All Forum Posts by: Sam Leon

I need some advice.

I have been having good luck with tenants, except one.

This one is late.

The lease started on the 25th of the month, so that's when the rent is due, and the lease says $50 late fee when more than 5 days late.

Usually I get a check in the mail around the 2nd or 3rd...he said he mailed it a few days late. I didn't make a fuss and just let it slide, and never charged a late fee.

But this time it's a bit much. I was out of town on vacation and had the mail held at the post office, I came back on the 5th picked up my mail, all my other rent checks are in, except this one. Emailed him and no reply. Waited another few days, called, no answer got voice mail. Left messages, and text. No reply until today which is the 13th and rent was due on the 25th of last month. His reply said he was BUSY, computer crashed and not able to access email (it's a web mail that one could access from any smart phone hello?) and that he DID mail the check on the 2nd and was surprised I didn't receive it.

Any suggestions as to how to handle this?

I have a property that I rented out to a tenant and the lease will be due to expire 47 days from today.

I should have acted a little sooner but I was out of the country on vacation for a few weeks and forgotten about this.

Added to that the tenant was secured by a real estate agent which I paid one month's commission to originally as required by the signed contract. The contract also said should I renew with same tenant I owe 1 month commission to agent upon renewal.

So I assume if there is a fee owned per renewal I should have the agent execute the renewal contact instead of me drawing a new one up right? There were issues with the original contact which the agent drew up by using a standard Florida contract, areas I hope to clarify any areas of misunderstanding (intentional or unintentional) by amending a few clauses on the standard contract.

What are standard dates to send a renewal letter to tenants? I assume it's something like send letter 60 days ahead and get a reply by 30 days? I will ask my agent but wanted to know my options now that I think I am late.

My last short sale property besides trash I found inside the closet below the AC handler HUNDREDs of unused tampons.

For me I signed up for FloridaMoves.com as well as Realtor.com. Both have it's pros and cons. I like FloridaMoves mostly because it allows for custom search by zip codes, so if there is a specific neighborhood I am interested in, I can use zip codes and ask for alerts when a property within my strike price range etc...are available.

I request a daily email compiling all for that day, and look through it once a day.

What I am curious is for those who do not have direct access to it, what site do you use to be kept on the changes to MLS?

Some specifics I am looking for:

(1) Seems these sites are running 1 or 2 days late on the listing. Say the listing is available on Monday, I get an alert for it on Wednesday, and won't look at it till Wednesday night. I am already behind by then.

(2) I can't seem to find one that will allow me to put in a narrower search then zip code. If I can set up automatic alerts by subdivision or community names, or block names, that would make it much easier...are there any out there?

(3) I can only set up alerts when a property becomes AVAILABLE, as in new listing, or when the price changes. I cannot find out that would tell me when the "status" of a property has changed, say from AVAILABLE to PENDING or from PENDING to SOLD or whatever. It would be really helpful to know if a status has changed, granted, some realtor don't even change statuses, I see many pending properties listed as available and it's only when you call they say they have a contract on it. Recently I had a short sale property I lost out on, asking 230K, I put in an offer at 200K cash and didn't get it. What I didn't know, was for whatever reason the deal fell through, may be a failure of inspection, or financing, I have no idea, and the property went to foreclosure, and was sold to someone for 180K in auction. I had submitted a backup offer to said property, which the agent asked for but never had the seller execute, only to sit on. Could not figure out the logic to it, but had I knew the property went from PENDING back to AVAILABLE or to FORECLOSED, I may be able to do something in retrospect.

So just curious to what others are doing on keeping up with the MLS.

Looking at some properties in a community that does not allow rental during the first year.

That basically makes it a buy/flip. I prefer to buy and hold to rent.

Any creative ideas on any way to avoid the property from sitting idle?

If it's a short sale, would renting back to the seller - basically allowing them to stay beyond the sale date be "within the rules"?

I am pretty sure the answer is no...I just wanted to make sure.

I am seeing a few homes on the MLS saying "Home cannot be viewed, currently occupied by squatter and buyer is responsible for eviction of squatter".

Has anyone dealt with squatters? You can't evict until you have title right?

Why wouldn't the bank get the cops to evict so they can sell it "properly"?

I have another interesting data point which is the reverse of my previous situations.

REO home listed at 157K.

First day on the market I submitted a contract via my agent at 145K cash offer 30 day closing 25% EMD AS IS with inspection contingency.

Two days later the listing agent said bank asked for best and final.

I went back to look at the property, stayed there 2 hours basically almost did an inspection, with a complete inventory of work estimated. With that I upped my offer to $150,123 and REMOVED the inspection contingency.

So my offer was $150,123 cash, 25% EMD, AS IS, no inspection, 30 day closing.

I didn't get the deal. Someone else got it.

I later on found it was sold for $148,850. I couldn't understand why this time the price is lower than mine.

My agent told me the buyer's agent works in the same office as the listing agent, and he said this is typically an indication the buyer was already arranged by the listing agent, but in order to look legit they use someone else in the same office to represent the buyer. Says it's done all the time and may be the bank never saw my offer.

Oh well.

What is the purpose of a property listed on the MLS with no description, address withheld and no pictures?

I am aware a realtor can access the MLS listing and get more information, but to the generic public it has no information. Is it just a nice way to tell you this property is being listed because the bank says so but we already have a buyer?

In addition, does anyone has any suggestions as to how to get a backup offer contractually executed?

I have submitted a few backup offers when the listing agents suggested and each and every time they never get signed, they just sat on it. I have the feeling the agent solicited the offers just so they have them, perhaps as leverage to the buyer, but they don't execute it. That's just a waste of my time.

Wayne, can you elaborate on the "buyer shall have sole discretion to raise price or pay additional fees in addition to purchase price" comment?

I am not following that. Are you saying your offer price in this situation would be substantially lower knowing that you may have to come up should the backup contract slide into first position?

Thanks.