All Forum Posts by: Steve Osowicz

@Account Closed

 Well, I don't know how your contract and contingencies read so it is hard to say, but if I had to guess it would be due to the following. 

1. The MLS or State contract as you put it, has probably been vetted by board of realtor attorneys and offers protections for both the buyer and seller and conforms to state and federal law.

2. There are likely a number of contingencies offered in the MLS contract, financing contingency, appraisal contingency and inspection contingencies. If you are adding many extra contingencies this can make the offer not as appealing.

3. I would assume your contract favors you, which is understandable, but the agent has a duty to protect the interest of the seller, not you. 

4. The agent would be signing your contract, and obligating themselves and their buyer to a contract and are not attorneys, they may need to verify that the items in your contract and ensure things are in the contract that may need to be due to their duty as agents. 

5. Inspection time frames - basically they and the seller are trying to sell the house, the time frame is short to speed the process up, if you aren't going to buy, they can quickly get the house back on the market instead of leaving it tied up for an extended time period for inspections. 

Again, without seeing it, that is just my guess.

@Conway Churaman

It sounds like you need to "burn the boats" wherein the olden days a military commander once his forces had landed on the shores of the area they were to lay siege, they would then burn the boats, so it was either succeed in their conquest or be destroyed. 

You have savings, as @Steve West points out you also have a place to stay. If you are that miserable you can never get that time back, it keeps slipping away. You should be employable, what are you skills, you can check out sites like upwork.com and elance.com do some freelance work. You can still invest in real estate, it might just take you a little longer than if you were to stay. 

Ask yourself, what is the absolute worse that could happen if you quit, and how you can mitigate the damage. Probably not that bad. 

I have been in miserable jobs before, I did turn in a notice, but once I left it literally felt like a weight lifted off of me and I was so happy. Now, I say that, but I have been in sales in one form or another for a pretty long time. I love selling real estate, and I could get a sales job tomorrow if needed, in real estate or in a different industry so take your skills into consideration. 

Good Luck!

@Taylor West one of my old college buddies owned a 4-plex they were all 2 bed 2 bath - all in a row. He lived on one end, rented out the other room in his and then rented all the other units out. He did this all through college and for many years after - of course he had issues, evictions etc. but in the end he paid off the building and socked away a lot of money, then sold it for a hefty profit. 

Not necessarily a bad thing, I would get a mommy/daddy/grandparent co-signer for sure though. 

Pros - They need a place to live and a lot of them have their rent paid by someone else

Cons - Damage - May not call about maintenance items that could be easily fixed and end up being worse

Plenty more pros and cons I am sure others will chime in. 

Good Luck!

@Chad Hurin

 Likely if they are long term tenants they are on a month to month lease - if not they would have renewed their term each year (which I doubt, but depends on previous owner). If month to month, I would want to get my own lease signed as soon as possible, meaning when theirs month to month for the current term expires. Just make sure you have a good lease. 

Unless the lease states that the owner will come by and pick up cash, you send them a letter notifying them that you are the new manager of the property (which is true, you create a separation between you the manager and you the owner). The new procedure will be for them to mail into the P.O. Box, you aren't sending them the Pay or Quit notice for the way they pay, it is if they do not send in the rent, then they are in breach of paying their monthly rent obligation. 

The issue is that I would gamble they will not pay via money order to your P.O. Box the first month, so you will likely have to take steps to ensure you receive your money. I can't imagine driving to each property to collect cash, some people will have excuses instead of cash, then you have to drive back out. 

@Chad Hurin

 If you don't have an office, I would set up a P.O. Box - have tenant mail in their rent. This in the form of check or money order if no checking account. This way you establish a record of their payment. If a check bounces, you only accept money orders or cashiers checks from then on. You don't want to get into a "tenant claims they paid" but "owner says they didn't" how do you or the tenant prove otherwise? 

Do not give the tenant your account number to deposit rent/if you have to evict (check local laws) they may be able to make a small deposit to restart the eviction process since you in effect "accepted" money from them. 

If the tenants are resistant, and do not mail in their money - you send them their "Pay or Quit/Eviction" notice, they will be more apt to respond once they get that notice. If you feel like this is heavy handed, you might not want to be in lower end rentals, tenants will eat you alive. Set the stage early for how to handle your rental. 

Good Luck!

If the ghosts are willing to pay market rent, there is no issue. The issue arises when they fail to pay, how to deliver the pay or quit notice (I think it has to be done via seance). Then having to process the eviction...er...I mean exorcism. Make sure to check your local laws to find out if you have a apparition or landlord friendly state. 

Good Luck!

@Stephanie Barcia I am not an attorney nor should you use anything following as legal advice.

The way this was explained to me by an attorney is that the lease and the option can be treated as two separate contracts. Why is this important? Well, if you sign a 1 year lease, with the right to exercise the option at the end of the year, and you have to evict the tenant, you still have to be able to honor the option. 

Though it is unlikely that a tenant would be evicted, then be able to purchase, who knows. Six months after purchase, then an eviction, then having to figure out what to do with the property for the next 6 months until the option expires is something to consider. I would be careful about how you craft the agreement and would run it by an attorney before using it. What if the potential tenants are unable to sell their house?

If you are still sold on the idea, I would say a down payment of $5,000 - NONE of the monthly rent applied, the $5,000 would apply towards purchase, however if the tenants are unable to exercise the option, then you would be entitled to keep the down payment. I would not use the term "deposit", I am not even sure I would use "down payment", I would ask an attorney about proper verbiage for that sum.  

@Michael Germinario you can go to google type - property management policy and procedures manual - this will provide links to different existing property management firm's policy and procedure manuals. Typically you will go to their pdf link of the manual that is provided online. This way you can review and use what you think is most beneficial and disregard items that do not apply to you. 

Good Luck!

Yes, Hillview is good, Highview, obviously the Highlands, St. Matthews, Germantown, Fern Creek, Jeffersontown, all good rental areas. There are pockets to avoid in some of those areas.