A lot of forum members are very knowledgeable in their respective fields related to real estate investing, whether that is real estate sales, wholesaling, flipping, rentals, lending, self-directed IRA and Solo 401k investing, or tax and legal guidance.Discounts on some products and services are offered to BP members: https://www.biggerpockets.com/perks/proIf you haven’t been to it already, you might want to check out the BP blog: https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/The site has quite a few tools that can be helpful for new members.

A 5% physical vacancy might be correct but you will probably have the occasional non-payer that takes a month to evict. 

You can always look at a portfolio loan product that is more asset based they will only look at the income of the property itself.

Here’s my question, are there investors out there that actually buy property without having seen them physically themselves; buying without stepping foot in and walking the floors?

I find myself sourcing info from multiple websites (Zillow, Redfin, Realtor.com, Trulia) but do not have a good direction/process to get to my final product of a well thought out ARV.Thanks for your help as always,Andrew

I use both as a RE investor between commercial and residential as both can be used on 1-4 unit properties (non owner/investment occupancy).The pro's of commercial/portfolio financing from local credit unions and community banks are that you can:- talk to a local banker/lender who is interested in building a relationship with you over time and is flexible to make a loan as long as its financially prudent and you show a track record- ability to build a track record with- less documentation scrutiny than a fannie/freddie conventional loan which is more ridged because it needs to be sold to the secondary market so all boxes must be checked to do so (otherwise the loan is unsellable or undeliverable)- is cashflow based via debt coverage ratio or DCR method of qualification (Net operating income / debt service) - can fund to LLC's, entities, and businesses with personal guarantee (PG) usually- can do unique loans like cross collateral or blanket notes across an entire portfolio, can do rehab/construction + permanent financing into one (one time close products), can do soft liens and releasable upon progress on your projects so you can leverage equity with temporarily encumbrances, unique disbursements on credit facilities,etc Hope that helped compare the cash out options.

I guess my point is - I think a lot of businesses are prepared for an economic slowdown, but who is prepared for a complete stop of all production?

There's power in knowledge.As far as your analysis:Closing costs will likely be 2X this on a commercial property.I'd plan for more in initial repairs, especially if the last unit isn't finished.Your mortgage expectations aren't in line with most commercial products.

@Michinori Kaneko we've thought about it. given my background in business and managing projects it's def something we've discussed as an optionya, we are getting pretty serious haha. haven't been overly impressed with GCs or PMs so figured we'd just have her get the license and we'd manage it all and then handle all property mgmt. will definitely be a learning curve because its managing physical units vs software but will be a fun challenge and yes, stock market was wild today / past week. real estate is a great asset class :)

I've scouted places both physically and online in Milwaukee - single-family homes, South Side Chicago (Woodlawn area) - condos, and in NW Indiana (Hammond & Whiting) - multifamily and single-family homes.