All Forum Posts by: Steve Babiak

Jon,

If rents are really $800, sounds like you keep it - as long as you make sure you get a really good tenant. You don't want trashy people trashing your place after that extensive amount of work.

Originally posted by Jeffrey Koenig:

Every time I get a flu shot I get the flu. ...

My experience is exactly the opposite of Jeffrey's; I have received a flu shot for the past 4 years, and have not caught the flu. As they say, YMMV.

Don't waste your breath on this one.

They can accept whatever offer they want, even if it was for less money. And certainly this happens every day with bank-owned properties when they hit the MLS - if priced correctly, many offers right off the bat, with the bank being able to choose. And the listing agent will certainly "influence" the bank for the offers where he gets to "double dip" the commission.

It is called an "agreement" for a reason - both sides have to agree to ALL of the terms. If you do not agree with it, you can request to have this clause removed. Still sounds like a realtor thing to me, rather than from a bank addendum.

My guess is that your biggest challenge will be getting financing; your deal is not going to be considered "arms length".

For legal advice, you should consult an attorney; any posts from online forums should always have this disclaimer. But you can at least run the posted ideas past the chosen attorney.

Originally posted by Herbster:

Another wait a minute. Can't you just release your agreement at closing for your fee? Although I don't know what kind of agreement you have. Herbster

The idea that Herbster is putting forth here is really one to note. In PA, the Dept of Revenue decreed that they will be collecting transfer taxes on contract assignments, from the middleman as well as the end buyer - meaning two separate transfer taxes. One of the ways to circumvent that is to use a "conditional release of contract", where the release stipulates what the seller must do to release the original contract (usually the release terms are to agree to execute a contract with end buyer, for specific amount); so, you would have no more assignment fee, and the release fee can show up on the HUD1 as paid by seller at closing - thus buyer's lender has no care about that.

FYI - Rich Weese has blogged regarding purchasing multi-unit buildings. It was a multi-part blog. I have a link below to one of the entries he made, and in the comments on that blog I have the links for the other parts too. Enjoy! And don't forget to vote for the informative posts.

http://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/575/blog_posts/2695-dealing-with-larger-purchases-pt-3#comments

Ralph has good points; if your realtor is getting paid to do some of this work, insist that they do their job.

Another good thing that Ralph pointed out is regarding the final bills. Here's my suggestion for insuring things go well. If it's a lienable utility, the escrow agent may have taken payment into the settlement costs, so make sure they pay for it if it was taken out (don't double pay). Also, get the utility company the correct forwarding address for the seller so the seller's portion goes to them; the rep taking info over the phone should be asked to confirm the info for this so the bill goes out to the proper address.

My guess is the buyer has his own agent; the listing agent will get the commission whenever it sells, but the buyer's agent only gets paid if his buyer performs. Seems that was what Ralph Scott was getting at with his post above.

There are brokers around my area who expect their agents to get the HIGHER of 3% or $1K per transaction; that might be what we have in the OP's case.

I have seen buildings where there were gas meters for each unit, but those meters only supplied cooking and the hot water heater. Still need to be certain that each unit pays for the heat being used. And some landlords do electric baseboard conversions, so in those cases there won't be multiple gas meters when cooking and hot water are electric.