All Forum Posts by: Jonathan Greene

You shouldn't be counting on any landlord trying to end a lease early for cause during a sale. Tenants rights in most states far outweigh landlord's right especially when it comes to eviction. If you are looking to buy and all of the units are occupied, find out which units are on month-to-month leases and as said above, request as part of the sale, that a unit or both units be vacant at closing. It's much easier to evict a month-to-month tenant with 30-day notice.

One thing to note though. If you are buying and moving in to house hack and you evict one tenant, your remaining tenant may find that unreasonable and worry about their tenancy. It seems like rentals go quick where you are so you wouldn't have trouble renting again if they left, but it's something to note. Also, what if the tenants in the building are close. All things to consider.

All of the appraisers know each other. I don't think you are considering the blowback you and your client could get by not handling this privately. Do you have any evidence whatsoever that his intentions were nefarious? What if he thought it was going to be thrown out and was trying to let a HAM enthusiast know that there is equipment available for sale? What makes you believe someone was going to steal it? Reporting him is one thing, but threatening legal action and trying to get him barred from the approved appraiser list without any evidence beyond a photo shared is only going to come back to hurt you in the end.

The first question you should ask yourself is what are you trying to get out of this. Was he wrong? Definitely. But is it also possible that he was trying to find a buyer for some things that he thought were going to get thrown out. Is there any evidence that he was planning a theft? I can see why you are annoyed, but the amount of time you will spend on trying to get this appraiser a light reprimand (which is all he would get because he will have an explanation like above) will not be worth it. Did you talk to the appraiser about it at all?

@Aaron K. If the tenant hangs up on the landlord and is then unresponsive to communication to a forthcoming inspection, you aren't testing anything by knocking on their door to set the inspection in person. There is no chance a court would find a constructive eviction for showing up after a tenant won't respond to a landlord's right (and contract) to inspect the premises. You have to always respect your tenants, but you can't be scared of them.

@Aaron K. are you saying the law is that you can't show up without notice at any time for any reason in CA? I wouldn't expect to gain entry or force entry, but if a tenant is being non-responsive I would think you could knock and/or be there for maintenance purposes.

Set the inspection or just show up at this point. That's classic language to try to deflect what they are hiding. In my experience, it's usually unauthorized occupants. There is no hanging up on the landlord. I would get an attorney to send her a pre-eviction letter ASAP so she knows it's either follow the rules or leave. Once a tenant shows angst at a very regular question and process, I worry about the upkeep of the unit.

Use HubSpot CRM. It's free and will do everything you need to for what you are asking. I use Podio for my off-market acquisitions, kvCORE for my agent business, and HubSpot CRM for a smaller investor list. And I do think it's best to keep them separated like this especially if you have separate business entities.

Here is my take on courthouse auctions when you are new to doing it @Jenna Walker. In every market there are foreclosure hounds who have been doing it a long time. When you go to the auctions you will see the same people every week. If they aren't interested in it, it's not going to be a good deal and they won't play with too many condos because the margins are tight. If the upset is low the bank will always buy it back first. In hot markets (on-market), it's in their best interest to put it on the market especially because the listing percentage they pay for REO listing agents isn't very high compared to 6%. I've found that you can do better with condos by creating a list (using say, ListSource) targeting no mortgage or low mortgage and been there 7+ years. Most people are ready to move out of a condo by then if not before. Also, if you cross-add out of state owners you will find owners holding condos and probably not wanting them, especially if they own no other properties in the area. That's where you are doing them a favor. You could direct mail on your own and probably find decent condo deals for a rental.

My pleasure. Yeah, three times passed is not a surprise. Sometimes the bank wants to buy it back to list later as an REO and sometimes the upset value and opening bid is just too high at courthouse auction for it to be worth it. With only a 130k market value, I wouldn't be looking at it to renovate. There just isn't enough spread for it to be worth it at 98k unless it needs just cosmetic. Auction.com info is not reliable for extra liens. Only a title company can find out more information so if you plan on investing and buying foreclosures you want to develop a relationship with a local title company that can do quick searches for you to see if there are some hidden monsters there. There are a lot of potential pitfalls in foreclosure buying from the courthouse steps, the most being no inspections and the back liens that could come up later. You would have a bit more protection looking at sites like Hubzu, HomePath and Xome which are selling REOs, but on the market with some protection in that you can view them (with an agent) and they have generally cleaned them out and presented them at their best. Any questions at all, send me a message.

Is it already listed for auction at the courthouse? If so, how many times has it come up and passed? Often times, properties come up several times to auction and get continued on that day. The more times that happens, the more likely it is ready to sell, but you have to remember that the banks have a million properties and they do not care about getting one condo off their list. If it passes through auction it will end up being listed as an REO on the market which will give them more access anyway.

You also want to check if there are any other liens on the property on top of the mortgage owed. The upset value can include tax liens, IRS liens, etc. Some counties disclose all they know and some have no info so title will need to get that info for you if you really want to bid because with that spread, there isn't much room to work if you are going to renovate it.