Liquidity of various property types

Liquidity of various property types

Real Estate Investor · Chico, CA · Member since 2016 · 248 posts · 105 votes

I'll start with the main question,

How hard is it to cash out refinance a SFH Vs duplex vs quadplex vs a condo?

Any of the above would be a long term rental, not a primary residence for me, the owner. What's the difference like in actuality? Any caveats? Looking to make my next purchase largely based on the liquidity because right now I'm having a minor issue with that. 

I have a bunch of equity in my first deal which went fantastically and is cash flowing well and gained tons of value. I was ready to use some equity to buy a restaurant building when covid hit, my local bank killed the deal. I looked into alternative financing to leverage my equity to purchase the building and hit a wall. 

It wasn't the restaurant aspect, it was my property that I wasn't able to refinance with ANYONE

it's currently a portfolio loan with local credit union. I bought it as two duplexes on one lot, one condemned with structural damage the other ok. I bought it hard money loan and tore the condemned building down then refid with credit union and then worked with city to place a HUD approved mobile home (1979 I think) on a slab foundation etc etc. It looks great, tenants love it and get a great deal on rent.

Anyways, that's the problem for refinancing. No one will refinance with mobile home on property, no, it's not the year. It's the fact that it's there. And I assume because it's part of the recently appraised value which I was hoping to utilize. 

It's pretty convoluted to explain but what I've decided to do is stick with my bank and work with them to use every penny of my accessible equity to buy another property outright which I will be able to later easily leverage with any national Bank. So I just want to make sure if I get a duplex there won't be any issues Im not thinking of. 

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  • Jeff CopelandBusiness Member
    Real Estate Broker · Tampa Bay/St Petersburg, FL · Member since 2015 · 1k+ posts · 2k+ votes
    6y

    4 units and below are considered residential. The conventional refi process will be mostly the same. SFH might be slightly easier to finance, just because of the simplicity in underwriting and appraisal, but not by much.

    The only one on this list that would be a lot more difficult to finance is a condo. Some condos can be literally impossible to finance, and many condos re basically a cash (or private money) asset. 

    If I had to rank them, 1 being relatively super easy to refinance, and 10 being impossible to finance:

    1. SFH  |  2. Small Multi (2-4 units)  | ..............................................................| 9. Condo

    (See also: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/12/topics/849080-why-should-i-stay-away-from-condos)

    Obviously, your ability to refi will depend heavily on your credit, income, and DTI, regardless of property type.

    Copeland Morgan LLC4.770 Reviews
  • Real Estate Investor · Chico, CA · Member since 2016 · 248 posts · 105 votes
    6y
    Originally posted by @Jeff Copeland:

    4 units and below are considered residential. The conventional refi process will be mostly the same. SFH might be slightly easier to finance, just because of the simplicity in underwriting and appraisal, but not by much.

    The only one on this list that would be a lot more difficult to finance is a condo. Some condos can be literally impossible to finance, and many condos re basically a cash (or private money) asset. 

    If I had to rank them, 1 being relatively super easy to refinance, and 10 being impossible to finance:

    1. SFH  |  2. Small Multi (2-4 units)  | ..............................................................| 9. Condo

    (See also: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/12/topics/849080-why-should-i-stay-away-from-condos)

    Obviously, your ability to refi will depend heavily on your credit, income, and DTI, regardless of property type.

     Thank you for the response! Ok that's more or less what I was thinking although I didn't quite realize how problematic it can be to refinance a condo, agent mentioned issues with one since it's all investor owned but didn't realize it was a common issue. I'm not that into the idea of a condo anyways so I'll be taking that off my list of possibilities. 

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