Home Inspection on rental properties

[Jane Z.]

Hi,

Just got verbal acceptance of two offers and I thought it is good to first share my experience on my first two deals.

We have seen more than 100 single family homes before we started to submit offers, usually 20 to 25 homes in a row on Sunday, but it seems all the good rental properties were either gone before we even got the chance to place an offer or some else outbid us. Out of frustration, we submitted a high offer on one property. When we anxiously waited for the response of that offer, a fannie mae property we did not get the chance to submit an offer suddently went back on the market. We immediately asked our agent to submit an offer ($55000), which even took the listing agent by surprise because he called my agent to make sure we actually saw the property before we submitted the offer. We got the verbal acceptance in less than 2 days. The leasing agent we plan to hire already visited the property before and thought it could be rent out for at least $900 per month.

The next day when we were still excited about the deal, we got a call from our agent that a bid we placed on a HUD property two weeks ago was accepted. We placed a minimum net return bid ($70532) on that property and at the time was told another bid was selected . Even though we kept our bid as a backup bid, we almost forgot it completely. This property could be rent out for at least $950 per month. Both properties do not seem requiring major repair and are in good school districts. We still have not got any word back on our high bid offer. But we told our agent to resubmit a low offer on that one instead. I guess the offer does not alway need to go up.

Several time I felt so sorry for wasting our agent's time on the properties that we could not get. I am so glad that things turn out the way they are. At least our agent will get paid for what he did for us so far. But we will continue looking for more properties for sure.

So here comes to my question. We plan to do home inspection as soon as we get the contract in writing. I read that it is our responsiblity to turn on the utilities on HUD and Fannie Mae properties before the inspection and turn off 48 hours after the inspection. If we decide to keep the contract after the inspection, could we keep the utilities on without turning off? What is the consequence without turning off? It is just a waste of money to turn on, off, and on again. Thanks for your advice. I gain so much valuable information from people here.