Although I have been employed in real estate maintenance management for many years, I again began investing in my own properties in 1995, having lost my prior investments to divorce. From January 1995 to August 1998, I acquired 11 condominium units and reached a point where I believed that further financing just was not possible or at least that’s what the brokers wanted me to believe.
Attempts to put together deal 12 were just not working. One night a search engine brought me to the CRE Online site. It immediately captured my attention and I consumed every bit of information I could find. I began sitting in the chat room and eventually an email arrived announcing a workshop entitled, How to Get Lenders Fighting to Give You Money.
I was very fortunate to have been offered the opportunity to attend that three-day workshop taught by. After the first full day, I spent my free time analyzing where I was, how I could restructure, reevaluating where I wanted to get to and, now armed with this knowledge, how could I put it to use successfully.
When I left that workshop I had the knowledge, the plan, and more than enough motivation. Within 23 days I had set in motion a restructuring of my overall real estate investment plan, began restructuring of my existing debt service, purchased deal 12, and I put deal 13 into escrow. Today its been 105 days and deal 12 is closed and undergoing cosmetic renovations, projected cash flow $400/month, an 84% gross return on my investment. Deal 13 is scheduled to close December 30, 1998. This property is an 1880 Victorian mansion currently used as 11 units.
Using the workshop knowledge, I found financing in just a few days and opened up that oh so important relationship with my small local bank. This property will cash flow as-is at $1,000 per month, after cosmetic rehab $2,000 per month. I purchased this property for $229,900. It has a subject-to appraisal of 576,000. The property is already fully occupied with tenants who are desperate to stay.
The other success has been in getting lenders fighting to do a cash out refinance on 10 of the previously purchased properties. Because of excellent market conditions, I will be taking back out my original start-up money plus the refinance closing costs shortly. I plan on cashing out the 11-unit Victorian, only potentially pulling out as much as 4 times what I have into the property. My next move planned is a multi-unit in the size range of 24-48 units.
Learn how to get lenders fighting to give you money, learn how to structure the deal, and your only obstacle will be your own fear and desire to succeed.