Buying House to Flip that has a current tenant

[Dustin Jamison]

I have a lead on a house that I would like to rehab/flip.  The owner currently has a tenant in the house with a lease that doesn't end until December of 2017.  The owner wants to sell the property because the current tenant is not taking care of the property.

My question is that if I purchase the house, is that lease still valid?  Would the lease be tied to the property itself or to the current landlord?

If it is valid, does anyone have a suggestion to help the owner get the bad tenant out of the house so that I can purchase the property?

I appreciate any tips.

[Michelle Speer]

To answer your question if the lease is still valid if you buy the house, yes.  We are dealing with this right now.  But because the tenant is not taking care of the property, you can evict them after you've bought the house.  Not sure though, what the laws in Ohio are like.  In Colorado, it takes a couple months to evict, whereas I've heard in California it can take a year or longer.  I would talk to a lawyer first and see what you options are.

One good strategy that has worked is called cash for keys.  You tell the tenant that you will be evicting them anyways, so instead of paying X amount of dollars to a lawyer, you can pay them the money for them to move out and hand over the keys.  Usually works pretty well.  You could suggest the current owner tries it first and say you'd pay him back if it works, just an option.