Discussing furniture outside of contract

[Joshua B Pruitt]

Good Afternoon,

I am under contract to purchase my first investment property. We are going to utilize it as a short term rental. I have had an inspection completed, but before I ask for repairs I want to discuss the furnishings that the selling is willing to convey. We purposely left them out of the initial contract to discuss compensation later. We now want to discuss before asking for repairs. The problem is that the seller is represented by a Realtor, and I also am a Realtor.

I just want to make sure that I don't get my self into any ethical issues with discussing the furnishings and then if I ask for repairs.

My intentions were to let the listing agent know that I was going to call and discuss the contents of the home, and then based on those conversations ask for repairs, if any.

Any insight on how best to handle this situation would be greatly appreciated.

[Joe Splitrock]

Originally posted by @Joshua B Pruitt:

@Marcello Di Gerlando, I want to discuss the contents and what they are willing to part with. Based on that I would either not ask for any repairs and take care of them after closing, or ask for some...it would all dependent on what we come up with outside the contract.

 I would negotiate a price for furnishings separately. You can most likely use bonus depreciation and take the expense year one. If you put the cost into the purchase price, you are stuck depreciating over 27.5 years.