Suggestions on how to refinance a non-preforming 5 unit apartment

[Gregg Reinbold]

I am looking for ideas on how to refinance my five unit apartment building. I have never been able to get a good appraisal on the property.  It is a mixed property that includes the 5 unit apartment and a 4,400 sq foot warehouse.  I bought the property in 1992.  At the time it was just the warehouse and an old barn.  My father and I built the five apartments in the barn. New electric, plumbing new everything.   I lived in one of the apartments for about twenty years.   I have always had difficulty time getting an  appraisal on the property, What would you comp a 1.5 acre lot with a barn /apartment and warehouse too? kind of a rare bird.   I hired a property manager to manage the property the last time I was overseas.  by December 2013 all five units were rented. (My mom and I had both moved, so we had a couple of empty units). Once all five units were rented my plan was to season the apartments for a few months thinking that I could get an appraisal based on cash flow of commercial property.  Tragically one of the tenants committed suicide the next month in Jan 2014.  Then 3 of the remaining tenants seemed to get discouraged and stopped paying rent.  I finally had to evict all 3 of them.  My property manager seemed to lose interest in managing the property and I finally had to fire her.   So I seem to be back where I was a few years ago.  no way to get a fair appraisal on the property.  

[Joel Owens]

"no way to get a fair appraisal on the property."

FAIR is in the eye of the beholder.

I could talk to ten investors about annual returns and the answers would vary ( 10%,8,6, etc.)

You have a converted use property and it is mixed use at that. That is considered a special type of property for appraisal purposes and one of the most riskiest for a lender. If the loan goes bad there is not a lot of buyers for that special property as it is NON-CONFORMING.

Also the recent history of the property in the last few years income wise is unstable. Lot's of volatility with the cash flow.

If someone would do a refi I wouldn't expect it to be at a high LTV such as 75% like other asset classes. I think a lender would be ultra conservative in the LTV to protect themselves.