Asking if A) is a special assessment planned, B) if the reserve study is less than 3 years old, C) have the reserve been properly funded (>80%).Get a gripe on these unknowns to reduce your chance of getting blind sided.

Fwiw, the broker that was working my deal had been in the business for many years, and claimed to have been blindsided by the last-minute request for an extra 5% down.

Monthly drive-bys to look for evidence of people living there (not abandoned), lights still on, and water working help you from getting blindsided as well.

Don't get blind sided from your 1st deal, I was eager to get started in real estate and when I got my 1st deal my emotional high took over.

If you blind side him with this and don't have a conversation about it first, it could be disastrous...

So I don't want to blind side them

I totally apologies to anyone if I  offended you,  for I was blind sided and miss lead.end of story.........moving on

I'm not sure what your legal or moral obligations are in this instance but it may be worth considering given that you know how it feels to be blindsided by this issue.

We were blindsided by the property taxes on this property and disappointed in our realtor not knowing we’d have to pay a homestead tax since we didn’t live in MI (basically doubled the estimate - leading to the lower return rates) Lesson learned for sure.

Obviously there is a lot of variables to this depending on the situation, the property, and what the seller has told me about each specific tenant.  99% of the time the tenants know they are way under market and will expect it to be going up after the sale so you probably aren't blindsiding them, they know its coming.