All Forum Posts by: Kevin Manafi

Hi @Courtenay L Sellers, welcome to the BiggerPockets community and congrats on taking the first steps in your investing career.

I am an investor and investor-agent born and raised in North Jersey. Would be happy to connect and chat more about your investment objectives.

Hi @Dale Sterling, welcome to the BiggerPockets family and congrats on taking the first steps in your investing career. 

I'm an investor and investor-agent born and raised in North Jersey. Would be happy to connect and chat more about your investment objectives.

Hi @Alison Lawlor, as an investor and investor-agent currently selling two tenant-occupied condo/townhome units for a client, I can tell you with certainty that it will be much easier for you to list and sell your property if the tenants are not there. This goes for any property type, but definitely for condos/townhomes as typically speaking, most people buy them to owner-occupy. It will also make it much easier to make pre-listing repairs/renovations as you stated, and it will also be much more convenient for your agent and other agents to schedule and show the listing without having to work around the tenant's schedule. 

If you are dead-set on selling, I would not recommend renewing the lease as it will give the new buyer a complete lack of flexibility if they are buying a unit with a tenant in place that just signed a brand new lease term. 

Hi @Kilby Browne, as mentioned above, you only have a few options. You could make the sale contingent upon the property being delivered vacant at closing, but it sounds like the Seller does not want to do that.

The other option would be to have the Seller agree to send the tenants Notice to Vacate while you are Under Contract, but not having the contract contingent upon being delivered vacant at closing. This obviously leaves the risk with you that you may have to close if they do not vacate in time, but it's a hybrid solution that could work.

The last option would be closing with the tenants in place, serving them an option to renew / notice of rent increase at the market rent you want, then proceeding from there. Either they accept the rent increase or you can move forward with eviction / non-renewal procedures per the local municipality.

Things always feel a bit overwhelming when dealing with these sorts of tenant-in-place issues, but they are a lot more common than you think. I would advise finding a great Landlord-Tenant lawyer in your locale who you can run these issues by to set your mind at ease.

Hi @Luis Rangel, congratulations on making your first post and taking the first step toward real estate investing!

I'm an investor and investor-agent born and raised in North Jersey. I'd be happy to connect.

Hi @Shawn Rose, are you using an agent to purchase the home in OH? If so, I would go ahead and ask your agent for their preferred inspectors. If not, then I'd recommend reaching out to local agents in the area, developing your network, and seeing which reputable inspectors they recommend or like working with.

Hi @Daniel Richards, I would recommend finding a few REO listings online and contacting the agents to see if it's a one-off, or if they specialize in REO. Another good way would be to use Hudhomestore.com and Homepath.com --- they each have REO listings from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and Fannie Mae, respectively. You could then contact the agents for those listings as those sites require the agents to be registered with them, so there's a good chance they're REO specialists.

Hi @Tanvir Ullah, as you may well already know, the market is extremely hot here in the Northeast, and specifically in a lot of North Jersey. However, there are always deals in every market--you just need to have the persistence, focus, and dedication to find them. Long-term buy-and-hold investments in Northern NJ, including some of the areas you mentioned, are great investments right now due to the demand for rental housing as well as exploding rental prices.

Would be happy to connect with you and chat some more about your investment objectives.

Hi @Mia Kaiser, I'm an investor and investor/retail-agent in North Jersey (primarily Bergen, Hudson, Essex, and Passaic counties). Looking forward to connecting!

Hi @Christopher Wall, this is a question that comes down to you and your landlording style. Of course, we all want more rent per month, but it comes down to your goals and what you are comfortable with (as well as rent control laws if those apply). 

It seems like the rents on that unit are well below market value, so if there are no rent control laws in that municipality preventing you from making that huge increase, it would probably be in your best interest to get new tenants in there to bring your rents up to market. If the current tenant accepts the increase and you are OK with them staying, then great--but for the most part, raising rents by that much at once will cause most tenants to seek an alternative. 

For the most part, I encourage all landlords to always continue with their standard rent increases yearly to keep with inflation and the CPI (2.5-5%, whatever is allowable) so that situations like this don't occur where the rents end up hundreds below where they should be.