All Forum Posts by: Shari Posey

I didn't know the lease automatically extends to the new owner. I'm in CA--are you from CA?

By the way, yes, the new owner will live in the property. It is a short sale and it took months to get approval from the banks so the owner did not give the tenant notice because of that and won't until we are past the contingency period. At that point they will give 60-day notice to the tenant.

So you are saying I don't need anything special written up? The notice to vacate automatically extends to the new owner and tenant?

I've got a buyer buying a duplex and the seller will give 60-day notice to vacate when the buyer removes all contingencies. Obviously, the current lease is between the current owner and tenant. It will not protect the buyer if there is any trouble with the tenant vacating after they become owners. I'm trying to come up with some document that names the new owners in the notice to vacate. Help!

I have 2 rental condos and they are working fine BUT I would not buy another one unless it was a steal.

They all cash flow nicely but they would not be easy to sell right now if I needed out. My goal is to keep them for a long time but finding good tenants is MUCH harder than it used to be and selling a condo is MUCH harder than it used to be.

Maybe this is old news in this forum but I've been dealing with quite a few condo flippers that didn't realize that the potential buyers' lenders are going to put up a bunch of roadblocks and it's not going to be as easy as you think.
--FHA is the biggest road block to the majority of your buyers, especially in the lower price ranges. If the complex is not FHA approved, I wouldn't buy in it in hopes of a fast flip.
--I've run into buyers' lenders who don't want the seller to be an LLC.
--Be careful of delinquencies over or even near 15%.
--Be careful of too many rental units.
--Be careful of making too much money on your flip. If your profit is greater than 19.9% you can forget FHA and it will come under scrutiny for conventional.

Here in southern CA, if you need a quick flip and you plan on making a lot of money, I wouldn't invest in a condo.

These are just some helpful tips I have acquired, particularly working with buyers trying to buy condo flips--it's HARD!

We only live a few minutes away and people make appointments so it's not a big deal. Also, I don't want to pay for what I can do myself without much time involved. I mean, of all those people who looked at the property it probably only took 3 hours total over the past 2 weeks.

We waited it out, plus all of those I put in my post pulled out--our place was too small, one needed a roommate, etc.

We just signed a lease tonight with a great tenant...solid income 4x the rent, long-term govenment employment and great credit with no lates ever.

It paid to wait. We showed in a dozen times and ended up with several more applications but they were all marginal or worse.

The mom of #1 owns her home and has for quite a while with a low mortgage payment.

We are not interested in selling. We might make a few hundred more per month in a better area but it will cost a lot ot sell and buy again. This economy will pass.

#2 owns a home with her ex-husband. It is a low mortgage but I assume he will be paying that or they will sell. We have decided NO on #2.

It was never a great area--not awful but not great. I think the crop of tenants is the sign of the times--almost everyone has a short sale, foreclosure, credit card lates. Rental prices are down all over our city. The house is paid off so no matter what rent we get, it's a better return than what we would get anywhere else.

The area is not that great but we've never had this much trouble getting a tenant and never this low quality. In all our rentals we have had to reduce rents in the past year.

Thanks for your insight. If #3 checks out I agree is he would be the best option. The people who just left started out on a 6-month lease and ended up staying 2 years.

If he doesn't check out, then we will lease to the mom in #1. That is a good idea to have her sign the lease and the daughter co-sign. I'm all for giving people a fresh start but her history of bad debt is really long and it seems more like a habit than a past mistake.

Option to buy--we're not interested. We will keep the house forever. This is part of our retirement plan.

Wow, the economy must really suck because for the first time ever, every applicant has major problems. We have 3 applicants all with different problems. Our rent is $1095 and tenant pays all utilities of about $130/mo. Can you help us choose among these? Who would you pick?

Applicant #1--A single mom, unemployed but gets unemployment of $320/week and "says" she does her own notary business for $800-1200/mo. She has had almost every credit line in collections from 2005 to 2010. BUT her mom is co-signing for her and her mom's credit is excellent, her income is stable and makes enough to pay her own mortgage and the rent.

Applicant #2--A single mom, newly divorced. Her credit is not bad (707), she has stable income since 2007 BUT her income is low--only $1800/mo. No car loans. A student loan for $100/mo.

Applicant #3--A 30-yr-old self-employed single guy. His application was very incomplete but he says he will give us his tax returns, bank statement, etc. in person because it's too much to fax. He says he owns 2 bike stores and makes $3600/mo. He currently pays $1900/mo for rent but wants to downsize to save up for a house. Currently has $3500 in the bank. He only wants a 6 month lease (we prefer 1 yr).

Tomorrow I will check with past/current landlords but let's assume they check out o.k.

Who would you pick???