If I purchase a small multi-family home 100% cash can I still refinance it OMG since I don't have a mortgage? How does that work? Is it recommended? Do you have any suggestions?

Yes - you can do a cash out refinance.

You just have to be on title for 6-12 months depending on the bank.

@Obed H. Bey Yes, you can definitely do it this way. I have some clients here in Connecticut that choose to purchase all cash so they do not have to pay the money associated with borrowing from a hard money lender. 

This may mean they can only do 1 project at a time as opposed to 2 or 3 if they were to use more leverage and they are fine with that. 

Originally posted by @Michael Noto :

@Obed H. Bey Yes, you can definitely do it this way. I have some clients here in Connecticut that choose to purchase all cash so they do not have to pay the money associated with borrowing from a hard money lender. 

This may mean they can only do 1 project at a time as opposed to 2 or 3 if they were to use more leverage and they are fine with that. 

 Thank you so much for that info. So for the 2nd deal when I refinance how does it work? When I go through a bank or private lender Is it based off the appraised value?

@Obed H. Bey , I have been doing exactly this.

Some lenders have a seasoning period of 6-12 months. If you refinance before that they may use the lesser of your purchase cost + rehab and the appraisal to establish the valuation.

So, for example lets assume buy for $20k and rehab for $20k ($40k all in) and the house appraises for $60k. If you refinance after only owning the house 3 months, you will likely only be able to get 75% LTV on $40k valuation or a $30k loan.

However if you wait til the seasoning period has passed for your lender 6 or 12 months from purchase, then you could refinance at 75% LTV of the $60k appraisal which is $45k. That is MORE than the $40k you have in the property.

Check with your lender to find out their requirements. So, that you can plan accordingly. Smaller community banks are where you want to look and speak with their commercial lending department. Most loans of this type are adjustable rate 15 or maybe 20 year loans with an initial rate lock period.

Originally posted by @Kevin Sobilo :

@Obed H. Bey, I have been doing exactly this.

Some lenders have a seasoning period of 6-12 months. If you refinance before that they may use the lesser of your purchase cost + rehab and the appraisal to establish the valuation.

So, for example lets assume buy for $20k and rehab for $20k ($40k all in) and the house appraises for $60k. If you refinance after only owning the house 3 months, you will likely only be able to get 75% LTV on $40k valuation or a $30k loan.

However if you wait til the seasoning period has passed for your lender 6 or 12 months from purchase, then you could refinance at 75% LTV of the $60k appraisal which is $45k. That is MORE than the $40k you have in the property.

Check with your lender to find out their requirements. So, that you can plan accordingly. Smaller community banks are where you want to look and speak with their commercial lending department. Most loans of this type are adjustable rate 15 or maybe 20 year loans with an initial rate lock period.

 Wow! Thank you @Kevin Sobilo for such a detailed example. That really Helps.

Obed,

One strategy is a delayed financing exception which would eliminate the seasoning period.  @Andrew Postell wrote an informative piece on this, I have copied it below.  Part 3 goes over the details but it is worth reading the whole thing:

1. The Conventional Rules For a Cash Out Loan

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are the Government Agencies that sponsor conventional lending. Most banks will have these loans as an option. There are other loan types as well but for brevity we will limit this post to the “Conventional” lending (Fannie/Freddie).

• Conventional Loans limit your cash out on an investment property to 75% of the “After Repair Value” on a Single-Family home (70% on a 2-4 unit home). This is also the same percentage that you need for a non-cash out refinance (more on why that is important later).
• If you purchased the investment property with a loan, then conventional loans will require you to wait 6 month to take cash out.
• This rule does not apply if you purchased the home with CASH (more on that in section 2).

Let’s explore some examples here:

If you purchased a property with a 15% down conventional loan (85% loan to value) and you wanted to get cash out, you wouldn’t be able to do so since the cash out limit is 75% of the “Loan to Value”. The MAXIMUM cash out you can receive is 75% of the value of the property.

If you purchased a property with a loan, but did the rehab on with your own cash, then you would need to wait 6 months to get that cash back. Keep in mind you could only receive 75% back of the After Repair Value.

