All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

On a 100 year old building I think you can count more than 5% for repairs, depending on what renovation was done.  And understand that if you have to replace a furnace, strictly speaking this is not a "repair".  It's a capital expenditure.  Without looking I think my repairs (not capital expenditures) are running more like 10%.  On an older building with property management you're probably going to be looking at 50-55% of your rent for everything except your mortgage payment.  

As already stated above, in all probability you are not going to meet the tenants, and even if you do, you're probably not going to have the opportunity to ask all these questions being suggested.  At that, is the tenant going to give accurate info in front of the current owner or agent?

What should be happening is that your offer should be contingent on the receipt of all leases, applications, and rent roll.  You could ask for an "estoppel certificate" in the offer.  This is a form in which the tenant verifies the terms of his lease.  Normally I haven't done this in small buildings, it's more typical in larger buildings.  With leases, applications, rent rolls, and other material tenant information, you're going to have a good picture of the tenant situation in the building.  You should also have something in your contract to the effect that all deposits and prorated rent is to be transferred at closing.  And at closing you want to verify that that has been done.

You're not going to need the tenant to tell you what's wrong with the building/unit.  Your inspection should pick up anything serious there.  You can check with the police department about calls to the building or the area.  Personality conflicts between the tenant?  That's something every landlord may have to deal with from time to time.  If one tenant things another tenant is noisy, are you not going to close?  These are just things you deal with.

In my contract the seller is responsible for the utilities until closing, and responsible to maintain the property in its current condition until closing.  Obviously if the pipes burst he's responsible.  However, if you put the utilities in your name, now I start to wonder who's responsibility it is.

The fact that you might have business dealings with this person in the future makes it even more important that you draw a line.  It looks to me like you didn't draw any line.  And therefore, the next negotiation you have with him will be even more difficult.

The fact is that the pipes are his responsibility, and therefore, if he turns the utilities off it's his risk, not  yours.  If something happens to the house because of no utilities I would not close if I were you.  Let's face it, he could have just as easily set up a shut off to coincide with the closing, which is what he should have done.

 We wash with vinegar.  Then we prime with an oil-based primer.  Sometimes you have to do several coats of primer.  Then we paint with a floor paint from Sherwin Williams.  

The last survey I read said that 75% of renters had a cat or dog.

http://realestate.aol.com/blog/on/survey-most-rent...

You're ruling out a whole lot of your renter base if you don't allow pets.

That said, it obviously raises risk.  We'll take pets in some of our property though.  For instance, one house we painted the floor (due to pet odors when it was owned by a prior owner).  So with the painted floor we're not too concerned about pets.  We just repaint.

We've also used Allure, a vinyl plank, in some units.  We think pets are OK there too.  Hardwood floors we're concerned about.  We've had problems there.  And as far as carpet goes, we're removing it when it get old, and putting in Allure.  But we have one property left with carpet, we don't allow pets there.

@Account Closed 

Thanks for filling in the blanks.  Never gave the death certificate issue much thought.  The situations I've been involved in the title company just took care of it.  But I don't recall a seller who didn't have several of them.  But I took a look at the CA rules.  It makes sense now that I see them.  I checked MO out, same kind of rules.  Thanks for the info.  Again, great deal.

@Account Closed 

Very nice deal.

I'm assuming that when you use the terms "seller" and "owner" in the following sentences they are one and the same.  "the lender made the loan to the seller and to another party not on title. And one of the owners was deceased when they made the loan."

I may be missing something here, but I wouldn't have thought that making a loan to the owner and another party not on title created a title issue.  I would have thought that the lender could foreclose the party on title.  The other party had a loan obligation but not an interest that needed to be foreclosed.  Am I wrong on this?

As far as the deceased owner, wouldn't that simply have needed a certified death certificate.

$30K profit on a $70K sale....nice.  

I agree with @Dell Schlabach .  All that really matters is you're comfortable with the net price.  And while we don't know, it's likely that this buyer has a buyer's agency agreement with the Realtor, so they can't really buy your property without paying the 3%.  I gather you have not yet received a written offer.  So understand that when you get the offer you decide whether it meets your expectations AFTER the commission.  If it does not, you counter the offer.  The least important factor here is how much work the Realtor did.  The Realtor managed to position themselves in terms of the buyer, so at this point that's a done deal if you want to sell to this particular buyer.  Personally I would pay the commission, always subject to what that offer ends up being.  And understand too that the buyer has inserted a new factor into this deal that she did not mention.  I think that means you have the right to raise your offer, always subject to what you believe the property will appraise at.

 Yes, I know that Paul.  That's why I made the post.  You're trying to sell via the other 11%.  Most of the houses sold are sold by Realtors.  Maybe you should list your house?

According to the following link Realtors sold 89% of the houses in 2013.

http://www.realtor.org/field-guides/field-guide-to...

You'll have to scroll down to find the statistic.

In my case, the only time I have ever sold without listing is when I was offering some type of special financing on the house.  Otherwise, I thought to get the maximum exposure, I needed to list.