Property Acquisition Offer - buy, rent to seller for short time?

[Jim Glover]

I don’t really like this idea, but I am looking for something to differentiate my offer from the competition. Here in GA it’s a bit insane right now, and everyone who is associated with real estate has became an “investor”! I get postcards every day on my 10 rentals and everyone in my family (me, wife and kids) gets calls every week. Also all of the big players are targeting my area hard and buying heavily. My thought is that on a few nice targets I offer to buy the house, then give them 3 months to rent back until they find a place to move. I know there are many reasons why this is not smart, but my thought is if they at least call me back I can make an educated decision about how I move forward. In a perfect world I would never actually rent to anyone, but I get to be the one they contact about selling! So I guess it is more of a tactic to get called back, and only in a perfect situation would I ever actually rent the home back to someone. What are your thoughts on this approach?

[Darius Ogloza]

We have done two seller rent-backs - one with our principal residence (1 month) and the second on an investment property.  Both turned out fine.  Not conclusive but evidence that the strategy can work!  Good luck.