So if you bought a home with a loan of $50k, it required $30k in renovations, and it appraised for $100k after the repair work was complete then….

You would refinance the $50k loan, receive back $25k in cash…since $75k would be 75% of the After Repair Value.

2. Buying a home with Cash

Buying a home with cash has become increasingly popular for many investors but often an investor will be caught with the restrictions to cash out loans if they need to get their money back. There is a plan to avoid this entire section (In section 3) but it is important for us to know about these restrictions. If an investor is buying with cash and flipping they get their money back when they sell the property. But if they are seeking to hold a property for any length of time and want their cash investment back there are some important rules to understand with conventional loan:

If you buy a property with cash (or with a HELOC) you can receive a cash out loan on Day 1.

There is not a 6 month waiting period with receiving a cash out loan if you purchased a home with cash or with a HELOC

BUT you will be limited to the amount of….

Your purchase price + closing costs (costs when you purchased the home)

OR

75% of the “After Repair Value”…

WHICHEVER IS THE LOWER AMOUNT (super important)

These rules are important to understand so here are two examples:

Example 1: If you purchased a home with $50k of cash, and put $30k of renovations into the loan, and the home was worth $100k. 75% is $75k and $50k is your purchase price. So you could only receive $50k in your first 6 months ofownership since the LOWER amount is your purchase price. After 6 months you could receive the full 75% of the ARV.

Example 2: If you purchased a home with $80k of cash, put $5k into the home, and the home was worth $100k. 75% would be $75k and your purchase price is $80k…so the lower amount is $75k.

When buying a home with cash you can absolutely get cash back right away but you will be limited to the lower of those two amounts.

3. HOW TO PROPERLY STRUCTURE BUYING A HOME WITH CASH

With these rules, you can see how it can be confusing to get conventional lending when buying a home with cash but there is absolutely a proper method to structuring your deals when buying cash. Here’s the secret:

Create an LLC and have the LLC lend you a mortgage on the property you are receiving.

The reason why this works is because instead of you needing cash or receiving a cash out loan, we are now refinancing a loan – your loan. There no reason to wait any time or have any “whichever is lower” rule come into play. We are just refinancing a loan.

Here’s how it works:

You create an LLC

You buy a home

Your LLC gives you a loan for the home

You file the deed for that loan at the county courthouse

You use the money from the LLC to buy and fix up the property

Once the property is completed, your conventional lender comes to refinance the loan

Your conventional lender runs title and sees there is a loan.

Your conventional lender refinances you into a new loan, and cuts a check to your LLC in the amount of 75% of the value.

Please don't confuse this 75% with a "cash out" amount. The non-cash out LTV on a refinance is also 75%. We are refinancing a mortgage. Your LLC's mortgage. Essentially your LLC has become the bank/hard money lender/etc. However you want to think about it. You get to set the interest rate (it can be 0%) and you get your investment amount back sooner.

Some things to think of:

To file a deed at the county courthouse is $100-$150 in cost (depending on which county)

And you want that note to be pretty close to 70% of the ARV for the property if you don't want to bring any money to closing. 70% will allow you to roll in your closing costs. If you want it to be at 75% just keep in mind you would need to bring your closing costs out of your pocket to complete the refinance.

Thanks for the mention @Jonathan Balog !  And @Obed H. Bey as the post mentions those are under the Fannie/Freddie guidelines. So if  you are using a different loan type then the rules might be different but what is mentioned above is what we practice to this day to help when purchasing a home with cash.  Thanks!

@Jonathan Balog... Wow! That was awesome! Especially part 3. I need to reread to totally consume it all. I really appreciate your time in putting that all together.

Should I open credit cards in the LLC name for repairs and various miscellaneous costs?

Originally posted by @Andrew Postell :

Thanks for the mention @Jonathan Balog !  And @Obed H. Bey as the post mentions those are under the Fannie/Freddie guidelines. So if  you are using a different loan type then the rules might be different but what is mentioned above is what we practice to this day to help when purchasing a home with cash.  Thanks!

 Thank you Andrew. Much appreciated