All Forum Posts by: David de Luna

As @Brandon Carriere said you can make the current leases a part of your offer so you get them, but simply asking for the estoppel certificates is something usually honored by the seller. Of course, those will tell you the actual rents but not the seller's experience with the tenant. Ask, certainly, but you'll never know with absolute certainty until you take over, what kind of tenant you have. Think positive while preparing for Plan B. 

Don't automatically assume you must start with a clean slate - all units vacant. Ask questions of seller on current tenants. Long term, paying on time, rarely call them with problems? That would be a golden tenant and even if they are way below market rent, do the numbers - you'll see that evicting them just to get the rent to market rates immediately could result in a long enough vacancy while you clean up the units, with the resultant lack of cash flow, that you were better off raising the rent a hundred or so a year (example) for 3 years (example) on the existing tenant, and then who knows what kind of tenant their replacement will be. An existing, paying, non-complaining tenant is worth their weight in gold. My 2 cents.

@Jay Hinrichs thanks for the excellent counsel. 

I'm interested in this topic also. We are ready to get a HELOC to finance our next investment. I live in the East San Francisco Bay Area.

Don't plan on evicting the tenant just yet. Once you find out why the rent is so low (Section 8 pays market rent - if the owner asks for it) you'll know what to do. Might be the best tenant you'll have if you find out you can get it to market, assuming actual market is what you're hoping for.

Thank you. Excellent reading.

Sure, when you have the $$ for that size down pmt.
I am building up to that.

;-)

Every one of you guys is great. A wealth of info. True enough, I'm pretty familiar with my own local market, however, I'm in the East Bay SF. I don't have to tell you how expensive the buy-in is for playing in my area. MUCH lower buy-in 1-3 hrs east and south of me, in order to get nearly the same cash flow out in the valley - from Manteca/Lodi/Modesto/Turlock/Fresno/Visalia, etc. area. But I'm not familiar with the rents. Therein lies my interest in getting some automated help do my own analysis before calling an agent in those areas. Great info, guys. THANK YOU!

I'm thinking of subscribing to Rentometer, especially since they have a $45 a year special going on for Cyber Monday. Any feedback or better tools? I do also use Craigslist and RentCafe and my buyer agent.

I'm thinking of subscribing to Rentometer, especially since they have a $45 a year special going on right now. Any feedback or better tools? I do also use Craigslist and RentCafe and my buyer agent sometimes has reliable info. Sometimes.