Have you ever wanted to sell after an eviction?

Question

Patrick L. · Answer

I haven't but I know the risks and consider myself a professional landlord.   If you're looking for motivated sellers evictions are a great starting point, especially if the property is returned to the landlord in less than perfect condition.  Many people get very frustrated easily by tenant drama, especially those with very few rentals.

Kerry Baird · Answer

I had to evict and foreclose (because of lease option paperwork).  The tenant left feces on the freshly painted walls and the new carpet, left a huge trash bag full of rotting food in the house, with maggots all over it.  A fence was knocked down.  Screens were ripped.

I had a 4 year old and a baby, lived over an hour away, and we were new at land-lording.  It was horrible.  We'd rehabbed the place, so our money was already in it, and the lawyer's plan took several months' time and money.  We had to borrow from family to fix it up again, and we listed it for sale immediately.  Motivated to sell~

Now, as to your question: you just need to get marketing.  Situations happen.  Every. Single. Day.  Owners get old, get sick, get tired, are divorced, have a spouse go to jail.  Stop guessing what people would do and wouldn't do.  Put a marketing piece out there, and give them a call to action.  Offer to solve problems.  When the right situation meets the right marketing piece, stuff happens!

Patrick L. · Answer

I'd say right around the time they get the property back.  They probably haven't collected any rent in 2 months and they go to the property and find out they need to spend a couple thousand to clean it up and get it rent ready and might be a month away from collecting rent again.   Their dreams of gross expected rent minus taxes and insurance = profit are crushed.   If someone comes in and makes a cash offer it might be tempting rather than having to continue to put money back into it and face the uncertainty of a new tenant search and another unknown tenant.

Rick H. · Answer

I've occasional thought about selling DURING an eviction but feel differently once the war is over.

If you are marketing to acquire property, look for sellers who are dreaming of selling but have not taken any action (yet). They have a situation that they are afraid of the repercussions of a tenant who may be a family member or abusive baby-daddy or baby-mom or some such familal interloper.

Play on their paranoia. Play on their desire for a stress-free life. You can offer that. You, as the buyer and new owner, are willing to acquire with the freeloading moochers in place and be the heavy do that your seller doesn't have to leave their lazy boy chair.

Kerry Baird · Answer

I have door-knocked pre-foreclosures, put flyers on cars, placed bandit signs, direct mail and talked directly with FSBOs.  I also bought from the MLS using conventional Realtor-brought properties, and have purchased from a turn key operator.  So, a little of everything.  Out of 30 properties, 10 have come through other means than MLS.

For the more creative deals: we got two probate properties, a seller contacted me through an older and now-defunct real estate forum, we stopped when a guy was putting out a FSBO sign (he carried the note for us), and then bought a number of subject-to deals (where we took over their loan until we finished rehabbing) that were from direct mail to pre-foreclosures.  I have a website, but am not motivated to be consistent with updating it, and have gotten zero deals from that source.

I'm busy.  I homeschool 3 kids.

Jared Smith · Answer

Thanks @Kerry Baird for your advice on my question. I do agree with you that I need to take action and send out a marketing piece. While this is true, I also agree with your last statement, and because of that  I am doing the marketing research before hand to try and learn and target the pains of potential prospects. I am planning on sending my first mailing out in November to my created list. Sorry to hear about your terrible tenant, I hope you have been able to recover from the incident. Thanks for your story it has helped me understand better what difficulties landlords face and how I can appeal to their challenges. If you don't mind me asking how do you market to your prospects?

Raymond McGill · Answer

First you need to determine desire to sell. "Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. That's pretty bad. I have always wanted to manage something like this. Would you consider cashing out of this problem?" - all options are still on table, but he wants to sell you the property, which is what is important.

Michael McDevitt · Answer

It really depends on the owner.  I know that some owners get so frustrated during an eviction or immediately after, that they might accept a cash offer.  Others would only accept a "regular" acquisition.  You would have to assess the owner, ask good questions, and decide how best to proceed with your offer and terms.

Have you ever wanted to sell after an eviction?

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