I’m not complaining but we have about $90,000 in equity in this house. We have several other homes that we just rent out but as I said we really dont want to keep this one because of its age and size. Last year I was going to refi right after the tenant buyer moved in but thought I would just wait for them to buy rather than waste the closing costs of a refi. After all comments here I quess I will just be careful in screening and offer the house again with LO. My other choice is to lower sales price on MLS to hopefully attract regular buyers. I can get 80% cash out refinance with Firstar Home Mortgage.
Then I’ll just keep Lease Optioning it until someone finally buys. Actually the market here has gone up sinse last year. The house is listed for 7,000 more than last year. Thanks for all comments. It has helped.
May
We bought I house for $50,000 & did extensive rehab, costing $15,000 including holding costs. We listed it over a year for 1 month with not even a showing thru MLS. I withdrew from MLS and offered LO. Within 2 weeks we had tenant buyer at full price ($126,900) & a positive cash flow of $700.00 per month. Now the year has passed and the couple split up so didnt exercise their option ($3000)and have vacated the house. They left it in excellent condition, paid all rent due, including last month and never even asked about a refund. Anyway now here I am still with the house with the same problem all over again. Its been listed with MLS for 3 weeks with only 1 showing. Its an old house and my husband wants rid of it. He says we were just lucky with the first tenant buyer and he thinks this house could need more repairs in the future and the next person could wreck it or again not buy. What is the odds of most tenant buyers really buying the house? How many problems have you experienced investers had with tenant buyers leaving a house in bad condition or fighting you for their option money? Did I just get lucky the first time? I quess I could lower the price on MLS but houses in general dont seem to be moving. Any suggestions would help? Sorry for long post but I am frustrated with leaving house sit vacant?
May
Wait a minute…you got $3k for a 1 yr option, plus you got a positive cash flow of $700/month. What’s wrong with that? You could do that over and over again with low down lease options, so I don’t think you were “just lucky”. You have a producing asset…why sell it?
I’m not quite sure why you would re-list it through the MLS when you obviously had better success selling it on your own. There is no way to avoid the chance of a non-paying tenant buyer. That’s why it’s so important to do a credit check on each interested party on the property. Call there previous landlords, ask if they paid rent on time, make sure that your tenant buyer will be able to acquire financing within twelve months with steady payments. Check out tenants throughly before you stick them in your property. It’s the only way you can protect yourself from a problem tenant buyer down the road.
I don’t beleive you got lucky with the first tenant buyers, there are many people would what to own there own home but who can’t get the financing at the time. Just make sure you do your homework on the next person you put into your property. A little screening work now may help your to avoid headaches and evictions down the road.