Buying and Renting Back to Sellers when RE Values May Decrease

[Jessop Adams]

I live next to a community where a large employer has been acquired by a competitor located in another state.  There is a strong possibility that the acquisition could cause the loss of hundreds of jobs in a relatively small community.  The speculation has caused the housing market to become flooded with homes and home prices to drop due to the increase in supply.  

As people are wanted to sell their homes in case their positions are terminated, I thought there may be opportunities to acquire some residential real estate at discounted prices.  Additionally, I thought there may be a good opportunity to find a seller who would like to rent their home back from a buyer with a longer term lease at higher than market rental rates and a monetary option to terminate should they actually lose their position. I thought about even possibly keeping some of the sales proceeds in escrow for the deposit, first and last month's rent and the option amount.  

Given the fact that a mass layoff could even further add houses to the market driving prices down which adds risk, but I was wondering if anyone had attempted something like this before and would appreciate any advice or tips.

[Ned Carey]

I would be very concerned about investing where you actually expect values to decrease. 

In general it is a bad idea to rent to former owners. This situation is a little different in that they may still view it as their own home.