Posted by BillW. on February 26, 2001 at 21:39:23:
Lisa, These don’t seem like motivated sellers to me. Price is at retail, and they have no cash flow problems. Now if the place was completely vacant… might be another story, but right now they are receiving a good check and have little or no payments. They will be able to sit on this one long term and wait for a sale. I’d tell them to call you if they want to sell at your price, maybe 65K. In the meantime, look for a better deal. $200 per month from a duplex is not enough cashflow. (Also, keep an eye on it and if you see it become vacant, check back.)
BillW.
I’m looking at a house which is a 2 family that rents for $650 and $600 each. Each apartment is fairly large and it’s in a good area so it may be possible to raise the rents. The tenants are on a month-to-month lease. The owners received the house in a will (I’m assuming) since there isn’t any record of a mortgage on the property. They are simply paying the taxes on the house.
The realtor has said they are relocating to Mexico and are not interested in maintaining the house.
My question becomes what type of offer can anyone I suggest I put on this house? The asking price is $115K - realtor says she would have listed it at $110K. Taxes are $200 a month. With $1250 coming in there isn’t alot of leeway - I know a mortgage on $110K would be around $850 (I wouldn’t plan on offering that anyway). I’d definitely want to get at least $200 a month on it (do you think that’s a reasonable amount or should I look for something with a better price?) I’m not sure about the sellers - how low they’d be willing to go - but I know they are leaving town and without a mortgage on it anything they get will be all theirs.
I haven’t seen the inside of the house but have driven by it and got whatever info about it’s condition from the realtor. I’ll be going to see it on Wednesday. I don’t have any plans on offering immediately, but would love some input on what kind of offers I could make so I know if it’s worth looking at.
Posted by Daveman on February 27, 2001 at 22:22:29:
Hello Lisa,
You need to know more about the sellers. What are the doing with the money. Do they need it to relocate to mexico? If not, do a multiple offer. Come in with a LOW cash offer (40% - 50% below asking) , or to take care of mainting the property, lease-option at a still slightly lower price. You will get one of 3 things.
1 — A “NO THANK YOU”. They need all the money in this case.
2 — A really great deal for cash. They really want to get to Mexico yesterday.
3 — The oportunity to try the property out, and still get it at a price you want.
Either way you will know. If they say no watch the property. If goes it goes… there are LOTS MORE!!!
That’s the first thing that popped into my head, when I read your post.
I will take 200 a duplex anytime. I have six of them by using carletons program. That would make 1200. All of the sudden it’s not that bad is it. You will not retire off of one deal so try not to view it that way.
A possible source for cutting the price may be to approach the broker who has the listing(hopefully that’s who you are already talking to) and negotiate their commission down buy about 35- 40%. If they won’t agree let them know you have another broker who will lend you their commission back to you. That way they would only get half the total commission.