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2022 Mid-Term Firmus Financial Update


We generally send out our mid-term newsletter in July, but we have been holding off in order to have a more tangible progress report based on the status of our largest project, namely the 20-Townhome development at 3213 E Flower St in Phoenix, which is finally wrapping up.



The list of reasons for delays in closing was starting to resemble a recitation of “The Twelve Days of Christmas", but we received confirmation this Tuesday that the final Certificates of Occupancy have been issued on the project, clearing the path to be able to close escrow. We recently learned that the lender is technically entitled to take up to 15 days to fund the loan from that date, but the buyer is pushing to close by the end of the month.


Estimated proceeds from Flower are projected to bring a windfall of about $610,000 to the fund ahead of our accruals, which when offset against other projects and spread over the first 8 months of this year increases the fund's yield by 5.1%, to bring our annualized IRR to about 9%. It bears mentioning that we have receivables out on actions we are pursuing against a former partner in Florida and two contractors in Georgia, which in effect bring our IRR up to 13.8% if we are able to collect on each of them, but we won’t count those earnings until they are collected. In the meantime, we are allocating our projected funds in hand as follows:

The closing timeline for Flower coincides within a week of the upcoming draw of $630,394 for the next round of construction on our 15-townhome development at 5701 Soquel Drive. Driving by that property these days, you can see the framing going up, which is a nice monument to our progress after 2 years of planning and entitlement. We have 5 additional draws totaling $975,731 to fund between now and the final draw date of March 2023, and will continue to monitor the local market to assess whether we should move forward with our primary strategy to sell for profit or go with the fallback strategy of leasing them out to hold at a projected Cap rate of 7% or better in the midst of a very strong rental market.


Our years-long foreclosure and legal action against the borrower for a loan we hold on 4 units in Chicago is finally coming to head with a published sale date of September 8, which also coincides nicely with our timeline for the sale of Flower. Our payoff demand for this note—which started with a principal balance of $250,000—is at $420,855.21, so we have allocated $1,400,000 of our exchange proceeds to cover the liens ahead of us in case we need to purchase the property at the auction to protect our investment. And while the property appears to have sufficient equity, we have also positioned ourselves to proceed against the borrower for any deficiency if needed, as they appear to have significant other assets.

We have reserved $915,618 of the proceeds for payouts to members who have been patiently awaiting return of their investment. We are pleased to be able to finally get their funds back to them with a healthy profit, and grateful for their trust in our ongoing efforts on their behalf during the extended timeframe endured. And of course we are happy to welcome them back into the fund anytime, should they wish to participate in future opportunities with us—without the frustrations of COVID and the host of related issues it brought with it.

Due to the delays in closing escrow on Flower Street we also missed out on two other deals we were tracking, including another development in Phoenix and a warehouse stabilization project in the Sacramento MSA, but we were able to reallocate funds to increase our investment in a 39-unit apartment renovation project in Texarkana, up to $1,018,768. We will now hold a 56.3% interest in that venture, which is set to close in early September, with us rolling exchange funds from F


lower to defer a portion of our capital gains, alongside whatever funds we use to take control of the Chicago property. Our strategy on the Texarkana complex is a 7-year hold, with positive cash flows starting at 3.9% Cash-on-Cash return in Year 1, stabilizing at 10.3% by Year 2, and its Annualized Rate of Return projected at 26.4% over the life of the investment.


We intend to place the remaining $250,000 of cash on hand into a multi-lender note secured against a portfolio of positive cash flow properties in the Merced MSA with an estimated CLTV of 69.1% (adjusted after selling costs) that will pay the fund 12% interest. And depending on whether any of the outgoing investors would like to keep $100,000 of their capital in the fund we have a line on a minority interest in a 120-bed rehab treatment facility renovation in North Carolina with projected returns of $36,000 in the first 2 years, including full return of principal, plus a bonus share of the operator’s annual profits commencing January 2024.

As for our other holdings, the 120-acre Palo Verde property in Blythe, originally entitled as cannabis production facility, is now in escrow with an operator who plans to develop it as an electric car and truck charging facility, at a contract price well in excess of what is needed to pay us back our accrued capital—currently at $1,332,498 on an initial investment of $822,000 made back in 2018, plus a healthy return at 18% annualized rate that continues to accrue until the property is sold. The $1.2M or so remaining balance of our portfolio is spread across several notes and hotel development projects, for each of which we continue to actively participate in the oversight and decisions.

And with that, you are up-to-date with the fund's current activities and prospectus. On behalf of myself and the rest of the, we thank you for your ongoing trust and participation in our multiple ventures and adventures, and we look forward to continued success together.

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