And occupied property is worth less due to cost and delays of gaining possession or eviction.Just remember you are competing with people who spend lots of time thinking of ways to outsmart other buyers, reduce costs and competition.

Until they're BOTH completely out, they still have possession of the unit. 

Hello @Stephanie D.Here if they didn't return the key then they are still in possession of the property.

You have offer and acceptance but not the consideration piece until you have possession.

I would assume if the sale was cancelled due to error that you might get some follow up questions from the county where you purchased it after the previous owner took possession :)

Often when we do our final walk-through with a tenant, we notice things that did not get clean and we let the tenant have the opportunity to clean them before returning possession of the unit back to us.

They don’t care if you sue them later to recover the fees …money spent on attorney will equal the balance so good luck with that ….4.Possession : that's the fun one.

The turn key sent us a clean bill of health on them, but when we googled them the first thing that came up was an arrest for drug possession.  

Additionally, you CANNOT TAKE POSSESSION of MONIES transacted from the sell, you must use an intermediary until the 1031 is complete.  

Lending standards are significantly tighter and there are many fewer marginal homeowners in possession of homes now.The Great Recession was more likely an unusual confluence of events that worked to the benefit of rental properties.