All Forum Posts by: Russell W.

The timeline should be anything you and the seller agree to. I say should be, because technically you could refinance as soon as you wanted (in theory) if you could find a bank to do it, but the seller will likely feel mislead because she would probably be expecting a few years worth of interest payments, if not more. If you don't have good enough credit to get a bank mortgage now, it will likely take a couple years to get to that point anyway. Assuming your seller agrees to an owner-financed sale, you should lay out your plan with a timeline so there are no surprises. 

Something else for your location would be to remember to close any water valves to exterior hose spigots, and drain any water in the line past the valve by opening the spigot. If you have fire extinguishers in the apartments double check that they’re still fully charged. Once in a while I’ll also fill the kitchen sink full with hot water and then pull the drain stopper to let it flush through. The head pressure from a full sink helps push through any gunk

Not sure how you can resolve the issue of over/under salting to accurately forecast cost, but you may want to consider having them use a calcium-magnesium-acetate snow melt in lieu of traditional rock salt. It is non-corrosive to concrete and tends to be effective over a longer duration. It is, of course, more expensive than rock salt. Just a thought 

In my opinion, don’t bother trying to amend the situation with the current renter. If you notified them of a rent increase six months in advance, you’ve given them a LOT of time to figure out things on their end, i.e. determine if it’s worth it for them to stay or move on. They are likely aware they’re getting a great deal on under market rent. It’s usually better to find a tenant that meets your criteria anyways than inherit one that met the previous owner’s criteria

A few options you might investigate

• home equity line of credit on your personal residence, assuming you have the equity to do so
• cash out refinance one of your other investment properties, again if the equity is there
• cross collateralizing all properties with the new subject property in one loan to decrease the total LTV (blanket loan)
• you mention partners. Can you structure a partnership in such a way that they bring more capital but you provide more of the management role?

I put in an offer on a property yesterday. I offered the seller a lower price for a traditional bank financed sale, as well as a full asking price, seller financed option with details below. Important to note the seller does not have an existing mortgage on the property. I haven’t heard back yet, but for the sake of giving you a real life example:

• Purchase Price: $1,175,000
• Cash down payment to sellers: $176,250
• Owner financed amount: $998,750
• Interest rate: 6%
• Monthly interest-only payment to sellers: $4,994
• Annual interest amount: $59,928
• 7 year term, with buyer option to refinance out
• 7 year interest total: $419,496
• Gross purchase plus interest: $1,594,496

All of these terms are negotiable. You might offer a higher purchase price for a lower interest rate, or vice-versa. In my opinion it’s important to have skin in the game with a cash down payment, but that’s one area too that could be negotiable. Hope this helps, I’ll follow up if it materializes further 

Just sent you a PM 

*Not Legal Advice*. Could they come after you? Sure, they could. Are these decent people? Will they be understanding if you simply explain to them that you unintentionally missed the interest payments for the past three years? If you do the math and show them how much they were "missing out on" (which is going to be very minimal) it will help put it in perspective, and I would imagine they won't care so much about the missed interest, and more so about getting back the original security deposit amount. 

Oftentimes if you are financing the purchase your lender will require that you pay taxes and insurance out of an escrow account. This assures them that you are actually paying these expenses. 

I’m with Jon here, no need to over complicate things if you don’t have to. If you can purchase the property with conventional bank financing with ~$60k down on $300k purchase, the numbers will likely work better. And you’re opening offer should be lower than that to start anyway. It’s only if he balks at your lower purchase price should you then suggest a partial seller financed deal for a higher purchase price, as you had described. Assuming he agrees to that in concept you can then negotiate the interest rate.