How to buy distressed commercial property for less than is owed.
Hello,
I just successfully purchased a 13,000sf office building in October of 2018 using owner financing with only 10% down. The property was positive cash flowing since the day I bought it. I've made some renovations and have the property fully leased out for the next 3 years.
Now, I have my eyes on another nearby property. It is also a commercial property, but this one has been vacant for at least a year and has been partially damaged by fire. The property is not listed for sale and is not in foreclosure, but I contacted the out-of-state owners, and they are motivated to sell. However, they owe the bank approximately 4 or 5 times what the property is currently worth. Also, from a public records search, I can see that the bank has filed a law suit against the owners for nonpayment of their debt.
My questions are:
- What is the best way to approach this deal? Should I submit a purchase agreement to the owners for what I feel is a fair price, even if it is much lower than what they owe the bank?
- How likely is the bank to agree to the deal?
- How concerned should I be about the pending law suit?
- I don't have enough cash to buy this property outright, and the distressed state of the property rules out conventional financing. I'm hoping I can refinance the office building that I just purchased through a conventional lender and cash out enough to purchase this other property. However, I've only had the property for a couple months, so there isn't a long financial track record. How likely am I to get a refi on this property? I purchased it for $450k with $45k down. I currently owe $395k and would need to refinance approximately $500k. The estimated NOI and cap rate value the property at around $750k.
- Are there any other creative financing strategies that I could employ to acquire this property?
Thank you for your advice!
-David