All Forum Posts by: Christopher Lombardi

@Jamil Rivera guys like Morris market themselves as educators trying to convince everyone to buy single family homes. His entire business is selling people like you his single family homes. If they were good deals he wouldn’t be selling. It’s all a scam.

@Nick Quarandillo don’t drop out, use it to your advantage. I bought my first house across the street from campus with student loan money. Student loans are cheaper than mortgages. If you haven’t don’t so already, I would find out what the maximum amount of private loans you can take out is and use it for a down payment or even to purchase a house outright. Once you leave school it’s an opportunity you’ll never get back.

@Ace Alexander Issac Wesley You can look at trulia if you want to see local trend lines for single family home prices but if you keep up on housing prices and are always looking you will be able to tell where the market is and where it is going.  Also, keep an eye on rent to price ratios.  When the market is at a peak its hard to find good deals, when the market is in the dumps you'll find more deals than you have the money to purchase. 

@Steven Foster Wilson,  the two types of investing are very similar.  I went from a 3 family in philly to a 52 unit building and it wasnt much different.   You still need 20% - 25% down.  You usually don't have to personally guarantee the loans though.  Yes, you need more money for more expensive properties, but if you find a great deal its easy to find that money from family and friends who want to make a good return.  For your first one, you just need to get a foot in the door so dont keep much of the deal for yourself, let your investors make all (most) of the money on the deal.    

Loopnet is where I found that 52 unit but I tend to find much better deals going directly to building owners and asking if they want to sell.  The same is true for smaller deals though.  You will always find better deals if you contact sellers directly before they list a property.  Once you have a track record of closing on deals, brokers will also begin bringing the good ones to you before they hit the market.    

Let me know if I can answer any other questions for you.  I'm happy to help.

@Steve Emling I have it in every lease that tenants are required to keep temperatures at minimum of 58 degrees if they go away. They are responsible for any damage if they turn heat off and pipes freeze. Whenever it’s going to be very cold we also send a mass email to tenants reminding them to keep cold side dripping if faucet is against an outside wall and leave cabinet doors open. After we started sending the warning email we almost eliminated all freezing issues.

@John Moore, correct.  As long as the loan from the bank is more than what you owe to the hard money lender and enough to cover closing costs, you dont have to come out of pocket to refinance.  

@John Moore I'm not sure what you mean by "owe" but when you refinance the bank will usually let you pull out 75-80% of the appraised value.  So if you have a 1mm property and your hard money loan is for 600k, they will typically pay off the 600k hard money loan and let you walk with 150k.  Let me know if that answers your question.

Can you show them evidence that you are moving?   Maybe show them that your current apartment is listed for rent?  That might be enough to get them to know you are serious.

@Andrew Mugo, I most recently read UMH Properties - they do mobile home parks, Condor Hospitality - limited service hotels, and Preferred Apartment Communities (APTS), my personal favorite multifamily REIT.

I find you can learn a lot reading annual reports of Multi-Family REITs. I came across a company that purchased all of their properties for a discount by paying all cash and using a line of credit that they had with a major bank. Then they would re-finance out after closing. Is this something that anyone has heard of being available for private companies or is it just for public companies? I spoke to somebody at one of the big investment banks who said it may be likely once you hit 100 million in assets and was just wondering if any of the larger players on this site have ever utilized a line of credit secured by future purchases?