All Forum Posts by: J. Mitchell Bernier

@Ken Minard Yes I still would. Real estate is more local than just a whole city, it’s individual neighborhoods where you can find good investments no matter what the crime rate is for the whole city.

I would be willing to bet that anyone who could of invested in Nashville TN 4 years ago would still be extremely happy with their choice.

@JR Rivas I don’t invest in Tallahassee yet, have been in Valdosta and Albany, but we are starting to look into that market.

I also am a commercial lender out of Bainbridge GA and have investor clients in the Tallahassee market as well.

Good luck!

@Jacki F. Unfortunately most times the appraiser will take out yours and just assign a market rent number or average rent number based off the other tenants. He/she will not use your own personal rent if it is not in line with the market or the building rents.

Good luck

@Michael Wong Zach is absolutely right on this. Go speak with a local commercial lender and they will get it done. Yes you will pay more in rate but usually the fees are drastically lower so it evens out. Also the commercial lender has no limit on how many they will do. As long as you pay and keep the properties up they will do as many as they can.

@Jeff Campbell You are not wrong. Both local community banks and local credit unions both do portfolio loans in most situations, but every institution is different. The main difference between banks and credit unions is taxes, banks have to pay commercial income taxes and credit unions don’t. Other than that they will offer pretty much the same products. I’m not in Arkansas, but it should be no different than here in South GA.

@Dillon Marshall Unless you are deploying the cash immediately always do the line of credit. It will not affect your DTI as badly and you are not paying interest on the line unless you draw from it.

@Ben Johnson Go and talk to a community bank and ask about commercial lines of credit secured by rental properties. As long as the property is rented, is in good shape, and your credit is sound you shouldn't have any issues. They will usually do 75-80% LTV. I know that us local commercial lenders in south GA have not stopped offering this because of COVID. Heck I just pre-qualified one today.

@Matthew Metros I am of course biased but yes having a local lender plays a huge part. With a local lender they can give you a second opinion on the property. So you will get a Realtor’s opinion on value and a bankers. One is very liberal and one is very conservative in most cases which will give you a good range in between in Value. Also a good lender will be able to send you deals that they may run across as well. Lastly, since bankers have clients of all backgrounds when work needs to be done on your property they can send you good references for your home.

Good Luck

@Steven Ciccone Yes that is definitely doable. Focus on the southeast and Midwest and in about every market worth investing is plenty of potential deals out there.

@Conor Olstad No you are not out of luck, depending on how long you have been in business and how much assets you have(equipment, other real estate, etc) a local bank will take a change on you. Go talk with local lenders and see how flexible they are and the more upfront you are the better.