All Forum Posts by: Dustan Marshall

so I would still need to have a down payment on the 70%?

I am interested in entering the multi family space but the cost of entry seem so much higher than the so how family units that have purchased so far.  My covnetional lender will lend up to 70% of purchase price.  And if I can get the seller to carry a second position note for up to 30% I would be able to gain ownership with little to no money Down.  Has anyone done this strategy?  If so how does it work?  Does the bank require some documents stating the other 30% is taken care of?  How do you address this?  Are you very open with conventional lender about owner carry back?

@Mark Shaffar  That is something I don't do.  I really need to change the way I bid on houses.  When I put in an offer I don't really like to haggle.  I usually have what my numbers supports and give them my offer.  If i think it is way off I Don't even make an offer.

@Mark Shaffar i agree with you.  I mostly focused on Cash Flow.  Especially I am in the early stages of my investing career.  I will need the cash flow to continue to grow the business. but as the market rises it is getting harder and harder to find the deals that cash flow well.  while i am interested in sticking to my numbers (50% rule... etc) i am wondering how others are finding their deals as their markets rise or how the veterans found cash flowing deals pre-2008.  

@J. Martin i have always been intrigued by the way MF spread the cost of cap ex, repairs, VACANCY across multiple units as opposed to 100% of a single family. I also really like the idea of having things centralized to reduce costs/ time (which leads to higher cost when hiring things out. you still pay for the contractors drive time). What has stopped me thus from getting into the MF's is the initial cost of entry. I have mainly focused on sub 50K units. And I am able to get a SFR that rents for 700/mo or higher. with MF you will pay about the same per unit and get 550/mo. but that is changing rapidly as of late. i have seen a 15-20K rise in prices of SFR. so i am taking a step back to see where to deploy my capital.

The only thing i did have a hard time accounting for in the MF space in the expense of shared items that the LL will have to cover. examples may include: snow removal, landscaping, trash. these items are all covered by the tenant in my SFR but would need to be covered by the LL in MF. and like i mentioned above the exit strategy of a SFR is much easier (in my opinion) that with a MF. So i will just have to keep running the numbers on properties i like and see how the chips fall.

great post. I have always been interested in MF. But I have only boight SFH this far because of the ability to resell to a wider spectrum as opposed to MF. But now, I think I will have to take a much harder look at small multis in my area

with all the recent talk of the new bubble and the market rising rapidly.  As a landlord only since the last bust,  what are the best strategies for buying in a rising market?

I already have access to MLS via a realtor, I frequent the HUD, homepath, and VA webpages Daily, I browse Craig's list every so often. And I drive for dollars every weekend. Not very interested in the doing any sort of mailers. But I am wondering if I am over looking something. What strategy should I be doing that I am not?

 I have been thinking of reaching out to wholesalers...  But I just have not heard of any great ones in my area.  

thanks for the great Responses.  I am mostly concerned with keeping track of this information for both purposes mentioned.  1- to ensure I am making progress (which doing quarterly would suffice).  2- for lending purposes.  When applying for a loan and annually for the commercial loans I hold it is required.  But quarter will suffice here too.  

I like the idea of only doing it quarterly so I can see the change and frankly, it less work.  But as such,  with the local banks I use. I guess I will stick to excell and try to simply if into terms of: income, assets, liquidity and liabilities.  

thanks for the great replies.  I tried mint.com a few months ago.  Filled everything out and got pretty excited... Till I tried to sync my bank Accts.  I use a few local banks that are unable to sync.  So I would then have to manipulate things on a spreadsheet to then keep mint accurate which defeats the purpose and I stopped using mint and just went back to excel.  

After reading many books on personal finance, a common recommendation is to keep track of your net worth. I like the idea of this.  For me, RE investing is about CASH FLOW to grow and sustain the business and NET WORTH for purchasing power in retirement.   As such, I have set goals both in cash flow and net worth.  But how do you all track your net worth.  I tried using excel, but I feel like it gets cumbersome with the incomes, depreciation, asset values... etc involved with owning RE.  Is there something cleaner that is good for a monthly summary or do I just need to stick it out with excel?