All Forum Posts by: John Grinston

Use a HELOC if you plan to pay it off in under 2 years. If you can't do that then refinance or get a second lien.

 Hey John, I am the CFO for a few construction companies. One in the Williamsburg area. 

As many people mentioned developing a multifamily unit is a lengthy and expensive project and doing so with your VA loan might be difficult but there are some things you can do now to get a better understanding of your project. @Barry Ruby mentioned running a pro forma analysis to estimate the total project costs. Have you thought about buying a multifamily unit that would certainly save you time?

How many units are you looking for? Smaller multis usually land in our MLS. Larger complexes are generally not in MLS but are on the commercial sites such as Loopnet. Right now we literally only have 12 properties that have more than 3 units listed in our Hampton Roads MLS. :(

 Thanks, Charles! @John Grinston, Zillow and Realtor, from my experience, have residential properties. If you are looking for similar sites for multifamily assets (5 units and above), you may want to visit Crexi.com. One thing to note is that these sites have properties that have already been viewed and probably passed on by other investors - this does not mean that they are bad deals, just something to be aware of. I recommend you start building relationships with brokers in the area with firms like CBRE, Capstone, M&M, etc. - you can also go on their sites to view the properties they have "on market." Once you develop a good relationship with a broker and they trust your credibility, background, ability to close, etc., they may send over 'pocket listings' or 'off-market' deals! Reach out if you have any questions. 

@Aj Parikh, I am in the DC area, would love to connect!

 Thanks, Charles! @John Grinston, Zillow and Realtor, from my experience, have residential properties. If you are looking for similar sites for multifamily assets (5 units and above), you may want to visit Crexi.com. One thing to note is that these sites have properties that have already been viewed and probably passed on by other investors - this does not mean that they are bad deals, just something to be aware of. I recommend you start building relationships with brokers in the area with firms like CBRE, Capstone, M&M, etc. - you can also go on their sites to view the properties they have "on market." Once you develop a good relationship with a broker and they trust your credibility, background, ability to close, etc., they may send over 'pocket listings' or 'off-market' deals! Reach out if you have any questions. 

@Aj Parikh, I am in the DC area, would love to connect!

I am a multi family investor from Northern Virginia but primarily buy real estate in Cleveland because there are close to no opportunities in the Northern Virginia in the multi family space. If you are interested in connecting, let me know and I can share my experience. 

Propertyshark.com may be a good place to visit.

@John Grinston If you are planning on trying to use the VA to fund a new construction house, you would need to find a lender that will do that. While the is a VA construction loan program, for all the people I have talked to, they are impossible to find. Generally construction loans are very capital intensive, generally needing 25% of total costs, and are not easy loans to qualify for, especially if you dont have any building experience. You may be able to find local banks that will do construction loans on a single family residence you plan on living in with lower down payment/capital, but not multifamily.

To use ball park numbers, I would say $125-175/ft2 is likely the lower end of the market for construction costs in your area, not including land and finance/soft costs.  Local general contractors will be able to give you ball parks, but they would be very general with wide ranges.  For specific pricing, you would have to have building plans and location determined.

I see zero value in working with a realtor on a new construction.  They wont have any experience in it and wont really have a good way to get paid for their time (contractors aren't likely to pay there commissions).