All Forum Posts by: John Clark

You need to talk to a lawyer and an accountant. PERIOD. That said: A much cleaner (and troll-free) solution would be for mom and dad to put properties into a corporate entity (accountant and lawyer will decide form). Your company then enters into a management agreement with their company. Your company then enters into an investment agreement of some sort (joint venture? dunno. That's why God invented lawyers and accountants) with their company. More buildings are bought, with equity divided as seen fit, with an eye towards siblings and the IRS) and you go from there.

You will have problems, however, helping yourself to 30 percent equity up front. Maybe as a one-time payment for free management services for life? Dunno. I don't think so, though.

Before you do anything,look at your closing statement. If the closing statement gave you a credit towards your purchase price of the amount of the tenant deposits, then you did, in fact, receive the deposits, just not in the form you were expecting. Don't go off half cocked.

I have zero sympathy for people who say they cannot make a down payment. They can do what I did: Join the military. serve your country (cuz you should, period) and treat you new-found VA loan eligibility as an additional, unnecessary gift from Uncle Sam.

Then use it.

Why aren't your utilities listed?

"Inspections are typically $500-800. There are cheaper inspectors but it's often worth it to pay more for reputable ones."
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Amen. My inspector costs me more than $800, but he spends 5 or 6 hours checking out a small single-family house. As I am wont to say, "I can afford a house, I can't afford a surprise."

Originally posted by @Matthew Olszak:

. . .in practice the buyer or seller can cancel for any reason (standard within 5 days) when using one of the board contracts under the attorney review section. Why? Because litigation is costly, so specific performance actions are rare. I'm sure you could find one anecdotal example of where a party threatened to file suit or actually did so, but that is so far and in-between that the risk is negligible unless you are negotiating a very high dollar deal.

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Read the original post: the poster was talking about a "right" to cancel "for any reason." That is false. Simply because the cop won't ticket you for doing 75 in a 70 zone doesn't mean he couldn't if he wanted to. If someone wants to talk about the ability to cancel as a practical matter, fine, but banish the word "right."

"Based on the responses looks like contract allows for cancellation within 5 days for any reasons. But you’re saying it’s possible for sellers to charge for breach of trust? The two doesn’t add up. "
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Attorney review is not carte blanche. It presumes (implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing) that the attorney will exercise his termination ability only in good faith and and for good cause. Now, as a practical matter, will most sellers contest your exercise of attorney termination after review? No. If someone did contest, and accuse the buyer  of using the buyer's attorney as the vehicle of a bad faith termination, then the fact that multiple offers had been made and the buyer "really only wanted Blackacre, the other offers were backstops" then the seller of Whiteacre or Redacre could very well have a cause for breach of contract for bad faith termination.

If you really have your heart set on getting Blackacre and your offer for Whiteacre is contingent on NOT getting Blackacre, then you'd better have the contingency in the offer for Whiteacre, and not  put your hopes in the idea that sellers won't challenge your attorney's termination during review.

"There does not need to be any reason stated either attorney simply emails out "I disapprove of this contract and declare it null"."
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And if challenged for breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing (remember, your other contracts are not privileged and come in as evidence, and your conversations with real estate agents aren't privileged), you will find that an attorney "simply emailing out" will not cover you.

If you have a secret reservation, don't depend on hiding behind someone and hoping not to get caught. Make it public and put it in the contract.

Your real estate agent is lying to you. There is an attorney review period, but that doesn't mean you can reject an accepted offer that you made simply because a better offer/acceptance came along. There is such a thing as the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and if you violate that, you are in breach of contract.

That said, you can make your other offer expressly contingent on not getting your preferred property, but be prepared to show proof that your desired contract was accepted.

Personally, I'd concentrate on the desired contract and not make other offers.

If you're planning an SRO, your exit will be problematic, too. City of Chicago requires a payment of thousands of dollars to SRO tenants being tossed out do to the SRO closing even if they've been there for as little as 30 days.