Certificate of Occupancy for Wholesaling and Double Closing?

Question

Hi everyone,

I am new to real estate investing and wholesaling. We live in NJ. We are wholesaling a foreclosed property and intended to do a double closing. We got the smoke certification.

What are the requirements for obtaining a temporary CO or a CO when wholesaling. I was told that the seller has to get one and the buyer has to get another one. And then when we sell we have to get a CO again?

Also, we had the inspection done and I was told by the municipality t takes 30 days to get the temporary certificate. Is this the norm?

Any advice or clarification on this topic would would be much appreciated b/c we are confused.

Thanks for reading.

Steve Wilcox · Answer

You always have to get a CO especially if you are the seller. If you presented yourself as experienced investors to the attorney odds are he didn't think he would have to tell you because this has to happen on literally every single real estate transaction.

Next time you can try to sell the LLC and its interest in the property after you close on it and then at least there is only 1 transfer of title rather then you buy, then you sell causing 2 transfers of title and technically the need for 2 smoke certs and 2 temp CO as you are now selling the property to a new buyer who has to sign off on the temp CO that they will complete the required repairs.

Every town has its own time period and it is something you should be aware of in future deals you might do

Oren Gordin · Answer

I should add that we are quite upset b/c due to the length of time to get the CO we won't be able to do a double closing and now we will have to pay holding costs. And our lawyer never advised us on any of this when we signed the contract.

Thanks again.