All Forum Posts by: Christopher Pray

Investment Info:

Other buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $60,000

Bar (leased) and 11 SRO units

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

Cash flow

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

MLS. Made offer day after it was listed. Negotiated after inspection.

How did you finance this deal?

Seller financing

How did you add value to the deal?

Made improvements to the building and raised rents

What was the outcome?

Still own it

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Treat it like a business, hired out work, improved tenant management skills

Investment Info:

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

Purchase price: $50,000
Sale price: $120,000

3 family house built in late 1800's. Renovated a couple apartments and made some other improvements to the building

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

Cheap and good cash flow

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

MLS. Watched it list for $90k, then price reduction to $70k. Made $30k cash offer. Seller counter offered at $50k and I accepted.

How did you finance this deal?

Conventional

How did you add value to the deal?

Renovated a couple apartments and made some other improvements to the building. Raised rents.

What was the outcome?

Sold it

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Unexpected costs, renovation delays, series of poor quality tenants. Eventually I stabilized it with good tenants.

Investment Info:

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

Purchase price: $194,000
Sale price: $265,000

3 family house built in 1994. No major work required

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

First deal, house hack, FHA loan

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

MLS, full price offer, seller concessions

How did you finance this deal?

FHA loan

How did you add value to the deal?

Raised rents

What was the outcome?

Sold it

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Learned how to deal with tenants and manage rent and expenses.

 I had tenants deposit rent into my back account during covid a couple times, but unless they kept the receipt or told me when and how much they deposited there was no way to connect them to the deposit.  Have you had a different experience?

 I'm thinking of using the late fee as incentive as well.  

@Quinn Dudek

Instead of forcing appreciation through rehabbing, you could force appreciation through increasing NOI, ie increasing revenue or decreasing expenses.

You could also look at using creative financing.

I think the collecting of rent manually is becoming more of a headache than it's worth. Tenants want to pay on different days, partial payments, etc. So I want to start using rent redi to collect rent to make it easier to keep track of who owes what, amongst other benefits. However, I have some tenants who are resisting my initiative. They want to continue to pay rent manually. What are some ways to overcome this?

@Chris Mcmahan

What are the expenses, purchase price, and financing terms?

@Cindy Chung Congratulations on your accomplishment. I remember being in your shoes not too long ago. I would recommend renting for a year, see how you like the area, and save a bit more money. Then, as others have said, using an FHA loan and house hacking can be a great way to get started. In the meantime, learn as much as you can about your market and investing in general

If you have an inspection contingency you might be able to use an issue the inspector finds to renegotiate.

If there's a financing contingency and you can't get financing, you may be able to back out or renegotiate.

Perhaps you could walk away from the deal and forfeit your earnest money deposit?

Check with your lawyer about any suggestions or even ask them for advice.