As long as the documentation works and it appraises, it can be done. has to be cash to be done right away.If you buy with hard money, you'll have to probably 6 months to 12 months depending on the lender.

Does a hard money loan make more sense (they scare me)?

Was this outside investors, hard money, family investors?

The property is in a Historic District in DC, which we are told it would be extremely hard to obtain permits to convert back into a 2 unit property.We have also been told that since there isn't a second door in the front of the property anymore (which with the new laws a second door cannot be added again) and because the basement divider wall has been removed the property cannot be grandfathered into the old laws and we would have to go before a board to be approved and that this would be extremely hard to do.We agreed to buy this property based on the fact that we could convert back into 3 level 2 unit property.

Like Minna said, hard to comp out but not impossible.

Even with crazy high rents, when you have to get into a property for 1mil, it's just hard for the returns to out pace the cost of capital, especially when you factor in all the other costs.The oddity with the last observation is that without capabilities these markets also tend to be the biggest challenge from an execution standpoint for someone just starting out. 

I’m having a hard time getting the place rented and I feel like it’s because I’m too suspicious of people and my standards are too high.

I also understand that a lot of it will all depend on what I can find in terms of a property and what kind of numbers I will see in cashflow but my thoughts are that if I look hard enough I can do better than my current situation - getting no cashflow.

This is value add opportunity- rents had previously been under market value (450/month) and since acquiring the property and renovating it, the management team recently raised the rents to match market value in the area (525/month) The property is projected to generate over 25k of monthly income, a cash flow of almost 11k a month, and the annual cash on cash ROIis projected to be nearly 32% This would be my first large multi-unit apartment deal and I’m looking to either obtain a commercial loan for the property or (ideally) find private/hard money lender that would might also (eventually) serve as a partner/mentor/associate/eventual first to a smart, hardworking, and ambitious young real estate investor.

I was thinking about holding the 17K to help me get a hard money loan so that I can do a deal, but I starting thinking that maybe my first step should be to get my debts down so that I can do deals without the worry of them not getting excepted because of the debt to income ratio.