First Time Visiting a Property - What Questions to Ask?

[Chad Beuoy]

Hi All,

Just getting started here and wanted to ask...when walking into a potential investment property, what types of questions do you like to ask? 

Thank you!

[Dave Van Horn]

@Chad Beuoy

Everything is a trust and validate in a situation like this. So take everything the seller or their agent says with a grain of salt.

The #1 questions should be: "Why are you selling the property?" - the ideal answer you want should answer "what the owner wants to do with the proceeds. This helps dictate your offer(s).

Other than that, other ones off the top of my head:

- "How fast do you want to close?"

- "How long have the tenants been living here?"

- "Are the leases month to month or yearly? What's included in the lease? Are the leases written? Do they include tenant insurance?" - you might be able to get pay history of the current tenants, but that's more common with larger properties.

- "What improvements have you made to the property?"

- "Is there a maintenance schedule I could see (i.e. roof, heater, well/septic, etc)?"

- "Did the owner manage the property themselves or did they have a property manager?" - This tells you a lot.

- "Will the owner consider carrying paper?" I usually try to make 4 different offers on the same property. They're all win-win situations for me. A cash offer (which is my lowest offer), a traditional financing offer, an offer where the seller carries a 2nd mortgage, and then a 100% owner financing offer (which is the highest offer).

The other option is buying it subject-to, offering to take over the current mortgage...but that can be harder to pull off. It all depends how motivated the seller is.

* I'd also add that you should look up what the owner paid for the property, when did they buy it, and what's their mortgage. This could help with your offer.