Oh Boy!

[Shaun Hunt]

I have a For Sale By Owner house under contract. The closing deadline is February 29th, which is this Monday.  I received a text this morning saying:

 "After a lot of thought and discussion the past few days, my husband and I have decided to relist the house. Thank you for your understanding in that we are trying to and going to do what is best for our family.

There has been no indication for the past month that this was going to happen. The appraisal has already been submitted to mortgage guys.  The seller thought we missed the deadline of Feb. 22, which we didn't.  The seller wants to relist it for 15-20,000 more than what we have it under contract for.

I have already placed earnest money down on the home.  I have already made plans as to what to do with the property.

Should I just walk away and take it on the chin?

What are my options? If they don't show up at closing and just relist the property due to some technicality, which I can't see there is one, what can I do other than lawyer up?

Thanks in advance.

[Mike Palmer]

Glad you got it done, but you are being too nice in my opinion (or allowing them to be too pushy if you want to put it that way). 

Without a lease and/or a deposit you may not have any recourse if they destroy the place, and it doesn't sound like they are on good terms with you and may not care what you think anymore.

If you are still making money with the reduced rent I think that is fine, but in my opinion at minimum you should have a lease agreement and collect a deposit.

Do share these interesting conversations the seller had with your team...

And did I read it wrong or are you saying you have closed 6 other FSBO purchases while this was going on?

[Marcia Maynard]

@Shaun Hunt Congratulations on sealing the deal! 

Curious about your rent concessions.... If you became the property owner in the first week of March and you prorated rent for March, and you started charging $1000/month starting in May, what happened in April? 

How has the former property owner, who is now your tenant, performing as a tenant? I think a MTM rental agreement was the way to go. It gives you more flexibility should things go south. Has the tenant given you an indication as to when they will be moving into their new house? At least this gives you time to plan for the turnover and improvements you wish to do at that time. Good luck!

[Shaun Hunt]

@Marcia Maynard The former owners/tenants paid rent for March.  They paid about $830 for March as a pro-rated rent. They ended up buying a house, instead of building. Originally it was going to be for a few months, so I was surprised it happened so quickly. They closed on their house two weeks ago.  

In the mean time, I was able to list the property for rent. I showed the house a few times and settled on leasing it to a lady from out of state. I had to coordinate showings around the tenants schedule.  I didn't get my own set of keys until April 25th.

As we speak, she, the tenant from out of state, is packing up her items and will be heading this way on Thursday, April 28th.

I paid the owner/tenants $300 to buy out their lease and asked that they leave on April 21st. They finished up removing everything Saturday morning, April 23rd. I now had a few days to have the place ready before the 28th. 

I have very little spare time, so I am doing what I can, burning the midnight oil, trying to get it ready without hiring out too much.  

My family and I hit it hard on Saturday.  They had a dog.  We filled a 30 gallon trash can with little presents it left behind. The lawn was mowed, a lot of weeds and trash were removed, enough to fill a fourteen foot trailer.  The purple master bedroom was finished on Monday after two coats of primer and two coats of paint.  One other bedroom was painted and the rest of the house was touched up. The carpets are being cleaned today along with several other things. New blinds have been ordered and I hope to install them tomorrow morning.

We are finding that they had/have mice problems.  I hope it isn't a problem for the new tenant.

What do you do for mice?  I am thinking of placing glue pads and then giving $5 for every mouse that is caught.

This last forty days have been very busy.  A tenant at another rental got arrested and will spend the next few years in jail.  I had to move her stuff out and helped move another tenant in. That tenants job fell through so he had to move back.  I helped him move out.  Another tenant moved in to that spot last Thursday.  I acquired access to this latest house on the same day and I have been trying to get it rent ready before Thursday.  I am pulling 16-18 hour days.  I'm not sure if the family can continue to support that.

[Marcia Maynard]

Oh Boy! Hopefully your family will understand the activity will settle down and you will get into a holding pattern. I equate tenant move-ins and move-outs to airplane landings and take-offs. A flight crew will tell you that is the hardest part of their job. So it is with landlords.