My first commercial apartment building!

My first commercial apartment building!

Rental Property Investor · Bronx, NY · Member since 2011 · 193 posts · 322 votes

The ink has dried! (long post alert lol)


Dec 23rd, my partner and I closed on a 6 unit building in Allentown, PA!

RE Investing is a marathon, not a sprint, but it's been a muuuuch longer marathon than I initially imagined when I first started studying RE, and I'm still just scratching the surface! 

A little background:

  • Studying real estate for the past 10 yrs-Jacked up credit in college and no $-Tried wholesaling and out of state rehab-rentals, nothing "worked"
  • Sacrificed, slowly built up credit & savings 
  • Bought 3 unit building & house-hacked

FINALLY I started getting somewhere! 

  • Lived for free for a few years and appreciation allowed me to cash-out refi

The FIRST investment I made with my newfound equity? Into my EDUCATION and NETWORK! Multifamily had proven itself, but if I wanted to go BIGGER I needed coach and community

💪🏾

What I've learned: 

  1. There's no such thing as failures, only lessons. You only lose if you quit. 
  2. You MUST take massive ACTION... I was 7 months pregnant w/2nd child when I joined investment community. I had the "perfect" excuse to NOT get started.


The SECOND investment? This apartment building!

Some Property highlights:

  • Property was listed and had a few offers but ours was accepted (have to act fast).
  • Avg rents ~$200 p/month lower than market in as-is condition
  • Once rehabbed, rents will be ~$100 higher
  • One unit is vacant, so we can rehab and re-rent at market right away
  • After inspection, only wanted the seller to clear out the “hoarder” filled basement & garage. Seller apparently didn't like that and tried to cancel contract, so we agreed to take care of the clean out as well (not all negotiations go your way but didn't want to lose deal over a few $).

Plan is to add value, cash-out refi in about a year or so, keep it for generational cashflow, and roll the proceeds from the refi into the next deal.

🏢

I'm excited about this deal, but even more excited about the open doors this is opening and the momentum I can fee building... opportunities are coming and prepping for a great 2021! .

A huge shoutout to Marco Barbaro and Hadar Orkibi for creating the MIH Mastermind group and for being there for support and guidance when I called in a panick! The group is fantastic and I love the daily interaction we have - the encouragement and support is unparalleled, to steal Anna Latysheva's phrase... it's a big group of "Yaysayers" LOL

Also I have to thank Gino Barbaro and Jake Stenziano for creating the Wheelbarrow Profits platform, putting "people first" and creating an entire community of go-givers. There's really sooo many other people to thank for their support along the way I can't possibly name everyone, but I have to at least mention my mom and my husband for both playing their part in getting me started on my education journey all those years ago...

Ok ok ok, I'm done, my oscar speech is over!

Oh y'all see my "closer socks" right?!? Popped the tag that morning

I posted about my first house-hack and all the initial issues here.  Def need to do an update on how that 1st building changed the course of my investing - all it takes is one! Don't give up! 

https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

159Reply
510 views

Most Popular Reply

Investor · Glen Burnie, MD · Member since 2020 · 2 posts · 6 votes
5y

Congratulations!!!

Your story is very motivational.

I'm now more determined

 Cheers to many more!!

See this reply in the discussion

179 Replies

Jump to latestLatest
  • Rental Property Investor · Bronx, NY · Member since 2011 · 193 posts · 322 votes
    5y
    Originally posted by @Kanwar Sodhi:

    That's fantastic @Nicole (Dunlap) Pendergrass.

    When you cash refinanced, did the bank look at your credit and other income sources, or did they let you refinance based on the income produced on the property?

    What was LTV they gave?

    Thank you!

    Yes they def looked at ALL my financials LOL - I refi'd on a 3-family house, so most lenders don't look at the building's performance for 1-4 units because its still residential. I had a hard time too because my DTI was too high (but only bc of the write offs on my taxes). I got a little less than 80% LTV

  • Rental Property Investor · Bronx, NY · Member since 2011 · 193 posts · 322 votes
    5y
    Originally posted by @Danny Randazzo:

    @Nicole (Dunlap) Pendergrass congrats. What was your goal and or reason for wanting to buy this property?

