Tenant caused damage two days before closing

[David Egger]

I'm two days away from closing on my second duplex and was given permission by seller to show the vacant unit and try to line up tenants for after closing. He's generally been pretty amicable, but I suspect that's because we had a mini-bidding war between myself and two other potential buyers and I offered $500 over list (still below nearby comps)

Anyway, I was there on Saturday and discovered that the tenant absolutely destroyed the backyard by pulling a large truck in from the street while it was wet, leaving deep impressions on the ground and killing most of the grass. Seriously looks like someone did donuts back there. Agent says a regrade and reseed should take care of it, so I know we'll demand that be paid for at closing, as my offer was for a place in very good condition, immediately rentable, with a tenant already in place.

I'm going to inspect the now-vacated side today. Now both sides are empty as we discovered after the offer was accepted that the tenant in place hadn't paid rent for at least three months. Based on the damage in the backyard, I suspect this 'nice formerly-homeless man putting his life back together that just has the best integrity I've ever seen in a tenant' (as the seller claimed) has caused other damage in his move-out.

What's the custom here? Should I play hard-ball and expect payment to bring the vacated side back to rentable condition? Split it down the middle? There was some damage on that unit I knew about and don't expect that to be fixed, but I'm also paying for my upcoming wedding and dropping a couple grand to make a unit rentable when I offered above list because the unit was in 95% turnkey condition.

[Ryan M.]

I purchased a Duplex in April, during my inspections and reviews of the rentroll for the side that was leased it was easy to see he was going to have to go. Now we closed, evectied, tenant did a number on the place. Didn't phase me because it was the same scenario I predicted and based the PURCHASE PRICE on.

I prefer buying empty buildings, better pricing, rehabs get done from the get go, and tenants pass our guidelines.