2M to 10M multi-family frustration - Looking for insight
I’m hoping someone can shed some light on this.

I’m an agent and do a lot of smaller investment properties and an investor. I’ve focused my investing on 10-25 door properties and had a lot of success. I recently partnered with someone and we have been looking for 50+ unit C class deals in our area and we’ve made about a dozen strong offers.

The issue I am constantly running into is that the sellers are almost all expecting a short DD period and/or no contingencies. I couldn’t imagine taking on a property at market price with no assurance of clear title or a proper DD. Plus we don’t have 10M cash that we are willing to put into a full price deal. We’d be happy to take on more risk if the price reflected it but these deals haven’t been worth the extra risk.

My question to you fine folks is, is this common for assets in this class? I get the sense brokers are trying to sell for a seller who is indifferent about selling or the seller is hiding a significant defect and not pricing accordingly.
[{"id": "ijzcs29", "text": "I just recently closed on an $11m commercial deal that had a STRICT contingency on closing date modifications. ie; Must close in 45 days REGARDLESS of overall progress and if not I had to put up 100k more in EM. \n\nIn my opinion, it was due to time constraints on their end but it had little to no effect on me. 45 days came and went and we closed right at 90 days. Hell even appraisals for a purchase like this take AT LEAST 30-40 days.\n\nAll of that to say, yes it is common but do not agree to anything out of the ordinary if the seller seems to be extremely pushy about \"no inspections, no contingencies\". That would be a major red flag for me especially dealing in 50+ doors.", "replies": [{"id": "ijzjyyh", "text": "I\u2019m willing to deviate from the norm a little. But I can\u2019t imagine paying full price for a property with no or little DD. I walked away from my 11th offer in 3 months yesterday and they have all been similar nonsense. It feels like every broker is misrepresenting the deal from the start and wasting everyone\u2019s time. I\u2019m always clear from the start that my offer will have contingencies. Why not end the conversation there opposed to drag it out?\n\nPlus, in my market, surveys along take every bit of 30 days and appraisals are closer to 45.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ijzojg4", "text": "Deferred maintenance would be my guess. Too long to look under the hood and you'll find all the Capex that needs to be done in the next few years.", "replies": [{"id": "ijzqi8f", "text": "Well said. I bet all these places were bought with the intention of flipping for a profit. Put in as little money as possible and are now looking to cash in. It also sounds like these brokers are pulling from the residential market with these asks. Maybe the commercial market has been crazy too though. Anyway, for both markets no contingencies is ending fast.", "replies": [{"id": "ik0bqso", "text": "Only one was held for a year, the rest have been held by the seller for several.\n\nI\u2019m happy to take on deferred maintenance, that\u2019s a strength of mine. I can get full inspections and analyze all the paperwork in a week. It\u2019s anything outside of my direct control that takes more time.\n\nI agree these brokers are pulling from residential nonsense. But some of these are national big name brokers. It all feels very unprofessional.", "replies": [{"id": "ik0mzsv", "text": "Many buy were bought with the plan to resell in 3 to 5 years to double their money. Syndications come to mind. \n\nI am surprised anyone would accept no contingencies for expensive properties. For residential, you can put an approximate dollar amount to the risk of thousands or 10s of thousands. For commercial, it could be hundreds of thousands or millions. Hard to price that in without knowing and not being able to adjusting the price accordingly.", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ik06lmp", "text": "My MF brokerage team doesn't work on many deals &lt; 50 units, but for those in the 50\\~100 unit range, non-refundable earnest money at contract execution has been the norm for the last several years. However, it is always subject to clear title, survey &amp; environmental. Deferred maintenance, not so much...", "replies": [{"id": "ik0aqh8", "text": "I\u2019d be happy to accept that. All of these sellers won\u2019t accept an offer subject to a clear title and survey and won\u2019t even consider an environmental.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}, {"id": "ik197lb", "text": "We have done hard money on day one for the last two years. Granted, you should get a precommitment, Phase I and decent survey. \n\n50 units is just Wild West. You can\u2019t expect anything from these sellers.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ik0ndpg", "text": "I feel your pain. I know of a 35 unit that is low C and poorly managed but in a low A class area. I\u2019ve been trying to get the owner to sell for years. A 90 year old woman owns it and her daughter \u201cmanages it\u201d but it\u2019s a joke. Rents are 15-20% below market and in serious need of rehab. My buddy wants to buy it but the daughter said she \u201cdoesn\u2019t want to give up control\u201d it\u2019s highly frustrating.", "replies": [{"id": "ik22ve7", "text": "Frustrating for you, but I'll bet that the renters there are pretty happy to have their spot in that A class area for 20% below market rents.  Heck, they probably do apartment fixup themselves because they understand that the landlord is cheap but giving them a good deal.  The landlord likes not doing lots of work and is liked by the tenants.\n\nWho are you to complain?", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}]