to 75% (properties 1-4) / 70% (properties 5-10) / 60% (properties 11+) LTV. In an ideal world I'd look for more like 75-80% on an ongoing / unlimited number of properties basis if it were available

Is anyone aware of a nationwide lender who might be worth talking to and also would be ok working with me living overseas? An alternative way to solve at least the first problem might be a bridge lender, and I'm open to consider this but so far have hesitated as I've believed that the terms would not be attractive

- With my Roth IRA LLC, I originally thought about doing more buy-and-holds (with non-recourse leverage) or continuing to flip, but neither of those seems so attractive given UBTI / UDFI implications. So my current thinking is to rather lend the funds to my local service provider on an arm's length basis on terms that would provide a similar economic return to what we each would have earned on flips under the old (non-IRA) structure. Two questions I'm thinking about: 1) does this seem like a viable option / the best option for these funds?; 2) if yes, can anyone point me to someone who could help structure the documentation for this?

More broadly I'm also open to other business discussions, anyone who can bring deals or other services that could be a win-win.

Many thanks!

Ian

Any more thoughts? Thanks for all the advice so far - I have found some options but they all require 6-12 month seasoning period. That's certainly still attractive, but if I can find either a long-term lender who doesn't require that or else a bridging solution (at reasonable cost), then it will speed up my business considerably. Thanks very much for all the thoughts so far! P.S. I would be willing to consider a commission to anyone who can make a successful referral for this - please send me a message if you're interested.

Any more thoughts? Thanks for all the advice so far - I have found some options but they all require 6-12 month seasoning period. That's certainly still attractive, but if I can find either a long-term lender who doesn't require that or else a bridging solution (at reasonable cost), then it will speed up my business considerably. Thanks very much for all the thoughts so far!

Thank you!

Thank you Pyrrha and great to hear from a fellow expat - it is indeed difficult! I will keep looking and let you know if I have any luck. Just out of curiosity, which state are you active in?