I'm a soon to be investor I have access to working Lines of Credit. My plan is to buy multi family(5+ units) and apartment buildings for cash. I want buy and hold each property in a LLC for long term investments.

I understand the power of being able to make cash offers to sellers. Some deals will use most of my LOC's and others will be partly funded with hard money lenders. Afterwards I will immediatly refinance for long term commercial mortgages.

My issues are as follows:

What do the lenders want seasoned, the title or the mortgage before they refinance or provide a new mortgage?

Can I refinance the property for a commercial mortgage after owning it for only 90, 60 or even 30 days?

What will the LTV be based on, purchase price or appraised value?

And can I do it non recourse and without a personal guarantee?

Any advice, questions and comments will be greatly appreciated.

What do the lenders want seasoned, the title or the mortgage before they refinance or provide a new mortgage?
It depends on the relevant underwriting program. If you are refi'ing a property that was bought less than 1- months ago, you better have a good reason. You would probbaly know the pre-payment penalties of an existing mortgage and ofcourse the underwriter would want to see mortgage history if any. As a rule of thumb, we dont refi any properties or finance the sale of any properties under 10 months. Exceptions are made for various circumstances.

What will the LTV be based on, purchase price or appraised value?
The lower of either one. Rational is that if you get it for a lesser amount, in a fair market that is what the market will bear.

And can I do it non recourse and without a personal guarantee?
Unless you ask for a very low LTV the majority of the lenders will want personal gurantees.

Any advice, questions and comments will be greatly appreciated.
Be careful of the market you get into. Know the area, growth forecast, vacancy history, taxes and their propensity to increase etc...

My main point of concern is if I purchased a property outright for cash, can I then refinance? Because obviously no one wants to tie up all their cash in one property.

What do you think is the real advantage of buying it cash aside for the speed of the transaction? Will an all cash deal help you negotiate better?

What is the real advantage?

Can you see any advantage to offering a seller a quick purchase in exchange for a lower price?

Can you see any advantage to offering a home owner an option besides foreclosure or bankruptcy?

Can you see any advantage to buying at an auction with cash on hand?

Can you see how any of those things could help a buyer negotiate better terms?

I assumed these things would be obvious to any investor.

“I assumed these things would be obvious to any investor..."
- And I assume you are not familiar with commercial real estate since some of your assumptions are miss-observations, with all due respect.

Can you see any advantage to offering a seller a quick purchase in exchange for a lower price?
There are commercial financing programs that can fund in 24-36 hours with an appraisal. Just as fast as cash. The cash advantage just went out the window (Unless ofcourse you plan to buy a property without an appraisal).

Can you see any advantage to offering a home owner an option besides foreclosure or bankruptcy?
I'll assume you meant commercial RE owner. What advantage? You assume that because an owner is in trouble and sees the bank coming around the corner he/she will cut and run. It has been my experience that when a RE property owner runs into financial trouble they usually have nothing to loose and will pursue the fair market value of their property if not a figure close to it. The banks first lien will have to be paid no matter what and that’s what the bank is interested in. As the bank lien will not approximate the fair market value (unless the property/area is in serious decline) you will be able to negotiate a better deal with a bank than with the RE owner. Banks are not in the business of REO management. Its more profitable to take the money and reinvest it. So No, aside from 1 out 25 cases, I see no advantage in offering an alternate to a foreclosure as the word ‘quick sale’ is subjective.

Can you see any advantage to buying at an auction with cash on hand?
Cash/Lines of credit are req at an auction and that is obvious. Your conviction is that cash will help you negotiate better and as you now refer to an auction (something which obviously requires cash/cash substitute) you are really saying that an auction will get you a better deal. You are right as an auction is the right question to your answer in hand. An auction is different ball game and needless to say, caveat emptor.

Can you see how any of those things could help a buyer negotiate better terms?
By “…any of those things…” I assume you are referring back to cash. No, I would say. New securitization guideline and products have changed traditional financing in many ways including speed of transactions, underwriting leniency and costs involve. The advantage for traditional “Ima buy you out right now …cash” advantage simply does not exist anymore. You can use the same amount of cash to acquire three times as many properties as you can buy with cash. Not only do we do these types of transactions everyday, my opinion (and its just that) is validated by some very smart RE investors that I have the good fortune of having as clients.

BUT you are right that cash is your best asset if you either have less than perfect credit or have a 'take no prisoners' attitude in RE aquisition.

Commercial Lender

How many commercial real estate properties have you personally invested in?

Sole owner of 4, partner in 2, and partners in 3 outside the US