Buying a Fourplex with existing Tenants; Realtor is Useless

[Astrid Cuas]

Buying a Fourplex with existing Tenants

HELP ME PLEASE

I have been trying to gather information on a fourplex for several weeks. My realtor seems less than enthusiastic about the property and its location and it being a short sale. There was little to no information listed on the property and for some reason I expected my realtor would put something together for me. NOPE. Big Mistake. If I want this process to go faster I’ll need to do this on my own. Which I am fine with. Good learning experience. The property is being managed by a PM whose contact information I received while viewing one of the units.

I mentioned to my realtor that I wanted all the information she could find on the property including financial history from the PM; she said she would look into it. After some pressure my realtor sent me a text saying that there were washer and dryer connections in each unit, and forwarded me an email from the listing agent which listed the rent roll and agent notes.

In summary; 3 out of the 4 tenants are on a month to month lease paying and pays $385; all the tenants have been there for over a year. One receives a 65/month discount because they maintain the yard. Owner passed away, wife is just finding out about the property.

There were no attachments and no documents to support the information in the email. Very disappointing. For some reason I expected more guidance, more professionalism, more concrete information. At this point I feel like I have no use for her.

I understand that during the purchasing and negotiation I’ll need a realtor, so I plan to keep her for that, but do I need her for the research? I do not want to overstep my boundaries or create friction, but I cannot keep wasting time. She doesn’t seem to have many answers or perhaps she has bigger fish to fry.

So maybe someone here can help me please

Can I contact the PM company directly and request copies of leases and agreements, income and expenses. How do I find out if tenants are paying rent on time, and if there are any reoccurring maintenance requests? Is there a report that PM’s should have with this information? And when is it ok to ask for all this info, after I put in an offer, hopefully before. Are there additional questions that I should be asking or documents that I should be requesting?