All Forum Posts by: Michael Picher

Hey Richard,

I'm in Maine. What we call central Maine (Augusta / Waterville area). Not that familiar with Southern Maine coastal area...  I assume you're kind of talking Kennebunk and south.

Mike

@Daniel Kelley I just have tenants deposit directly into my bank account. I setup a separate checking account for each building. With my bank's online services it makes everything super easy. Makes accounting easy and no need to wait for the money.

@Matt Nico I do $400 pet entry fee and 40 per month extra per pet

Carl, how did you do the FHA without living in it yourself? You said 'family' in at $450... I thought FHA borrower had to live there for 1 year?

Investment Info:

Small multi-family (2-4 units) buy & hold investment in Winslow.

Purchase price: $128,000
Cash invested: $28,000

A nice 3 bdr over 3bdr duplex in a great neighborhood. This 1950's building has great bones and beautiful hardwood floors throughout. There are 2 separate driveways and private entrances for each unit as well. This is also our first partnering deal.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Already have another duplex in this neighborhood. Duplexes are easy and you can get a little more $ for them vs. larger apartment buildings.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

This property was FSBO for a while at an unreasonable price (for investing). It then came on the market as a short sale. Jumped on it quickly and got in a little bidding war. Finally I told my agent to offer $500 over the other party's best offer up to $133k. This strategy worked and we got it for $130,500. There were some small issues from inspection that helped us knock the price down to $128k.

How did you finance this deal?

Partnership for down payment and standard commercial financing.

How did you add value to the deal?

Brought my knowledge of the area, our operating procedures and my commercial financing.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

A good property is a good property... stick with it despite what's going on around you. We almost walked away from this. We were supposed to sign the week that all the closings happened. We put the deal on hold for a month initially. At the end of that month, we were going to walk away and our agent suggested seeing if the seller would hold out for 2 more months vs. us walking away. They agreed. So after 3 months of being on hold, we decided to close on this. I'm glad we did.

Hi Emily,

These guys are interested in working with investors and may have some off market stuff: https://www.facebook.com/trekrealty/

Also, check with Select Capitol Realty Group as they might have some (https://selectrealtycapital.com/).

I don't find auction.com or hubzu to have much in my area. They have a few...

I'm investing up in Gardiner / Augusta / Waterville areas.

Mike 

Hi Lisa, I'm in the Maine market, if you decide to sell I might be interested! Depends where it is of course...  :-)

@Kenneth LaVoie 

I just had someone (Central Maine Heat Pumps) come out and will be giving me a price for my primary res. Apparently the single units are cheaper plus you have some redundancy there. I'll share it with you when I get it. I want to see how it goes at my place and then might think about it for my properties. There are also do-it-yourself units on the market (Mr. Cool) that come with pre-charged lines.

Like @Dave Holman said, these things are way more efficient than they used to be and can operate fine in Maine winters now. I'll keep a woodstove in my res but if I do it in the apartments will probably leave the existing system in place and sort out some sort of thermostat arrangement on it.

Great job Eddie!

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521/topics/723518-southern-midcoast-maine-july-2019-meet-up