Buying Property to Get Rid of Drug Dealer Neighbors

[John Woodington]

I live in a town home association just north of Minneapolis, MN.  There are 47 total units, and all of them are no trouble, except for one particular neighbor.  The owner is older, and does not live at this town house.  Instead, his daughter lives there with a handful of young men who are selling pot and other drugs.  The police have tried to raid them multiple times, to  no avail.  They break numerous association rules, and while we fine them diligently (I'm on the association board of directors), they always pay the fines (to the tune of $3000+ per year).  As an association, we have no legal recourse to evict them as long as they keep up to date on their dues and fine payments.  And since they are not technically renters, they can't breach a rental contract and be evicted that way.

After dealing with this for years now, my wife approached me with the following idea: We offer to buy the town house from the owner and turn it into a rental property and evict the troublesome neighbors living there.  The owner will never be able to sell the property at market rate without numerous interior repairs.  It is a 3 bed 2 bath unit, and would sell for around $185K if it were in decent shape.  Our idea would be to offer to buy the owner out of his remaining mortgage (I'm thinking $125K), telling him that he then won't have to pay for his daughter's housing, and he won't have to go through the hassle of rehabbing the place when he does need to sell it someday in the future.

My questions are:

1. Is this a good idea in general?
2. As long as the numbers work out on my end, what are the potential downsides of this approach?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[Sean Phillips]

@John Woodington Ummm I am thinking that he (home Owner) isnt paying for anything.  If I were selling drugs this is the best deal.  My name isnt on title and all I have to pay is some fines and possibly pay the house off and keep it in his name.  Do you really think $3000 is a hit to a dealer.  If you really want this out of your hood invest in cameras and start a neighborhood watch.  Capture the cars on camera and possibly invest in a directional mic.  Then submit these to the police regularly.  They can look at the plates on the cars and start leaning on the buyers to give up these guys as the dealers.

Good luck!!