It's simple enough to set up and to me makes it easier to keep track of anyway.   

It seems as though you could work with the Seller (based on what you said, seems like a good person that wants to do right by everyone involved) to have him/her provide your lease (with the current owner's information substituted for your own) for tenant signatures, set to take effect once the current lease expires.

The response from the seller's agent came in as a text at 5:29 pm last night when the offer was set to expire at 5:30.

What is right in one instant, for one team, in one set of conditions could be a completely wrong play for another team with a completely different matchup.But when it comes to real estate investing, wannabe investors often ask the equivalent of “What’s the best play?”

I've had better experience with "fair market" transactions listed by motivated individuals.My advice is to have your agent to set up a search for vacant houses with key words like 'fixer-upper', 'probate', etc.

@Mario CascioWe use a few of the Schlage keyless deadbolts (the ones that do not try to slide the bolt itself) and they stand-up fine to our winters.Self-locking door sets on anything but a storage room are a recipe for unwanted "I locked myself out" calls ... it may be less of a problem on a detached garage, unless they walk out with their arms full, but the house keys still inside.

There is always an expense in setting up utilities.

@Philip Mullinax first if you need to evict someone from a unit you are buying the price needs to be adjusted for that. 

Sounds to me like he's got no chance, there's got to be some precedent set by never billing and collecting, right?

I set the guest's entry code to the last 4 digits of the booking cell phone number.