All Forum Posts by: Roy N.

@Shawn Mohovich:

We've never had unfettered access to a building before close. We have recruited and screened tenants in conjunction with / on behalf of the Vendor. The viewings have always been conducted by the vendor or a mutually agreed agent.

Unless there is severe friction between you and the buyer, I really think the better path is to allow her/him to expend the bulk of the effort and costs to screen the tenants - with you reserving the right to ensure any tenant selected is one to whom you could rent. If you are using a realtor, you can use your agent to perform the showings (or his).

This would be cheaper for you and a happier experience for your buyer.

My influence for this approach came from past experience acquiring and selling businesses. I liken the collaboration to fill vacancies to a transition team used when preparing for transfer of control in a business sale.

Jerry Skeens

When I was in my last years of university I put an option on the duplex I was renting and exercised that option shortly after I was out. I continued to collect rent from my two roommates - and now the folks in the other unit - but got to put it in my own account.

Since you are going into your MBA - meaning you will still be a student and may not have a steady (or any) income - I would consider for an affordable student property where you would reside with as many roommates as you can tolerate. Where your war chest is modest, you might also investigate the feasibility of a lease to own / lease option arrangement.

Steve Might

Our general rule is "no pets", or more precisely, we handle all pets as exceptions on an individual basis. One of the conditions for allowing the pet is proof of a pet damage coverage on the Tenant's insurance.

@Shawn Mohovich:

In all our offers where we expect to assume a tenanted property we include a clause that docks 3-months rent for each vacant unit from the price at close. The purpose of this clause is explicitly to counter the "why do I want to do more work if I am selling the property." attitude.

Now, in reality we know Vendors are occasionally disinclined to place new tenants (or expend the effort to place quality tenants) in a unit once the building is under contract, so we offer to do exactly what your buyer is doing ... assist the Vendor to fill the vacancy(ies) with credible new tenants {we also reserve the right to ensure the new tenants meet our standards}. After all it is in both our interests: if the deal closes, we have a tenant who "fits", if the deal falls apart, the Vendor does not have a vacancy.

A little off topic, but I wanted to express my relief that this is one area where our two societies/countries actually do differ ... and hopefully it stays that way :-)

Mike: I always have a couple of tape measures and printed floor plans available when I show a unit. Just recently I've include a sheet of paper with the "common" dimensions of household furniture {you might be surprised how many folks do not know the width or length of their queen bed}.

Ben Kahle: I glued that together about 0.5s after I hit post ;-)

We regularly use Kijiji (like Craigslist) to list our units {though last week they announced they will start charging $29.99 for real-estate listings ... the latest change since they were acquired by eBay} and it has worked well for us.

I also use individual appointments, but try to schedule them in blocks (15-minute showings with a 5-minute window between appointments).

I provide all prospects with soft copies of our application and the information book for the particular property at the time they make a viewing appointment and tell them we process "complete" applications in the order they are received. Other than one 3-bdrm unit that is my bane {though I did receive two applications for it this weekend} all of our units are regularly shown while still occupied and rented before they become vacant.

This spring we even had a 'student' house in which we will be renovating the basement this summer to add a second bathroom and two more bedrooms leased-up for September on spec :-) ... needless to say I've offered a nice carrot to my contractor to finish early and under/on budget ... and included a sizeable stick if they run over and I have to put-up my tenants elsewhere.

Justin Case:

We only have two units in one building which still have carpet, but regardless, I either ask prospective tenants to remove their footwear (even more so if tenants are still living in the unit) or provide them with 'booties' to pull over their shoes.

Ben Kahle while there are some core ratios and formulas always used to determine if a property passes the bar, wouldn't your favourite formula(s) be driven by your objective for the property?

For instance, we do boring old buy-and-hold residential multi-units, so I really do not give a lot of time to ARV in my analysis and am more concerned with operating ratio, cash-on-cash, PI, BER and debt coverage.