All Forum Posts by: Nick Louie

All,

I’m looking for a property manager in Weehawken to manage my two 3 family properties in Weehawken, New Jersey. 

Any recommendations? 

BP Community,

I’m negotiating the “rider” (annex to the contract) to include in the contract, with my attorney. In the lawyer’s draft, the relevant clause required the seller to vacate the property and “broom clean.”

I looked up broom clean’s definition. It’s just a standard in real estate that simply requires the seller to remove all personal belongings, nothing more.

This house is a huge 2-4 family house and I’m inheriting used appliances, like the fridge and stove. So, I want to include a higher cleaning standard, like “professionally cleaned” or “deep cleaned.”

My agent, predictably, pushed back saying this isn’t market standard. Lawyer has yet to reply. Thoughts?

@Joe Edwards

I agree. I made my offer contingent on the property being delivered vacant or the current tenants agreeing to pay “market rate.” The seller accepted today.

Have you ever had to ask a tenant to vacant?

I agree. I made my offer contingent on the property being delivered vacant. My realtor pushed back a little bit because I know it's more of a hassle to close the deal. We have to give the seller more time to give his tenants notice, etc. But inheriting unknown tenants seems to be a terrible idea, even if they are month-to-month. 

@Kyle McCann

I agree with your assessment here. The best approach is to simply ask the seller to deliver the property vacant right?

My realtor was trying to talk me outta it because I might have some holding costs once I move into a 3 family with two vacant units. I think that’s just the price to pay to be able to screen my own tenants.

@Joseph Guzzardi Jr

Well the thing is I could make it the seller’s responsibility to get the tenants out instead of inheriting unknown tenants I didn’t screen and who are paying below market rates.

The pros of inheriting the tenants is that I would get money from day 1. The con is I didn’t screen them, they are paying below market, and it seems like it would be a hassle to remove tenants, even if you ask nicely (e.g., still need to give them X amount of days notice, etc).

I’m just wondering if any investors/landlords had some experience with this.

My realtor made it seem as easy as nicely requesting the tenants to vacant.

Hi BP community,

I am a first-time home buyer. I am going under contract for a property in New Jersey after giving up my search in New York. My property is a 3 family plus garden unit. So, I'm going to be a landlord soon! 

I know New York is notorious for its tenant friendly laws. Evictions are hard to complete and there's not much recourse for landlords. I was wondering whether New Jersey is the same. I'm still early in my own preliminary research, so I'd love to hear some first-hand landlord experiences of collecting pass-due rent, removing tenants from the property, evictions, and overall impressions of the landlord-tenant environment. 

To give some background, the seller wanted to deliver my property with 3 existing tenants paying within the lower 25% percentile of rent. I intend on charging the higher 75% percentile for rent. So, I requested the property be delivered vacant. My agent said the tenants are all month-to-month, so removing the tenants wouldn't be an issue. I could just simply notify them and they will leave (or the sheriff will remove them immediately). But coming from New York. It's not that easy. And I know that the very last thing I want to do is inherit tenants, even if they timely pay their rent because they won't be happy with my sudden rent increase.

So, I countered to the seller, that the seller either: (1) deliver vacant; or (2) arrange for the tenants to agree to my new licenses, which will have quite the rent increase.

Thoughts? 

Is there any way that I can give this post 5 votes?! Amazing advice. 

All,

Thanks for your advice in this thread. As investors or first-time home buyers, you guys know how exciting it can be to find a property you really like and move forward on it. Then once you combine our eagerness with a realtor pulling all the right strings to get us to close quickly, like a used car salesman, then it can be tempting to make a hasty, unwarranted decision. That nearly happened to me. 

But this thread, along with consulting with trusted advisors, made me realize how reckless going under contract with a property that is only 50% completed with its renovations would have been, despite what my ex-realtor was telling me. 

BP is the best. Thanks. 

Hi Mike, 

Thanks for your reply. I agree with you that we should have a punch list. What we've done so far is essentially make our own punch list based on our walk through of the property. We just put things like "All new doors." It's difficult for me to get down to that level of specificity because my eyes aren't trained to see. And the seller isn't willing/able to provide any type of written documentation of his plans for the remaining 40-60% of work that needs to be done. 

So assuming I would have to put my own punch list together, do you think just keeping the punch list vague would work? The thing is I'm worried about inadvertently leaving items off punch list (e.g., newly installed fence in the backyard), then after already going under contract and giving my deposit, I'd be left in a position to negotiate. The Seller could just come back and say "that item wasn't on the punch list."