Many buildings can only house between one and four families or dwellers, and these are commonly referred to as one-to-fours. When a building can accommodate five or more residents, it is classified as an apartment building. These kinds of dwellings call for somewhat different underwriting and will generally require a stricter standard when it comes to qualifying for a purchase loan. One major difference is that lenders tend to take a hard look at any previous experience you’ve had managing multi-family dwellings, whether they were apartment buildings or one-to-fours. As you can see there are many variables that need to be taken into consideration while investing in Multi-Family Apartments, read on to learn more about how investing in this type of property works.
Investing in an multi-family apartments
There are some fairly standard qualifications that lenders will closely check with applicants requesting a loan for a multi-family dwelling. Here are some of the things that a lender will check on:
- Debt service coverage – this measures your current cash flow against your debt payment obligations. If you’ve had difficulty making payments on time, it will signal a lender that you may not be able to repay a loan to them.
- Loan-to-value ratio – this compares the amount of the loan to the total value of the property. Obviously, you don’t want the amount of the loan to be significantly more than the property value, so choose a property with high value that will compare favorably with the loan amount.
- Net operating income – this figure is arrived at by subtracting all expenses from the total amount of income the property brings in annually. The ideal net operating income will be a figure where the income is much greater than expenses, which bodes well for future stability.
Investing in an apartment building?
There can be some significant benefits to investing in multi-family apartments, but they also call for a significant initial outlay. If you’re in need of funding to secure an apartment building, we may be able to provide financial assistance. Contact us at My Commercial Capital, so we can discuss your eligibility for a loan that will help you to close the deal.