All Forum Posts by: Greg Powers

I start by saying I’m not a lawyer...but...

In New Hampshire, if a tenant has a lease, it generally must be honored by a new owner, but there are two possible exceptions that I’m aware of.

The first would be if a lease includes a specific provision allowing a lease to be dissolved in the case of transfer of ownership.  Not being a lawyer, I wonder how such a provision would stand up against the statute in a legal battle.

The second is that a landlord can evict tenants due to economic necessity; and that necessity can be in the form of an offer to purchase subject to the tenants being gone prior to closing.  The landlord might have to prove that yours is the only offer they can accept, or that they have other circumstances forcing them to sell, but it is written into the NH RSAs.

If it were me, I’d engage the tenants in conversation and try to find out what they’re paying in rent, and see if there is a current mortgage on the property, then see if I could come up with a seller-financing offer that the owner the same or similar income with none of the headaches.  You might send a few complaints his way first, just as a reminder that he does indeed have headaches, even if he’s not paying much attention to them right now.

As a real estate agent in New Hampshire, my funny answer is:  Sellers usually offer 10% to buyer agents.  I might have a buyer--where's the property?  :)

The real answer, as someone mentioned above, is that smart sellers will offer 2-3% to an agent who brings a buyer. There are "entry only" firms that will put the house in the MLS for a flat fee and let you do all the other work. Just google "entry only nh" and see what comes up.

My longer, self-interested answer is: 

A) If all it took to sell a house was putting it in the MLS, there wouldn't be 3,500 active listings in our state's MLS--they'd all be sold.

B) If you do pay that buyer agent fee, you're really only saving a few percent in exchange for doing all the work.  Anyone can take pretty pictures and put them on the internet; and many people can negotiate on price; but there are a lot more blanks in the Purchase & Sale Agreement than just price.

C) A real estate agent usually earns their money between contract and closing.  That's when all the sh*t comes up, and a good agent will have the experience to handle all of it.  I liken it to a rodeo.  Getting the house listed and getting it under contract is like the bull and rider sitting behind the gate, getting ready for the ride.  A little bumpy, but not dangerous.  Once the property is under contract, that's when the gate opens and the fun begins.  

Donald Rumsfeld, Ronald Reagan's Secretary of Defense, famously spoke about the "unknown unknowns" in a military situation.   There are things you know, and things you know you don't know; the danger lies in the things you don't know that you don't know.  If you haven't sold a house on your own before--and your questions suggest you haven't--you might run into a few of those unknown unknowns.

I wouldn't discourage you from trying, but there's more to it than some people think.  Be prepared.  :)  And good luck!

Given the age of the housing stock in Manchester that generally serves as rentals, you can forget about finding anything that an inspector would find to be ”perfect.”  You should take that assumption out of your calculation, and then you’ll have your answer.

Jeff, you may get a few replies to this question, but you should really direct it to a New Hampshire attorney.  PM me and I can refer you to several who handle real estate transactions and landlord/tenant law.

And congratulations on your purchase-I think.  :)

I have lived in Manchester for 17 years, my kids are in school here, and I'm a real estate agent, so I can give you ground-level opinion.  The three streets you mention--Auburn, Lake, and Merrimack--are pretty tough that close to Elm.  Probably not a good place for a first time investor, and probably not an area you'd want to live.  I assume you're looking at those because the rent/price ratio or other metrics are attractive, and there's a reason for that.  

You would think that because they're so close to the downtown hubbub they would be appealing to younger folks and professionals; and there HAS been some development downtown that is drawing that demographic in, but most of it has been in refurbished mill buildings and other renovated historic properties.  The bread-and-butter 2-6 unit multifamilies are still NOT appealing to the people you're envisioning in the areas you mentioned.

The Elm to Maple corridor tends to brighten up a bit as you move north from Bridge Street--say, from Prospect Street north.

If you live in the building you have a degree of control over who you're renting to, so that can insulate you from some problems you might encounter as an absentee landlord.  And hey, if you're ambitious, you could enlist neighboring landlords to spruce up your block and be in the vanguard of transforming that part of town, which really deserves to be transformed.  :)

I would recommend you speak with Steve Labbe at Paradigm Heating, out of Hooksett.  He works with a lot of investors, is fair with his pricing, and is just a great guy.  You can google him, or PM me and I'll send you his contact info.

