advice on getting bought out of lease + subsequent home purchase?

[Reina Jane]

Hi all, total newbie here. Thanks for having me.

 I want to preface this by saying I'm not anti-landlord. Had ALL great landlords until this one bad experience which was a doozy and I need advice. I know nothing about real estate, really. I may even become a landlord - an ethical one who fixes things though :D

I have a slumlord who is so bad he's quite well known. Everyone on my floor has moved out because living in this apartment has been really a hardship - floods, mold, landlord harassment etc.

I am not sure why my LL has offered me a buyout of my rent stabilized lease, but he has - this was before everyone on my floor moved out. Could be because I know my rights and have been vocal about telling fellow tenants their rights. Could be bc maybe this apartment wouldn't be up to snuff with city codes? i'm only speculating. I don't know how to find out for sure what their motivations are.

Building was sold but I was told the offer still stands ("sold" may mean some sort of ...paper only deal where the buyers are in cahoots with the sellers, what do I know?) Lawyer called and threw out offer of around 100K, as anchor pricing. Even their lawyer was saying they could do more.

**will be consulting with lawyer and accountant, have to find good ones, just mining here for ideas and experiences since I have much to learn.

The offer is to buy me out of my rent stabilized lease (where rent increases are typically 1-3% a year, as opposed to non stabilized leases where tenants in my city are having to move or even being priced out bc their rent was suddenly raised by, for example $800/month) and have me leave.

Average rent in this city as it stands is like 4-5K a month. I am at the age where I want to buy anyway. And I'm open to moving states. Looks like I'm not having kids. i do have a disability, a serious one, and my dream is to not have to worry too much about working again. I'm not on disability, I've been living off of savings since getting sick from Covid, and ideally this would put me in a situatoin where I won't need to stress about money.

Giving up a rent stabilized lease is giving up a golden ticket essentially, and if I were to stay in the city for the next several decades, I'd be spending hundreds of thousands-over a million more in rent were I to not have a stabilized lease. BUt I dont really want to stay here, I think it's impacting my health.

So Im thinking of buying a condo or house, possibly in some other state. 

at first I thought, the building only sold for around 1 million, so they couldn't feasibly offer me 500-900K, but then I realized buying me out was probably baked into the sale price of the building.

So my questions are:

1. 1. I am trying to learn as much as I can as shielding a buyout from taxes, legally. Will definitely speak to attorneys and accountants, just mining for ideas now. I have read conflicting info about a 1031 exchange. Some people say my rent stabilized lease would qualify were I to buy my own house, others say no. Anyone have experience with this?
2. 2. I read that there are other creative ways a buyout can be protected from taxes, for example, one way is if the landlord bought me a house outright (I saw that idea here https://www.biggerpockets.com/...). Do you know anything about this, or have any other ideas for things the landlord could do? I'm not particularly interested in vindictively screwing them over just for the sake of it. If there is something they could do that could benefit them too (big tax write off for them?) as well as me, then I'm ok with it.
3. 3. would it be stupid to buy a new place in cash so i dont have to worry bout interest rates? my credit score is 827. I know inflation, future dollars will be worth less. YOur thoughts? Or should I just put down payment and put rest in vtsax? I'm afraid, if I prefer to move to area close to family with no good jobs, I'll be stressed about making monthly payments...
4. 4. In the biggerpockets link above someone mentioned finding a real estate investing savvy accountant. How do I find a good one?
5. 5. Any other strategies or negotiating tactics I should know?

Thanks for any advice. I know this was a long one!