All Forum Posts by: Christopher Warren

Quote from @Nicholas Coulter:

@Melissa B. you can have them sign a lease cancellation addendum that you both sign and date. Then you will be good to place the new tenant. Good for you means no vacancy! 

This is what I have done. 

If your lease has a provision for early cancellation, you are allowed to levy that.

The last time this happened to me, I had new tenants lined up before the old tenant even left. I charged them for a professional cleaning (the exact cost from my cleaners), the tenant felt this was fair and I was able to raise the rent slightly to the next tenant. Win win.

Let me know if you’d like me to peek at anything in your lease.

Quote from @Billy Daniel:

Your state laws will dictate what you can do.  But usually the due diligence is the buyers responsibility.  Once you sign papers, theres not much you can do.  This is why realtors urge inspections, disclosures, surveys, and appraisals during the buying process.

Selling "as is" really doesn't mean anything legally in my state.  It just tells the buyer that the seller is unlikely to bend on repairs that may be needed.  I've seen plenty of "as is" sellers make repairs in order to get to the closing table.  It certainly doesn't allow the seller to misrepresent the property.  If a buyer asks a pointed question, the seller is required to answer honestly.

Yep. Incredible what becomes negotiable when you’re 25 days into a contract in this market. 

We’ve recently seen HUGE concessions and repairs to get things across the finish line.

In the same week: I successfully negotiated for $10k in concessions for a buyer on a $500k deal and then had an investor client agree to $6k in concessions on a $250k sale because they wanted it off their books! In both cases there was “as is” language that had been previously discussed.

Hey Jessica! I’m a licensed agent in Arizona and a realtor. 

Technically speaking, all home sales in Arizona are “as is” if your agent used the standard Arizona Association of Realtors sales contract template. That said, if your seller or you as a buyer also put “as is” in the contract, that generally means “I don’t want to do any repairs” or “I won’t ask for any repairs.”

Important to note here: Stating “as is” at any point does not eliminate the need for disclosure.

If a seller willfully hid material defects from a buyer, that is illegal. These should be disclosures via a Seller Property Disclosure Statement in Arizona. Often items that are easily spotted in photographs will also be considered fully disclosed.

You also have a responsibility as a buyer to complete your due diligence and if a property is not what you expected, cancel the contract. I will never advise a client to waive inspections for this reason. Just had a deal fall through last week because of structural issues that the seller did not disclose. That could be the best $1000 spent if the home becomes unusable.

Feel free to connect if I can answer any questions or if you need a referral to a real estate lawyer in Arizona.

Quote from @Bruce Woodruff:

Quote from @Dave Stokley:

No idea who's behind it but there's currently a bill in the Ohio House (HB 563) that would prevent local governments from treating STR differently than LTR.

 Arizona has a similar law in place. It allows some regulation but no bans...

Some changes in AZ this year allows for more regulation, including fines, licenses, etc at the local level. 

SB 1168 - https://www.thecentersquare.co...

Quote from @Cami Gerbmak:

I'm still fairly new to the world of investment properties but I realize the key to finding good investment properties, is having an experienced investment realtor on your team.  Unfortunately the majority of realtors I've worked with that claim to have investment experience, have done little to nothing to help educate me and find properties.  I typically have been the one searching for properties off the listings and truthfully it's becoming a full time job while my realtors have done minimal to even search let alone show me properties when it works for them.  I work a full time job as it is and honestly I don't have time to do all the searching and researching.  Please tell me this isn't the norm?  I really would like to find a well-qualified agent that will help educate, guide me to find a good investment property.  

This turned out way longer than I initially meant. Hope it helps in any way. Please feel free to reach out if you'd like to continue the conversation with an investor friendly agent. I look forward to it. TL:DR Investors are lots of work, typically very demanding, often do not know what they really want and are not often loyal back to their real estate agent.

Yep — I'd say that most of the agents I encounter are not happy working with investors unless they have a knowledgable investor who has defined their crystal clear criteria and is actively shopping, then it is a dream. When I tell them I love to help new investors, they think I'm a little off. Lol.

Most agents feel like investors are super high maintenance buyers. Buyers are already more work than sellers, some agents won't even take on buyer clients and define themselves as "Listing Agents" only. High maintenance comes out when the investor doesn't just want to see the property, but they want a detailed comparable analysis, they want an analysis of the previous rents if available and/or a rental comparable analysis and then they want to know the age-old question: Is this a good deal? 

That is the thing though. The agent can't define a good deal for you. It might make 12% Cash on Cash Return, it might be projected to be worth 100% more after certain repairs/renovations are done, it might cash flow $200/mo... But none of that matters if you're looking for something else.

The next thing is volume. Investors want to see LOTS of properties before they are ready to buy. When I acquired the last two properties before becoming an agent, in 45 days (thanks to 1031 exchange rules): We looked at over 20 properties in person, my agent wrote 15 offers (not including responding to various counter offers), we had one escrow fall through during the inspection period as we decided the property wasn't for us and closed on two deals just days apart. Investors are a TON of work.

The final piece is loyalty. Most of the investors I know keep shopping for new agents when they do new deals. Agents hate to be ghosted as much as you do. It happens to agents too. Remember, unless we close a deal, we don't get paid. So when agents have invested a lot of time in providing analysis, etc, they are hoping to earn your business. When they get ghosted after they have invested lots of time, it makes them a little bit jaded. My advice here is that when you find an agent who you really click with, come back to them for future deals, refer your friends, family and other investors. They talk about this on the Podcast all the time: Provide value back to anyone you work with.

I'd take @Account Closed up on his offer to chat, he is incredibly knowledgeable. :)

Welcome to BP Jacob! The community here was crucial to my early days investing. My wife and I have a small (growing) portfolio here in Tucson that is a mix or long-term and short-term rentals. I'm also an investor-friendly agent in town.

Reach out if I can help or answer any questions.

Also - Thank you for investing in Tucson. My hometown is great and we have a vision of helping Tucson thrive.

Awesome deal right here.

Thank you for adding the additional info. $700/mo and have all of your original investment back out is a sweet deal. How much did you spend on renovations/holding costs during reno? Do you feel that you got all of that back out? I'm curious what your bank appraised the property at under your new loan?

We have two investments that are both undergoing extensive renovations and will be ripe for a refi in the next 12-18 months if rates come down.

Jose - When your lease is coming up, you should ask @Kyle Swengel about mid-term rentals. He is crushing it with traveling nurses, not much more work than a LTR.

Hi Serita! Welcome. BP has been crucial to myself and my wife as we have jumped in these past few years. Check out AZREI, they are pretty active within Arizona as a paid membership group. You can attend events for around $20/each as a guest to see if you find value in the group. They have a "new investor" subgroup as well. I think the Phoenix monthly meeting is the second Monday of the month.

I recommend setting up a keyword alert for "phoenix meetup" and that way you'll get notifications if someone posts about it.

https://azreia.org/calendar/

@Account Closed's reply here is GOLD. Thank you Mike.

That document you referenced is from 2013, FYI. Page 34 really sums up predatory practices and various scams. If you terms are clear and fair, you'll stay clear of most of these. 

The details of your marketing matter too. It seems clear to me that you should avoid terms like "rescue" and "guaranteed" etc. That said, offering someone a fair price for their house (which may include taking over payments subject to and settling up things like taxes past due utilities, taking care of deferred maintenance, etc) then transacting and leasing back to the original owner could easily be a win-win for someone who is struggling.

Do your due diligence and follow Mike's post about avoiding pitfalls!

Sweet Colby!

I'll plan on attending. Would love to hear Anthony's story.