All Forum Posts by: Will Bowman

@Ryan Darley - yup this was a commercial note. Once things get rolling, it almost always is cash that is the limiting factor. This is where fundraising from private investors or, in the case of this deal, bringing in Limited Partners (LPs) helps to close the cash gap.

@Kyle Boyce thanks for listening! Was that the Millenial Real Estate Investor Podcast? That was a fun one to record

@Luke Angel, thanks! They are "townhome style office suites." So the two doors that you see per townhome either bring you to the upstairs suite or the downstairs suite.

The market for office space of this kind has been strong for a few reasons:

1. These are small offices (600sqft) so folks who have been working remotely and are tired of being at home or need a quiet dedicated workspace that isn't a coworking space have been very interested. 

2. The building is located a block from the main business corridor in Baltimore County so it is an attractive location and somewhere that businesses who are client facing are happy to bring their clients to

3. The spaces are newly renovated and well priced - what I've heard from the folks we've leased to is that there is not a lot of affordable, decent quality office space available. It is a challenge for small 2-5 person businesses. 

@Brandon Plombon thanks! We got $100,000 in credit and we repaved the parking lot, painted new parking spaces, replaced the roof/gutters/fascia, replaced the main water line to the building, installed new exterior light fixtures outside of each unit, and renovated the 6 offices that were vacant. (New flooring, paint, light fixtures, and bathroom fixtures)

@Russell Brazil yup - we've been partners since we both started out in 2016. You and I have briefly met at some REI meetups at KW Flagship before!

@Zachary Coombs thanks! This was an exciting step into some somewhat new territory for us. It has been a great project so far

Investment Info:

Office Space commercial investment investment in Cockeysville.

Purchase price: $1,425,000
Cash invested: $100,000

In April of 2021, my partner and I purchased a medium-sized, class B office building in Baltimore County, MD. We purchased the property for 1.425M and raised ~$350k through four Limited Partners who each received 12.5% equity ownership in the deal.

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

We found this deal through a wholesaler that we had a previous relationship with. We were able to negotiate a seller credit on the purchase to help fund some of the capital improvements we would be making.

How did you finance this deal?

We used ACNB Bank based out of Westminster MD for a commercial property loan. 25 year amortization at 3.6% interest

How did you add value to the deal?

The property hadn't had any capital improvements made in decades. We completed all necessary capital improvements and renovated the 6 vacant office spaces.

What was the outcome?

After leasing the vacant offices, we will be in a position to cash-out refinance on the property at a projected 1.9M-2.1M valuation

Investment Info:

Office Space commercial investment investment in Cockeysville.

Purchase price: $1,425,000
Cash invested: $100,000

In April of 2021, my partner and I purchased a medium-sized, class B office building in Baltimore County, MD. We purchased the property for 1.425M and raised ~$350k through four Limited Partners who each received 12.5% equity ownership in the deal.

The property hadn't had any capital improvements completed for decades and was run down, and below market value. After purchasing, we repaved the parking lot, put on a new roof/gutters/fascia, renovated the 6 vacant office units, and are now in the process of leasing the newly renovated vacant offices.

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

We found this deal through a wholesaler that we had a previous relationship with. We were able to negotiate a seller credit on the purchase to help fund some of the capital improvements we would be making.

How did you finance this deal?

We used ACNB Bank based out of Westminster MD for a commercial property loan. 25 year amortization at 3.6% interest

How did you add value to the deal?

The property hadn't had any capital improvements made in decades. We completed all necessary capital improvements and renovated the 6 vacant office spaces.

What was the outcome?

After leasing the vacant offices, we will be in a position to cash-out refinance on the property at a projected 1.9M-2.1M valuation

Hey @Jacob Evans 

I own a house hack in Annapolis that has been very successful for me. I lived in Annapolis for the last two years and made consistent profit each month even while living in my house hack. I now live in Baltimore and am looking to pass the torch on the house to someone who is local to Annapolis and interested in house hacking - lets connect!

All the best,

Will

@Ryan Koehler and @Yannik Cudjoe-Virgil this was out the east edge of the "Guilford" neighborhood facing "Waverly." 

It was a full gut (and then some!). Here's a rough synopsis of the big things we did:

-Repoured the basement concrete floor as the original was buckled and extremely unlevel. This gave us a nice opportunity to run the new plumbing ground work, install a backflow regulator on our sewer line (nice to have on a 1915 house), and move the front and back sump pumps into a better position

-Framed and finished the basement into the Airbnb unit

-Dug the backyard down and installed a retaining wall at parking pad as well as a small deck and set of stairs off the rear entrance to the house that leads down to the parking pad

-Opened up the main floor and removed a few non load-bearing walls. 

-Put new hardwoods down

-Installed the new kitchen and poured a 10'x6' concrete countertop for the island (I think my back still hurts from mixing that concrete)

-Replaced the stairs with new treads, risers, handrails, and picketts

-Opened up the back two bedrooms upstairs to make one master suite with walk in closet and master bathroom

-Installed stackable washer/dryer outside of the master

-Opened up the ceilings in the front two bedrooms to be 11.5' tall. We had the space to go up to the roof joists so I figured why not

-Repoured the exterior concrete stairs leading down to the basement entrance on the back and front of the house