All Forum Posts by: Joel Barron

Hey @Chris R. I just went through a similar situation in Albany too.  Long term tenant, no lease, paying under market rent, I closed and moved into the house and he wasn't sure what he was going to do.  In the end, he signed a 10 month lease, ending at the end of May, at his current rent.  With so much else going on after my move (moving in, doing work, getting settled), it became worth it to me to take a reduced 10 months of rent vs. him leaving, having it vacant for a month, and then trying to rent at the end of summer/early fall... at the end of the day, I decided I was better off with the security and stability of a long term person for the first year vs. trying to squeeze every dollar in what I viewed as a more risky move.

What part of Albany are you in?

@Josh Robbins @Kevin Harrison thanks for your replies.  The tenant has agreed to sign a short term rental agreement with me that will cover the period from closing to the end of May.  I still view that as a risk but it's one I'm willing to take since it should allow me to close 30-45 days sooner than if I required the property to be vacant.

@Bryan O. the 8 years of good standing with the current owner is why I'm OK taking him on and trusting that he's going to leave when he says.  The reasons I'm OK throwing away the existing income stream are:

1. He's paying probably $400 - $500 below market and has told me that even that has been a stretch - so while he's been a good long term tenant for an absentee landlord, renting for that low of a rate doesn't work with my strategy
2. I need to update the apartment to get it up to those market rents and to do the work I need it vacant.

Appreciate everyone's input.

@Leon D. my original thinking was that I did not want to inherit any tenants, as we are also planning on rehabbing the upstairs unit and bringing it up to market rents.

I'm not kicking him out.  I actually offered a 1 year lease if he wanted to stay.  I should note that he currently does not have a lease.  He is planning on leaving at the end of May either way though because a 3br is too much for him to carry on his own.

The crux of my question is do I

1. sacrifice the earlier close for less risk/hassle in dealing with the current tenant
2. try to work out a deal with the tenant to allow me to take possession earlier but still allows him to stay until the end of May as he has planned?  If I want to do this, I'm wondering how it would be best to structure it.  Do I get him to sign a short term lease to cover the time between when we close and the end of May?

Thanks for your response!

Hey BP!  I've recently had an offer accepted on a 2 family in Albany NY.  The first floor unit (where we'll live) is currently vacant but there is a tenant upstairs.  He has been there for ~8 years and seems to have a good relationship with the seller, seems to be a very nice guy, etc... 

Both units need updating, and I'd like to do most of the work downstairs before we move in if possible.  I need to be out of my current apartment by May 30.  My original plan was to write into the contract that the house must be vacant before we close, but that is going to push our closing back to mid/end of May because of the current tenant.

I'm thinking I could close earlier if I'm able to work up a deal with the tenant to still allow him to stay until the end of May.  That would give me much more time to get in and do my renovations downstairs before my current living situation ends.

What do you think?

Change is hard... people hated the Facebook news feed when it came out... any changes to Gmail are scrutinized to no end, etc... 

Overall I like the new design - it's clean and I find it easy to read, but I'm on a Mac, which generally renders typography better than other computers.

I can see how the 'add your comment' bubble could encourage people to post without fully reading first, but I love how the text entry box follows you when you scroll back up to refer to what someone else said.

In the end, the dust will settle and everything will be fine, but maybe bump that type back up a weight :)

It turned out that there were too many other issues with the house that we didn't want to deal with, that in the end the tenant issue didn't really matter, but yeah Bryan any offer we made would have been conditional.  It turns out they got three other offers over the weekend, so making a conditional offer probably would have hurt our chances anyway.  Thanks everyone!

Hey BPers- I've been looking for a 2 family to occupy one unit for the next few years - one has just come up that looks decent but has two tenants with leases through January 2017. I can't wait that long to move - should I just rule this place out or do you all know something I don't about how I might be able to make it work? Thanks! - Joel

Originally posted by @Wendy Black:

It very well may have been for the best. We lost on our first bid but won the second one on a much nicer property. Had we won the first, we never would have looked for the second.

 Thanks Wendy - that's the attitude I'm going into it with... appreciate the positive vibes!

Hey Peter - you and I are in the same boat! Not much has been coming on the market past few months I'm hoping it's going to pick up soon. Good luck!

I will say, that while RDPD didn't provide much in the way of concrete information, and it is 'just' a pep talk, sometimes a pep talk is what people need to break themselves out of their way of thinking.  It was helpful for me to read that book as it really got me interested in seriously considering real estate investing in the first place, and subsequently reading many other more specific books encouraged me to take steps to put myself in a position to buy my first multifam.

Everyone takes their own path, learn what you can from it and move on... like anything, some will find more value than others.