     Ultimately a spring board for generational wealth.  I don't plan to sell (I mean everything's for sale at the right price lol) - more immediately, I want to be able to fire my W2 and work on my RE full time :-)

  • Rental Property Investor · Bronx, NY · Member since 2011 · 193 posts · 322 votes
    5y
    Originally posted by @Arta Montero:

    @Nicole (Dunlap) Pendergrass congratulations Nicole. I am very happy for you. Do you mind if I im you to learn more about your experience if you don’t mind

    Thanks and sure! Message me :-) My bio also has a little more detail about my journey, but I love chatting about RE :-)

  • Investor · Nashville, TN · Member since 2020 · 38 posts · 57 votes
    5y

    Thanks for the share, @Nicole (Dunlap) Pendergrass! Appreciate the level of detail invested in your post. Congrats on scaling. Onward and upward!

  • Investor · Spokane, WA · Member since 2020 · 37 posts · 18 votes
    5y

    @Nicole (Dunlap) Pendergrass.. so amazing.. i love your words of wisdom. I feel that being newer in real estate it is overwhelming and can seem like a world you have no idea about. But i keep telling myself everything takes time.. your story helps so much.. keep it going!!!

  • Member since 2020 · 3 posts · 0 votes
    5y

    @Nicole (Dunlap) Pendergrass congrats! You are an inspiration and will no doubt be very successful!!!!

  • Rental Property Investor · Norfolk, Va. · Member since 2018 · 72 posts · 56 votes
    5y

    You are so dope! I'm so happy for you. 

  • Deland, FL · Member since 2017 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    5y
    Originally posted by @Nicole (Dunlap) Pendergrass:

    The ink has dried! (long post alert lol)


    Dec 23rd, my partner and I closed on a 6 unit building in Allentown, PA!

    RE Investing is a marathon, not a sprint, but it's been a muuuuch longer marathon than I initially imagined when I first started studying RE, and I'm still just scratching the surface! 

    A little background:

    • Studying real estate for the past 10 yrs-Jacked up credit in college and no $-Tried wholesaling and out of state rehab-rentals, nothing "worked"
    • Sacrificed, slowly built up credit & savings 
    • Bought 3 unit building & house-hacked

    FINALLY I started getting somewhere! 

    • Lived for free for a few years and appreciation allowed me to cash-out refi

    The FIRST investment I made with my newfound equity? Into my EDUCATION and NETWORK! Multifamily had proven itself, but if I wanted to go BIGGER I needed coach and community

    💪🏾

    What I've learned: 

    1. There's no such thing as failures, only lessons. You only lose if you quit. 
    2. You MUST take massive ACTION... I was 7 months pregnant w/2nd child when I joined investment community. I had the "perfect" excuse to NOT get started.


    The SECOND investment? This apartment building!

    Some Property highlights:

    • Property was listed and had a few offers but ours was accepted (have to act fast).
    • Avg rents ~$200 p/month lower than market in as-is condition
    • Once rehabbed, rents will be ~$100 higher
    • One unit is vacant, so we can rehab and re-rent at market right away
    • After inspection, only wanted the seller to clear out the “hoarder” filled basement & garage. Seller apparently didn't like that and tried to cancel contract, so we agreed to take care of the clean out as well (not all negotiations go your way but didn't want to lose deal over a few $).

    Plan is to add value, cash-out refi in about a year or so, keep it for generational cashflow, and roll the proceeds from the refi into the next deal.

    🏢

    I'm excited about this deal, but even more excited about the open doors this is opening and the momentum I can fee building... opportunities are coming and prepping for a great 2021! .

    A huge shoutout to Marco Barbaro and Hadar Orkibi for creating the MIH Mastermind group and for being there for support and guidance when I called in a panick! The group is fantastic and I love the daily interaction we have - the encouragement and support is unparalleled, to steal Anna Latysheva's phrase... it's a big group of "Yaysayers" LOL

    Also I have to thank Gino Barbaro and Jake Stenziano for creating the Wheelbarrow Profits platform, putting "people first" and creating an entire community of go-givers. There's really sooo many other people to thank for their support along the way I can't possibly name everyone, but I have to at least mention my mom and my husband for both playing their part in getting me started on my education journey all those years ago...

    Ok ok ok, I'm done, my oscar speech is over!

    Oh y'all see my "closer socks" right?!? Popped the tag that morning

    I posted about my first house-hack and all the initial issues here.  Def need to do an update on how that 1st building changed the course of my investing - all it takes is one! Don't give up! 

    https://www.biggerpockets.com/...