If you ever need help calculating absorption rates in any NH town, let me know.  I'm a REALTOR in southern New Hampshire and can help out with market info.  The December absorption rates in most towns that I work in were under 4 months across across all price ranges, a function of very low inventory right now.  They shoot up when you look at the higher-end price ranges in each town, but your bread-and-butter-type homes show 2-3, maybe 4 months of inventory.  That will change in a couple of months when the snow melts, of course, but for now there isn't much to choose from if you're a buyer.

@Paul F.  Yes, I know an agent up there.  I just sent you a colleague request to connect you two.  I don't know any designers, and while I know a photographer who would travel up there, the agent I have in mind probably has one that he works with.

Regarding staging, if you do the rehab, then I would say yes, a little staging will help people gauge the volume of each room and how furniture can be placed.  But if you decide to sell it "as is," I would not stage it--better to let potential buyers see the blank canvas they'll be working with.  But that's just my opinion.  The local agent will have a better idea of what his market responds to.

Good luck!

@Paul F....you're absolutely right that most people in that price point want a move-in ready house.  The problem is that A) it doesn't sound like you are going to rehab the whole house, and B) unless you do the local research to see what buyers are looking for, or query some local agents or designers, you stand a good chance of spending a lot of money on things a buyer will want to change anyway.

But there are buyers who are willing to tackle a big project like that house, at the right price.  They're out there, and the marketing avenues I suggested would aim to find them.  And yes, you would take a hit on the price.

As someone else suggested, it would be worth getting an opinion from a local agent about an ARV after rehab and another "as is." Weigh the difference, and then decide with your brother and parents whether it's worth the time, energy, money, and uncertainty to capture that extra dollar with a rehab.

And yes, ALWAYS professional photos!  :)

One last comment about renting.  In a house that size, you're probably renting to a family, which means kids, which means multiply the wear and tear by 2.5 (or some other frightening number).

Hi @Paul F.  I'm a Realtor in southern New Hampshire, and while I don't operate in Hanover, I do have a few thoughts for you.

First of all, I don't think the market in Hanover is the problem. I just looked in the MLS for houses that sold for $700,000-1,000,000 in Hanover over the past six months and found 9 properties. Their Average Days on Market was 27, with a Median of 10, which is pretty strong. All 9 sold more than 90 days ago, and none have sold in the past 90 days, but I would attribute that partly to seasonal factors.

There are also 9 properties either Active or Under Contract that have been on the market an average of 87 days, which isn't terrible.

As for renting it, you said your plan would be to rent it until the market improves.  What indications do you have that the market as you see it will improve any time soon?  We're entering a period of economic uncertainty with a new president and Congress, and it's anyone's guess what the next 1-5 years holds.  So you're gambling on the future, and in the meantime you're a landlord (although obviously you have experience with that).

You could do some rehab, but the problem with putting lipstick on a pig (if you'll pardon the crude expression) is that you have a good chance of picking the wrong shade lipstick.  In a $200,000 house that's not a big problem, but at your price range the buyers tend to have definite visions of what they want (because they can afford to), so the chance that you'll pick the right cabinets, tile, appliances, etc., to appeal to the ultimate buyer are pretty slim.  Someone will look at your gleaming new kitchen with its cherry cabinets and say, "I want white cabinets"--in which case you've not only wasted the money, but also the time involved in a rehab.

Which brings me to the marketing. If it needs updating, I wouldn't bother with a video. You want to stress the bones and curves of the property and its potential, not the dress it's wearing. I'd provide floor plans (easily done via HomeDepot or other services). In the MLS photos I would include some photos of details of the post-and-beam construction, not just whole-room shots; and if it's got a good location or lot, I'd stress that. I'd send a flyer (withe a link to a single-property web site) directly to local designers, architects, and contractors, who might have clients looking for a project. And whatever the local economy is doing, Dartmouth University will always be a bastion of steady employment, so I'd try to target staff and administration, as well as alumni (who probably don't live nearby, but who probably still communicate with staff and administration). And there are plenty of audiences to target with Facebook and other social media marketing.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions that I might be able to answer!