Contacted Seller Directly

[Tim Blanchard]

Hey there folks...

We own/manage two STR properties that perform nicely in a vacation-y area. We're looking to expand, but carefully (not trying to saturate our market set).

We found a great property less than a mile from one of ours that was listed for $775k and it really checks all the boxes for performance metrics. We determined the highest we can really go is $700k for the numbers to make sense conservatively.

The property had been sitting for close to three months with zero offers so I reached out to the owners directly to gauge the situation and as I suspected - retired couple who've owned it and used it as a second home for over 20 years. They've got grown kids that have no interest or means to purchase the property. I asked if they'd be interested in working a deal directly (w/o agents) and they preferred to go the traditional route.

So we got our agent schedule us a showing and had her write a formal offer @ $675k. They countered at $738.5k and we countered back at $700k. They rejected :-(

Now that we've involved our agent, is it a big "no-no" to reach back out to the owners and see if they'd be interested in either owner financing or rental arbitrage? The property is a winner-winner-chicken dinner and I can't shake the feeling that we're going to miss the window to bring it online for the upcoming season and it'll wind up selling for our $700 but to some other joker.