     SO happy for you      Amazing work.  Congratulations 

  • Pollock Pines, CA · Member since 2015 · 27 posts · 6 votes
    5y

    Congratulations, thanks for the motivation.

  • Lender · Chicago, IL · Member since 2016 · 653 posts · 313 votes
    5y

    Absolute congrats on the execution of this !!

  • Rental Property Investor · Saint Petersburg, FL · Member since 2018 · 31 posts · 10 votes
    5y

    @Nicole (Dunlap) Pendergrass congratulations

  • Hadar OrkibiPro Member
    Rental Property Investor · USA / NZ · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 812 votes
    5y

    @Nicole (Dunlap) Pendergrass Keep up the good work. Momentum and focus in 2021 and you will keep growing!!

    Exciting times. awesome work on Social Media BTW!

  • Kenneth HynesPro Member
    Rental Property Investor · Easton, PA · Member since 2013 · 359 posts · 92 votes
    5y

    @Nicole (Dunlap) Pendergrass   Great job and congrats on the action taking   .  Hopefully we can talk about the deal at one of  Lawrence Latty's  Tuesday night meetups   

  • Real Estate Investor · Milford, PA · Member since 2014 · 395 posts · 299 votes
    5y

    Nicole, This is great to see and in a year of such uncertainty. Closing in 2020 just means nothing can stop you. Congrats

  • Yonah WeissPro Member
    Cost Segregation Expert and Investor · Lakewood, NJ · Member since 2017 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    5y

    @Nicole (Dunlap) Pendergrass thanks so much for sharing such a detailed breakdown. We can all learn a lot from this. Good luck going forward, onwards and upward in 2021!

  • Real Estate Investor · Brooklyn, NY · Member since 2011 · 8 posts · 0 votes
    5y

    Great courage ! Thank you for sharing and congrats!

  • Real Estate Agent · NJ · Member since 2020 · 40 posts · 26 votes
    5y

    Congratulations! This is such an amazing and inspiring story.  So proud of you @Nicole (Dunlap) Pendergrass! Wishing you all the best from a fellow New Yorker and aspiring investor!

  • Investor · Northern New Jersey · Member since 2020 · 94 posts · 96 votes
    5y

    @Nicole (Dunlap) Pendergrass

    Congrats on move number 2!!!! Way not to give up. This is the only game that will punch you in the face to prepare you for great rewards do the road. Gotta love it!!!

  • Investor · Chatham County, NC · Member since 2014 · 89 posts · 20 votes
    5y

    @Nicole (Dunlap) Pendergrass Brava! Way to go! I'm thinking about making the leap to small multifamily as well and this is great inspiration. Would you be willing to share a bit about your financing? Are you and your partner providing all the equity, or did you have any co-investors? Any lessons learned on the finance side from setting up this deal?

    Keep crushing it and rocking the BOSS socks!

  • Real Estate Agent · Atlanta, GA · Member since 2020 · 23 posts · 6 votes
    5y

    @Nicole (Dunlap) Pendergrass Your story is so inspiring. As a mom of two just getting in the game still going through some left over postpartum this gives me hope!! I applaud you!! I want to be where you are. House hack is my next step.

  • Rental Property Investor · Chicago, IL · Member since 2020 · 3 posts · 0 votes
    5y

    @Nicole (Dunlap) Pendergrass congrats !!! Hoping you keep expending and increase cash flow in the future. Me myself is also waiting to close my first property, just patiently waiting for the owner to make his choice.🙏🏼

  • Andrea HardawayPro Member
    Chattanooga, TN · Member since 2014 · 26 posts · 28 votes
    5y

    Nice!!!! Congrats!

  • Andrea HardawayPro Member
    Chattanooga, TN · Member since 2014 · 26 posts · 28 votes
    5y

    Nice!!!! Congrats on this.  Your story has me motivated!

  • Member since 2019 · 7k+ posts · 4k+ votes
    5y

    congrats, who is going to manage the property ? are you going to live in one of the unit ?

  • Member since 2019 · 13 posts · 1 vote
    5y

    Good for you!!! So happy for you and to hear that story. I actually live about 30-40 minutes from Allentown and I look at deals in there all the time but have never taken action... hopefully soon I'll make something happen.

Join the conversationCreate a free account to reply, vote on answers and follow this thread.