All Forum Posts by: Cerwin Haynes

Hello all. I'm buying my first property via FHA owner-occupant. A two-family house; seller agreed to evict a section 8 tenant as terms of the deal (I'll be living in that unit woke renting out the other).

Although my funding from the bank was approved mid June, the seller waited until July to serve notice to quit (original targeted close date was July 29). It was served by July 16, and a good friend who's a section 8 tenant says that since that tenant was served by the 16th, she had until August 16th to leave.  My agent informed me Thursday that the tenant not only had not vacated, but doesn't want to. And the seller (who has been a step slow this whole process) is not confident he can have her out by the Sept 1. Mind you, I was scheduled to receive my final closing date this past week.

My agent believes the seller "slowness" is due to inexperience. I already have my lawyer looking into what happened and what kind of options I'll have going forward. I've already asked for the seller to comp me having to pay an extra month rent at my current residence plus fees for extending my rate lock. While I'm forced to wait, what should the seller be doing to get that tenant out asap?

Thanks. 

@Hattie Dizmond thank you for the idea. I'm on that website now.

Quick question: I'm kinda cheap... not that I don't see the virtue of having that site handle the mailing, but I wonder if I can do the mailings/letters myself? What do you think? Would it be better to pay for the site to do it being this is my first time?

Hello all. My name is Cerwin and I just joined here last week after checking out a few podcasts over the past couple of months. I'm in the market to begin my real estate investing - I am looking for a 3-unit (or the "right" 2-unit) as an owner occupant to cashflow. I'm looking inner-city Syracuse; while I don't need a "pampered" neighborhood, I also don't want to live somewhere where there's gunshots every night (I joked with my agent that once or twice a week is OK).

Within my financial parameters, I've been looking at houses between 30-70K. Lately, the 50K, 60-65K three-units I've come across are in higher tax areas (around $3800 annually) AND they need substantial rehab, like a total roof replacement. Mortgage broker then says "no can do", even if I consider a purchase offer that subtracts the cost of the expected rehab (203K) from the asking price.

My agent thinks I may need to "steal one" to secure a purchase on a house within my price range that doesn't need over 10, 15K of rehab. I've attained a list of properties from the Syracuse LandBank that aren't foreclosed on but are delinquent or set to be closed upon next year. I've checked out some youtube vids on door-knocking and such, but these houses aren't occupied by the owners (a lot of out of town investors/owners here). So any suggestions on how to reach out to owners of said properties? Thanks.