All Forum Posts by: Jason Young

@Corey Johnson

 Hi Corey.  A typical Real Estate Contract for Sale is going to contain a financing contingency which can provide an out for you if you are unable to obtain financing.  You may lose the GFD that you put down to put the contract in place, which can be as little as $1 or a larger amount (say 10 percent of the sales price), without the appropriate legal language in place.

Additionally, the seller can also put a 48 hour contingency in place, so that if a more "legitimate" offer comes in they can invoke the 48 hour, forcing you to lock the deal down within 48 hours or negate the existing contract that you have.

In general, always consult with a good Real Estate attorney before getting a legally binding agreement in place!

@Ned Carey Hi Ned.  Curious on how you: 1) identify vacant properties (other than taking note of properties that appear to be vacant due to falling into a state of disrepair); then how you locate the owners contact information.

@Mary Chapman thanks for starting this thread!  Finding deals feels like the most important step, and i'm struggling at it.

@Ben Leybovich Good point; Ultimately the performance of subject property is just one data point.  Will dig into the rentals in close proximity to better validate the income side.  Thanks!

@Tom S. Can you elaborate on your second bullet on cash reserves?  I'm accounting for a certain percentage of vacany, and will be folding cap ex into the analysis after getting the inspection.  Is there something else in particular about more units (IE. 5 unit vs 3 unit) that should make me more wary?

@Roy N. thanks for that tip on using a varied approach based on the type of tenant.  The rental i'm targeting is right on top of a college campus so I will likely come across some students looking to rent, so using the annual or academic term lease is a great suggestion.

@Jon Holdman @Marcia Maynard Thanks for taking the time to weigh in.  I can see the benefits of going with month to month... flexibility can be a win-win for both the land lord and the tenant.

@Angelo Behar no problem!  Appreciate you participating in the thread... got some great feedback.

@Ben Leybovich Thanks for the feedback!  Ideally the landlord has kept good records... would be nice to further validate them against the W2, but like you say i probably won't be able to get access to that.  Can't hurt to ask though!

I'm considering purchasing a 5 family rental and am curious what I can expect from the current landlord in terms of documented performance of the property.  The property looks good "on paper", but I would like to see a year (or longer) worth of documentation on the actual performance.  Understand that this is entirely based on how organized the landlord has been with their record keeping, but curious what experience others have while performing due diligence.  

New to the game and seriously considering purchasing a 5 family.  The current land lord has not been using leases, so the tenants are all month to month.  Curious what people think of this approach vs having year long leases in place.