All Forum Posts by: Stone Teran

I was going to respond with my advice, but Darwin covered everything correctly.

I've gotten this request often and I allow it if I think the remaining person can afford the rent.  The key issue I stress is that any relationship problems are not my problem and I will never ever help keep the other person away.  Tenants always try to recruit me to fight their battles.

Some people have said that a settlement statement is binding but it's not.  You have recourse and now is the time to make noise and get what you deserve.

That said, the closing is when all parties have something on the line and that's when you need to have all your calculations and due diligence completed.  If something isn't right, you delay the closing.  I was once scammed for $2k at the closing by a seller who lived out of state.  I tried but was never able to collect from that piece of S&!t (his name is Dan Schmidt).

Omar, how's your rehab budget looking at this early stage?  $200k?  $300k?

You can appraise anything but the appraisal will point out the missing drywall and deduct some value.  The bank may say it's not fully habitable and reject the loan or make you escrow funds to get the drywall fixed.  Fannie lenders don't like partially completed "projects".

Then I must have a horrible reputation.  Yet my phone keeps blowing up from prospective renters.

Whether you keep or evict is a judgement call but the whole "can't evict because it looks bad" idea should have zero bearing on your decision.

I have yet to find a bank that is willing to entertain offers on their foreclosures off the street.

Normally you wait until it's on the MLS and then bid away.

I agree with Nancy's post regarding how judges rule, but I'd also keep most of the deposit.  It's rare that this ends up in court.  The key as @Jeff A. mentioned is presenting a solid case to the exiting tenant.  If they whine but deep down understand that they left a mess and you acted fairly, the partial deposit is paid out and any disagreement goes away.

I bought a new apartment building that has an existing property impound sign with a towing company that went out of business.  I called a new company and they are anxious to put their own sign up but said they will charge me $65 per tow.  Ha!  In my limited experience, the impound fee should always be zero to the property owner since the tow company makes money off the cars they impound.  True or false?

Jacob, I fix-and-flipped a similar house.  The inside was immaculate but the outside had boring siding and the layout was a little weird.  I had to lower the price to sell it.

I would definitely not redo the layout.  It looks immaculate now and you don't want to mess with that.