All Forum Posts by: Ted Klein

@Account Closed I may not have clarified myself in the OP. This is NOT a counter offer. The owner had his agent re-write the offer as he only wants to pay 3% commission on the deal. I have been renting this place from the seller, he finally agrees to sell it to me, so I proposed we do this by owner and through our attorneys.

At that point, he then asked if it was a cash deal or if I would be getting financing. When I told him financing, he then enlisted his agent and told me to talk to his agent. At this time, I contacted my agent and submitted an offer. That is why I got my agent involved, he enlisted his agent first.

It was at this point that my agent was contacted and was told that they wanted to raise the price to cover her commission. She politely refused to accept that they were going to raise the price to cover her commission so the owner decided to have his agent re-write the PSA leaving her out of the deal to avoid paying her commission.

The offer is basically the same with the exception of the low appraisal addendum which I am ok with. I just found it odd that the owner's agent is presenting me with a PSA rather than me submitting it to them. By the way, my agent has indicated privately to me that she will review and assist in the transaction as she is a personal friend.

I found this writing here, how does this apply to my situation:

"unless a broker has a written agency agreement with the seller, broker represents the buyer. If a broker shows homes to a buyer, with or without a written Buyer Agency Agreement, broker represents the buyer. However, if the Agency Law is revised, that buyer’s broker will instantly become the exclusive agent of the seller as soon as broker shows the buyer a property that broker has listed—unless broker also has a written agency agreement with the buyer."

Any advice here?

So I submitted an offer this morning on an off market deal on the place I am living in thru my agent and she calls me later telling me that the owner wants his agent to write the deal.

So shortly I get a PSA back from the sellers agent that is basically the same as what I submitted except they added a low appraisal addendum, a notation that there would be no sellers commision and backed my agent out of the deal.

My agent said that the sellers agent has put himself on both sides of the deal and there is no money in it for her which basically leaves me with no representation. 

I am ok with the low appraisal addendum as I know the unit next door was just appraised and both units are comparable and within market comps.

Has anyone heard of this type of deal where the owners agent has basically submitted an offer to me the buyer?

How would you handle this situation? 

@Nathan Gesner mentions, it does seem hard to believe that a person can hide their info. Ultimately I will be doing the background checks and will let the results of that help determine whether they qualify.

@Jeff B. @Jeff Bridges @Nathan Gesner

Thanks to all for the responses. I have reached out to the prospective tenant and left a voicemail message. If and when they reply, I will do my initial telephone prescreening and if things check out, I will be doing the background check using the TranUnion SmartMove background screening process. Have any of you used this tool? If not, do you have any recommendations for a screening application?

I will be doing that, I just wanted to prescreen the name before I called him in case there were anything glaring that would prevent me from wasting my time.

I just got an email from Truilia about a prospective tenant. Doing a Google search, I can't find anything at all on the name. I have his phone number, zipcode, name and email address but my searches have turned up absolutely nothing. Has anyone encountered this before? I'd like to do some initial prescreening before I returned the email or called him. BTW, his rental resume looks pretty good, income over 100k and credit score between 675-720

We just recently finished a rehab and used the vinyl plank flooring Allure. It looks wonderful, looks like real wood and appears that it will be very durable. I had heard good things about the durability and that it is waterproof so that helped in our decision.

@Mindy Jensen @Mike Cumbie @Patrick M.@Deanna McCormick

Mindy, the market rate is $1400 for a 2/2 with a garage. He has a good job, so, I'd hope he could afford it. Tenant is currently paying $1000. I'd like to increase quickly and Mike, I agree with your approach but even at a $100 increase every 6 months for 1 1/2 years there is still $4100 in lost rent over just raising to $1400 and getting a new tenant. Either way, he may move before it ever gets to the $1400 so trying to make decision on whether to raise and move on, or gradually increasing over time. If I were to take the gradual approach and take the $150 increase as Deanna suggested, the lost rent is reduced to $2300 which makes the loss easier to take, but the likelihood of an early departure even greater.

Any other suggestions??

@Jeff Sprunger @Kim Meredith Hampton @Patrick M. @Deanna McCormick

All good comments. I definitely want to retain the tenant, however, leaving a large amount of money on the table, currently $4800 per year doesn't make sense. I like the idea of gradually increasing it and I think your right Deanna, that over $150 and they will probably move. Any less and it would take a long time to get to market rate. Given the current market demand I'm not seeing many options in a 20 mile area. I might add, the unit has a garage and the tenant has a lot of tools in the garage so he would likely need to find somewhere else that has a garage. Currently in my area, there are a few, but they are all renting for market rate and above.

I wasn't comfortable giving him a 60 notice and raising the rent $400 despite what my agent recommended. I did have a conversation with him and told him that his rent was below market and that there was an increase coming. I offered to do some of the repairs identified in the inspection and to replace the kitchen flooring so hopefully he will see some value in that.

We will definitely be researching the market for how the competition is applying a pet policy. This is a B class neighborhood and the property should rent quickly. I just not sure about allowing pets given my past experience with pet damage and the disgusting filth @Patrick M. mentioned. If a tenant is claiming that a pet is a service or companion animal, do they need to furnish any proof of this or is it just their claim?

Hello BP, I just closed on a duplex in Marysville WA. One unit is vacant and the other has an inherited tenant with a small dog. There is a $200 non-refundable pet deposit in place. When we purchased the property we were planning on a no pet policy. However, the tenant has been there for 7 1/2 years and keeps the place very clean and supposedly always pays on time. However, his rent is about $400 below average market.

Initially while we are rehabbing the other unit we have decided to leave his rent as is for 60 days at which time we are planning on raising his rent. I am looking for some advice on how we should raise the rent and if we can enforce a no pet policy.

How should I go about raising the rent. I am pretty sure that at market rate, that the unit would rent fairly quickly given the state of the current rental market in and around the Puget Sound area. My agent says that we should raise his rent the full $400 within 60 days.

Can I still have a no pet policy on the rehabbed unit given that the inherited tenant has a dog? We don't want to appear to be discriminatory towards tenants with dogs, however, I have personally experienced my dog destroying the carpet by the door and damage the trim around the door and we don't want this to happen in a newly rehabbed unit.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.