Upstate NY BRRRR - Looking for suggestions.

[Sean Bayliss]

Good Afternoon Bigger Pockets Community,

Happy holidays to you and yours! Earlier this year a partner of mine and I paid for a house in cash, $75,000. At closing the house appraised for $80,000. The house was bought through an LLC and is considered a commercial property, however is only a duplex. After several attempts with two major banks and several portfolio lenders I have had no success trying to refinance this property. Several reasons:

1. Big banks will not refinance $56,250 (75% of $75,000) because the property is not 5 units or more.  From my understanding anything five units or more is considered commercial real estate.

2. The portfolio lenders would lend to me, however my LLC is in the state of PA and not NY. NY being the state the property was bought.

The reason I invest in upstate NY is because this is where I grew up, I'm very familiar with the area, and understand the market. A friend of mine from home and I just filed for an LLC three weeks ago and have just put 2 duplexes under contract. I'm looking for suggestions on how to refinance all three properties, given two different scenarios. The two duplexes are very similar in price at around $75,000-$90,000.

Thanks for reading and I'm looking forward to networking with anyone who is interested.