Wholesaling or "Flipping" Rent Controlled LA Duplex

[Jonathan Liu]

Hello BP Community,

I was looking to get started in wholesaling, and was talking to a close friend who is a Realtor to help me with my business plan. As we were discussing, she told me about her client who was fed up being a landlord and wanted to just offload her property. The duplex has been listed for approximately 60 days. She has received numerous offers over listing price, but every offer requires it to be delivered vacant. The problem is that one of the two units is covered by the rent control ordinance in LA, and she cannot evict the tenant. She does not want to negotiate a buy out with the tenant, and she is willing to take a pretty substantial discount to sell the property with the tenants (about $50k).

After reviewing the ordinance, one of the permissible reasons for evicting is if the owner intends to occupy the property personally, or with a family member or resident manager. I assume there are people who are willing to purchase this property and evict (for example a house hacker, or a live-in flipper). I was also thinking of purchasing the property myself and then evicting then "flipping" it for retail once it's vacant. Has anyone tried such a strategy, or know if there are people who are interested in purchasing these types of properties? 

Thank you in advance for any thoughts or insights!

Jonathan