I'll be calling the utility company to get the past bills, and assuming these costs are consistent with past winters (taking into account the extremely cold weather), I'll let her know that I can't do anything about the situation.We've pushed back on many of her unreasonable requests, so I don't think she's trying to "push me"...I just think she's used to living in an apartment, and there are some aspects of SFHs that she's not accustomed to.Anyway, I've given her the option of getting out of her lease early if she really can't afford the utility bills, which wouldn't bother me either way...

Being consistent in your methods is more important than almost any other aspect of accounting, if you don't stay with the same system you'll have a mess.

. :)Now if it has extra developable land or is close to a corner for commercial development you could extract a very good return out of it changing it's use or parceling out the extra land to different buyers.On the income aspect alone it's a loser.It sounds like the improvements they have done to the property they are trying to get paid for with an inflated price.I saw another 40 unit the other day.An out of the country buyer bought it and rehabbed it and is trying to sell for 3 million.The property is only 40% occupied and the rents are too high.When I see brokers talk investors into this sort of thing it makes me scream........

The real estate commssion is based on the sale of the property within the contract period, meaning the transfer of the deed at settlement.If this does not occur, there is no sale and thus no commission due.There is also the aspect of the Realtor (and Broker) being the procurring cause of the sale.

And I stayed in the game for many years.With RE, I am starting out concentrating on one aspect.

It has also followed through to the short sales as such, while not in the bank's portfolio as other real estate, it's still viewed as going into the market.Another aspect is that agents are an additional step in the chain of disposing of properties and if anything blows up in a deal, there are options as to shifting blame, liability and having insurance cover the transactional issues instead of the bank being hung out alone.The only way to cut a deal involving a bank would be in buying the note prior to foreclosure or disposing at no loss to the bank (that excludes short sales) with the seller selling the property, for example under a sub-2 or other assumption strategy.

so many aspects to management as to what your people do. i had a a guy manage my stuff while i was outta town 2 years on other projects and came back to a mess.

I am not sure he could negotiate a short sale in any case as he would own the property subject to the first mortgage but would not be a borrower on the note.My advice is to not get involved but I have also posted this as a blog to see if anyone can see any value in pursuing any aspect of the situation.

They will introduce you to all aspects of investing - from getting your credit in line, various types of loan products such as hard money, how to develop your business plan; i.e; flipping, buy/hold, wholesaling.

People have good intentions, but they also tend to make the same mistakes over and over...I'd learn a lot more about the new, consumer-friendly aspects of lease-purchase deals, then decide if you really want to go down that road.