Buying house with tenant

[Jeremy Ferguson]

I am planning to buy a property and the seller needs to close pretty quickly. He is moving and asked if I can close in 2 weeks. I am willing to work with him but there is one issue..

There is a tenant in the property and she is month to month at this point. I got a copy of the lease agreement and here are some of the details below:

Been renting for almost 3 years and he says she has been a great tenant.

No security deposit

Lease states 30 days written notice to terminate the lease

I went and walked the property with my contractor and the numbers work but I don’t know enough about the process and laws around eviction (worse case) to plan properly.

The property is in NC.

Do I just bite the bullet and buy it and plan to not do anything for 30 days until she moves out? Offer to pay part of her moving expenses due to the surprise termination of the lease?

Anything else I might be missing or any recommendations from those who have been through this?

[James Mc Ree]

Assuming you want Tenant out...make that a condition of your offer.  Don't buy a potential eviction unless Seller is paying you to do so.

If you go forward...get a letter signed by both Seller and Tenant stating there is $0.00 security deposit and there are no other funds held by Seller for Tenant.  Consider also requiring Seller to escrow funds to cover the cost of an eviction.