Deal Structuring Exercise

[Colin Reid]

I am a SFR buy-and-hold investor. Even so, the podcast has me intrigued to read about all sorts of deals. So when a friend expressed his displeasure with his apartment landlord, it got me asking questions.

Now I'm curious about how a deal could be made. I don't plan on making this deal (though I would be happy to pass it on to an investor interested in Clovis, NM.) because I'm not personally interested in the market. I want this to be a case study, nothing more.

My friend lives in a 30-unit building. Some one-bedroom, some two-bedroom, I'm unsure of the number of each. It's not in a bad area (I'd call it low B area). The 2-bed units rent for $575/mo.

The owner is out of town.

The owner recently stopped using a property management company and started self-managing from a distance.

The PM was responsive to maintenance concerns, the owner is not. In fact, the owner isn't responsive to much (phone calls, emails, letters, etc). Against my advice, my friend is doing a "press to test" on withholding rent due to a broken air conditioner for the whole summer. We'll see if the owner is responsive to that.

I have access to the owner's contact info.

What would you do?