Tired home owner

[Teresia M.]

I received a call from a motivated home owner who has a house in NC.  They have been trying to sell for five years and had it listed with two different real estate agents.  They had it under contract at one time and the buyer backed out.  They've had the price dropped from 190k to 170k.  They say they just want out from under the mortgage payment which is 909.00 per month.  It's 4 beds, 2 baths and 1900 sqft. The house is still listed but, is not selling.  I'd like to get the house on terms just not sure what to offer.  Anybody have any ideas?

[Gilbert Dominguez]

If its a house that nobody wants evidenced by no one buying it in 5 years you have to question if you want that to become your problem. Let us say you could successfully lease option it, that makes you responsible to make monthly lease payments. You would need to find good renters that would stick to a new lease if you could lease it and make sure that they would and could make the lease payments to you so that you could then in turn make your lease payments to the owners. Talk to local real estate agents and see if you can get a feel for what can or needs to be done to make the house more marketable. You will need a good exit strategy, one you are sure will work. If it was me I would stay away from a house that just won't sell. Check out what the comps are in the area for that house. 

Its easy to get into a bad deal and hard to get out of it without hurting yourself financially so whatever you decide you have to make sure it does make good sense. Often times its easy to get taken in especially if you listen to real estate gurus that convince you of all the great deals they made and are making through lease options but the reality is that you still need a good property that people want to have and live in and the fact that is has not sold in 5 years tells me so stay away . There are many deals to be made out there without adding that no one likes or wants that house.