Real Estate Investor · Chicago, IL · Member since 2009 · 91 posts · 22 votes
I'm going to be buying a list of absentee owners off of listsource soon but I had one question first. Are these properties usually occupied by tenants? If so, this seems like it would have a huge impact on the deal. It will be harder to inspect, the value of the leased fee estate would differ from the value of a fee simple estate, and the tenants would be in the way of rehab work. When you get calls from absentee owners, do they usually call when they don't have tenants and don't want to fix the property up in order to find new ones?
Rental Property Investor · Baltimore, MD · Member since 2009 · 624 posts · 559 votes
16y
Some of the best deals I do are when there are tenants in the properties.
With that being said, the reason that the absentee owner will respond to you is because they are having challenges with the property/tenants. That usually means they are motivated.... just want you want!
Your challenge is to figure out how to manage the situtation even with tenants in the property.
One other thing... unless the building is over 4 units the rents will not directly affect the building's value.
Real Estate Investor · Chicago, IL · Member since 2009 · 91 posts · 22 votes
16y
Very interesting Peter. Can you elaborate slightly more though on how to make the deal work? Would your buyer only be someone who is looking to become a landlord? If so, does that make the deal easier if it needs less repairs? And how does that work with tenants in the place? I'm a tenant right now and personally I would be pretty mad if there were people coming in and out of my house doing work. Lastly, wouldn't you have a tough time selling the property to someone if they know that there are problem tenants and thats why the original landlord sold it in the first place?