All Forum Posts by: Gustavo Panosso

@Theresa Harris Thank you for the guidance and reply. It is a very strange situation. I spoke with my traditional mortgage lender about this, as you suggested. He said that since I'm buying the house cash, and for a profit, that there shouldn't be a reason why the son wouldn't be allowed to get financing to purchase it. His only warning was that an underwriter will look at the chain of title and may raise a red flag of concern if the deed was just recently in mom's name. The underwriter may ask for a 6 month seasoning. As always, there is the FHA anti-flipping rules to contend with.

@Lynn McGeein I agree, if I were financing the purchase, there would be more restrictions. I'm sorry I didn't clarify in my original post that I am purchasing it cash. As to them qualifying as tenants, I certainly have some concerns. I'm not too worried about them being able to pay rent, because I intend to hold back a portion of their proceeds from the sale in escrow to cover a security deposit and rent. My biggest concern is to make sure that they move out at the end of the lease back period if they do not have the lending that they need to buy the house back.

@Ron S. Thank you for confirming for me. If for whatever reason we can't get the sale through, then I'll chase after it at the foreclosure auction. Just want to help these folks by putting some $ in their pocket before they lose the house. Also, there are a lot of sharks at the auction.

@Preston Quinn Awesome! I think this is exactly what I'm going to do. Thank you.

I'm not sure how to handle this situation... The seller (let's call her mom) is in foreclosure on her Florida home. Foreclosure sale is happening soon. We came to an agreement on price, but we are working out other terms. The seller's adult son (who lives in the house with mom) wants verbiage in my purchase contract allowing him to purchase the home from us. Mom wants to stay in the house. They don't have enough money to reinstate the mortgage. Her son wants us to buy the house to stop the foreclosure while he applies for bank financing to buy back the house from us. Feels sketchy to me, but I don't have anything to back up those feelings. Are you aware of any foreclosure laws or mortgage loan laws that would prevent this from happening?

I'm trying to comp out properties in and around the Huntsville, AL area. I have a couple of agents who can comp properties for us in MLS, but I'm struggling to find properties that were sold outside of MLS. Any thoughts?

Do what your lease allows you to do. If your lease allows you to claim a portion or all of your security deposit to cover the damages, then do it. However, make sure you follow your state's laws regarding the security deposit claim, process, and timeline. Depending on your state, a judge may say that dirty, dusty, and greasy is normal wear-and-tear and you may not be able to claim on this basis. Also, if you do claim the security deposit make sure you have evidence (ie. photos from your move-in inspection and photos of the damage that you are claiming).  Lastly, you may want to consider pushing back the new tenant's move-in date. If the property is not going to be clean, the new tenant may get upset at move-in. That is not a good way to start a relationship with a new tenant.  Hope this helps!!!

@Delton Witte Congratulations to you and your wife on becoming landlords. I find that some tenants are just dirtier and have more stuff than others.  I'm less concerned about cleanliness than I am about damage to the property. There is no reason why the faces should be off the cabinet drawers or why a leak would not be reported immediately. I would have a friendly chat with your tenants (neighbor) clearly outlining their responsibilities according to the lease agreement. If after that, they don't clean up their act (pun intended) I would start posting the appropriate notices. Keep in mind, depending on your state's landlord-tenant laws (and judges) these may not be evictable offenses. Best of luck and keep us posted!

I would not rent the house back to the current home owner. Seems a bit messy to me. You have plenty of other exit strategies that are more appealing (depending on your goals). You can hold on to the house and rent it out. You can sell it on a lease option. Or you can sell it on the open market if you take over a house with plenty of equity. Best of luck! Good to see others in Central Florida getting deals done!

@Vivian Hernandez I think this is going to depend on your state. First, you need to find out if your state requires that property managers have their real estate license. For example, here in Florida, certain portions of property management (marketing properties and leasing them) are considered real estate activities and require a real estate license. Depending on what your state requires, than you can figure out next steps. I also encourage you to contact a local brokerage that does property management and see if they can give you any guidance. Also, look into joining NARPM or your local association of realtors. These are great organization to help improve as a PM.

Our experiences with American Home Shield have been less than positive. Two key issues.... 1) If you ever have to call them, you will be on hold for a long time. I have waited, at times, for more than an hour to speak with someone. Yes, you can place your work orders online, but I find that system often did not work. 2) They will often assign work orders to contractors that are far away. We have had A/C contractors from Tampa assigned to work in Orlando. These contractors clearly don't want the job so they will delay scheduling the work. Tenants are not happy when they have to wait several days for A/C service during the Florida summer. 

@Gary Dezoysa

I'm an landlord/investor and my wife is a property manager. I hope our insights help... 

I don't think most professional property managers would be open to this stipulation for a couple of reasons. 

1) PMs want to make sure that everyone is getting paid. In my experience the PM collects rent (usually at the beginning of the month), pays vendor invoices, refills the maintenance reserve account (if there is one), pays themselves the agreed upon management fee, and then distributes the owner's proceeds. This process guarantees that they are getting paid what they are due, but also that the vendors and contractors that they worked hard to establish relationships with will also get paid.

2) PMs who want to grow their business need to keep processes and procedures consistent across all of their different property owners and properties. Being a PM is a very time consuming job. Deviating from their procedures will likely take time away from more important/urgent matters.

With that said, a PM may be able to help with rent collection in other ways. For example, a PM may offer paynearme as a way for tenants to pay rent with cash at their local 7-Eleven. Interview some local PMs, see what they say.

Hope this helps!  

@Justin R. Great question. Full disclosure - my wife is a realtor and property manager. In addition to our own portfolio she manages homes for other investors - this is her primary job. For simple things like, asking for a bulk discount, mandatory renters' insurance, or lease terms, you shouldn't have problems finding a PM that will be flexible on those items. When you start asking for things that force the PM to change their systems then you will run into some push back. For example, my wife turns down landlords who require her to use their contractors, or want to be called for approval on every maintenance item. If these are items that you would like to change then I encourage you to interview PM's until you find one that will offer the service that you want. Hope this helps!