At the very least, have the closing company or attorney hold money in escrow pending the seller's providing these items.

Kitchen & bathroom upgrades are usually the items you would want to upgrade if selling the property.

Thanks Joel for putting a specific $ amount on each item.

That's not reality & I'm sure that line item will go up with time.My point was to educate the newbs to stay away from condo HOA's & to always put $ aside each month for unexpected costs.

Let's say 15% above comps for conversation's sake.

There is always something after closing but before you've settled into the typical long term behavior for the property - filling an up-front vacancy as in your case, dealing w/ random smaller deferred maintenance items, and so on.

Read the forums/Blogs, look at the educational items and ask questions.

Generally, a short seller can not walk away with any money, other than what the bank might pay as an incentive (which would be a line item on the HUD, not a net payment from the sale at the bottom of the HUD).

Most have no idea what cost to expense or might become part of a property's basis at the time of purchase (items like loan related costs can not be expensed in the current year but also do not become part of the basis.

They will not accept funds from an unknown third party unless you a have paper trail from the items I noted above.