All Forum Posts by: Nick G.

@Cal Rohrman As others have said, you are likely out of luck, since that condition assessment is the only proof you have if you need to charge the tenants for damages. 

In the future, the other thing to also make sure you do anytime you buy an occupied property is to get the condition assessment (in my state called a Move-In Move-Out form, a MIMO) from the seller. If they don't have one for some insane reason, at an absolute minimum, try to create a new one with the tenant.

Good luck, I probably wouldn't pursue the tenants for much, if anything, but I don't know your state's laws.

@Derek Bonanni

Lots of bad advice in this thread, much of which is illegal in California, here's the deal:

You need, first and foremost, to talk to an attorney and your broker if you have one. Nobody can properly answer this without having read your lease.

However, speaking very generally - typically in California, once you sign the lease and the tenant is delivered a copy, and once the tenant delivers the agreed-upon Move-In Costs in the agreed-upon time period (typically deposit + first month's rent), that's the end of it, you're locked in, handcuffs and all. Only in the event the tenant defaults on your agreement can you even begin thinking about trying to get rid of your tenant. (Fun fact for non-CA lurkers: same goes by default for the sellers in our state's purchase contracts!)

However, while your suspicion may very well be correct, I implore you to consider the fact that the tenant has, at this point, done absolutely nothing wrong to you here. I have had experiences where the reference you called may have an ulterior motive or agenda as to dissuade you from renting to him, as I think I saw one other person mention.

If anything, it's lesson to do your diligence and wait for all diligence calls to be returned before signing a lease, ever.

For what it's worth, if you used the latest C.A.R. Residential Lease Agreement revision we just released in June, you may benefit from the protection recent language we just added in the event the tenant has not violated the lease, but was not truthful on his original application:

41. A) (...) Landlord may cancel this Agreement: (i) before occupancy begins; upon disapproval of the credit report(s), or upon discovering that information in Tenant's application is false; (ii) After commencement date, upon disapproval of an updated credit report or upon discovering that information in Tenant's application is no longer true. A negative credit report reflecting on Tenant's record may be submitted to a credit reporting agency if Tenant fails to fulfill the terms of payment and other obligations under this Agreement.

Crossing my fingers for you!

@Joshua Feit If you want to practice using a real estate license, you must either 1. Hold a broker's license, or 2. Hang your agent license under a broker. 

You do not need a license in order to make your own offers or sell your own properties, but you do to be a member of an MLS/Association. Anytime you hold a real estate license, active or inactive, you must disclose that to the other party when entering into a transaction.

Hope some of that helps.

@Jay Hinrichs @Mindy Jensen @Michael Lim @Joseph M.@Joel Owens

Wire fraud is becoming rampant, so within C.A.R., we worked alongside authorities to develop the Wire Fraud Advisory. It is not a disclosure, but it is a highly recommended advisory to include in all purchase contracts.

If anyone you know becomes affected by wire fraud, you can contact me immediately, I have a direct number to one of the lead agents of the FBI's Los Angeles Cyber Division that I can connect you to thanks to my work with him within C.A.R. 

Time is of the absolute essence in these situations, every single hour is crucial.

The other action to take is to immediately file a complaint with ic3.gov. The FBI monitors this site constantly, and alongside the phone call we'll make, we can get attention to your situation even faster.

@Megan Greathouse, It's the principle of it, not the severity. :) 

@Patrick Senas You're spot on, I'd be furious if I was in your shoes. If you haven't already, I'd also have contacted an attorney and be telling the lender as much. 

Switching lenders won't help you because I believe the appraisal belongs to the VA, and they have it on file regardless of which lender brokers the loan.

Your agent doesn't sound to blame here whatsoever, as any good agent will have you defer to the judgement of a real expert of a particular issue - in this case, your lender. You acted on your lender's advice, and it may have cost you greatly. Your lender displayed total negligence which got you into this mess, and is now continuing to do so by not appealing/challenging the appraisal, which you absolutely have a right to do. This lender is continuing to do nothing but increase your exposure to financial risk. 

Oh, and DTI numbers are pretty simple and straightforward, and you have every right to know them, so I'm not sure what they're trying to hide. They're simply based off of recurring debt as displayed on your credit report, your FICO scores, and your qualifying income (not all income can be used to qualify.)

So my next call to this lender (and his broker, if he has one,) would be to let him know that you are now discussing his actions with your attorney and are determining just how much financial risk, and possibly even harm, that the lender's advice has exposed you to.

In my state (and I believe this applies across the country,) a mortgage broker actually must have a RE broker license in order to get their mortgage broker license. So yes, technically one person can definitely act in both capacities.

However, whether or not that is a good idea is another idea entirely - I don't need or want my attorney to also be my doctor, I'd rather have two absolute experts in two different industries working for me.

@Tony Cardello Final thing I'll add is that removing your contingencies and releasing your deposit are two very different things. In my market, removing your contingencies would often be entirely appropriate in your situation. Releasing your deposit is another thing entirely.

@Jay Sechowicz Pretty sure it's a 30 year-amortized, interest-only for 10, principle kicks in at year 11... not positive but pretty sure. Typically you don't want to move out within 6 months of doing a loan like that. The paperwork you sign usually has an owner-occupied clause in there, I think it's 6 or 12 months, something like that. You can move out sooner with good reason, but you should probably try to stick around for at least 6 months if you can. That's a good lender question.

HELOCs and mortgages are different. The HELOC is an open line of credit based on your property's LTV ratio that you can use to pull money out and pay it back at any time. That flexibility can be nice, but the lender can also alter (or even negate) the amount of the HELOC at any time based on market conditions, which means in a market correction, you may find your borrowing power suddenly cut down overnight.

The 10% is an interest-only second mortgage with a rate around 6%. The rate might be similar to a HELOC, but that's about it, they're fairly different credit products. With a mortgage, you're getting the money whether you need it or not, so there's no flexibility in that regard as there is with a HELOC. A market correction, however, would have no external affect on a fixed-rate mortgage such as this one, meaning that even if your house value dropped 50% compared to what the bank originally based their loan off of, they can't rescind anything because they already gave the money to you. A HELOC can change overnight since it's merely an ongoing offer of credit based on your property's value.

Hope that helps!