All Forum Posts by: Nichole Ovens

I think he isn't super motivated to sell. He is a friend and likes me and my daughter, I told him I wanted to start investing and asked if he knew about how I might find one of the many 4 plexes in town...one thing led to another, it happened that he owned one and a couple other properties.

I need to see if he truly wants to sell or just shooting the $#!+. Because there is a friendship I don't want to waste his time if it isn't really a good deal for me. This is common here in OR, there are a lot of unmotivated sellers for the rental and commercial properties.

Regarding having skin in the game. I am certainly willing to put money down if he asks me to...AND it is a good deal. 

I just don't know what source to pull from right now. I wanted to wait until I had a couple debts paid off this fall, I just don't want to lose the opportunity for waiting.

Hello all, I posted a couple days ago a about whether a 4-plex that brings in $2080/month was a good deal for $150k. I got a lot of good advice. I also mentioned that the owner ideally would like to sell me 3 properties in a package and would offer a discount if I bought all three. He wants to do this as a private party deal although he is a realtor. 

Here is the summary of the properties:

4plex - $150k

2 - 2bdrooms rent for $590/month ea 

2 - 1bdrooms rent for $450/month ea

Total: $2080/month

He says he has good tenants and he resents fixed it up. It is on a nice street backing up to a park. Probably a B or B- property in nice condition although I haven't walked through.  It looks like he did a nice rehab job and maintains well.

4bdroom/2bath next door - $114k

Rents For $950/month with a tenant. House is nice and could make more as an airbnb which is starting to come into our area more. Solid B house. Also backs to the same park with a very nice house next door.

2bdroom/1bath - $75k 

This is on a different street. It is also fixed up nicely, tenanted but probably a B- or C + street.

I am interested in posing a slightly different scenario.  I do not currently have the cash for the down payment for any of them. I am interested in the 4 plex but maybe all.

I would like to ask opinions about asking the owner to finance the down payment (what are objections, pros/cons, benefits to him and me) . How might I pose  this to his benefit and mine. 

See if he would like me to partner on the property or all three at a 60/40 split with the plan that I will buy him out fully after 2 years.

Lease  purchase.  I don't know if I would like to go this route as I would like to be able to claim all the deductions I can get on taxes. Can I still do this?

I am not interested in increasing my income...I need deductions as much as possible and want to build equity so that in 4 years I have something that will provide income so that I can afford college for my daughter.

Thanks for any suggestions or ideas. I love this Bigger Pockets community.

Good question about the comps. I am not sure, these don't come on the market often. I also hesitate to ask my realtor friend to run comps for me as I don't want to get any more fingers in the pie. 

I know a foreclosed version of the same (though it is set up for commercial business) was listed at $175k. 

Is there any other way to find comps besides having a realtor run them?

The owner is a realtor and I could ask him to run them, but I think there could be an automatic conflict there and the results could be skewed.

We do want to do that, but this particular opportunity is so close and could be quite an easy way to see if the multifamily rental thing is even my cup of tea. 

I have found that often I just don't know without trying.

Thanks for accepting my request.  I am friends with a former city councilman and the former mayor. I am pretty aware of the transformation I have been seeing. All I wanted to do was get out of OR...it seemed so stuck in the past. However, in the last 6 months some change has become much more tangible.

Happy to share anything I know if  you have interest in learning more. 

I am going Pro so I can have unlimited access to the analysis tools. I am going to run it through the calculator and share.

Hi Bill, thanks for clarifying. I probably exaggerated to say they were the best houses on the block. I am pretty sure I don't want the $75k house. The 4 plex is right next door to the SFR 4/2. Both are nice and both are updated.

Thank you for pushing me forward not to necessarily wait to get all the debt paid (might be a lifetime, with the ex who loves going to court!) It has been this that has held me back from pulling the trigger on my dreams of REI.

So, I need to find creative ways to rebuild in spite of debt and the ex husband. I also need to be cautious not to get too complicated this year or get more income that will trigger another return to court.

I need to find a good real estate investor friendly accountant and lawyer in the area to help me structure deals.

Is there any way I can stay abreast of your Denver meetups? I consider the front range home with family and friends all over there. I want to make it to one of your events next time I go back home to see family or snowboarding.

Thank you!

Why do you think Knoxville stinks? Do you feel the same about some of the surrounding areas to the north or west, like OR, Lenoir City, Harriman, or Clinton?

Oh, as to condition and location...the 4plex and houses are the nicest on their blocks. He is a contractor and probably fixed them up too nice for what he needed to do, but I would want my BF  to give them a good look (as he is a home improvement/remodeling guy). However, he is going to be tied up working on a flip for a local investor for the next 14-16 weeks, so he won't have time to do any work for me (based on the last time he worked on a project).

I like the idea of potentially turning the 4/2 into a duplex! Marvelous idea. The street the 4 plex  and 4/2 are on is very nice and backs up to a park.

Ultimately, I want to get my guy closer to our home working on properties that I/we own (or that we are JV partners on). I dont like seeing him leave early in the morning every day to drive 25-30 minutes away and working long days to turn an ugly home into a big profit for someone else.

Thanks all! The rule of thumb of expenses being 50-60% of income was exactly the kind of thing I wanted to know. Because he is a friend from my church, I didn't even want to start down the road of asking more questions until I was completely ready to move forward. I have made three purchases from friends one great (but there ended up being some drama), one okay (but some angst), and one terrible (the friend was trying to offload their problem to me and make money being the vacation rental person).

So I have become VERY cautious about doing business with a friend.

My credit card debt is all at 0% interest or 4.99% ... I won't carry credit card debt above 5%. But I appreciate what was said about not  borrowing from the 401k.

I may let this ride a bit longer until I have all the debt paid off, or he comes back to me again with more desire to unload.