House Hacking with existing Tenants

[Jerome Morelos]

A lot of the properties I’m searching on the MLS already have tenants in place with lease agreements. I plan to owner-occupy one of the units, so how would I handle this situation? Do I wait for their lease to expire? What if they have 6 months left on their lease? Can I ask the previous owner to terminate their lease?

[Kenneth Cowan]

You could ask to review their applications and leases. If they went through a decent screening they may not be the worst. I’d ask a lot about seller motivation though to find out if the tenants are a problem. So many house hack horror stories begin with “my inherited tenants are causing x”.