How to Purchase a Currently Rented Property

So you finally found the perfect property that a tired landlord wants to sell. You have to wonder why they trying to sell. Do they want to upgrade their property with a 1031 exchange, have all the money they need selling you a ready made money machine, or has the tenant taken control and is now driving them nuts?

You are going to want to get copies of existing leases, statements of security deposits, move-in inspection reports, rent rolls for the last year, tenant contact information, tenant applications, expenses for the last year and any warranty information for warranties in place. Some buyers even go to the extent of getting statements from each tenant as to their interpretation of their obligations under the current lease. To do the latter, you will need the seller's permission to contact the tenants and they may not want them to know the property is selling.

Once you determine the situation and if you still feel good about going forward you then need to consider a few things. What you do next will make all the difference in the world in your cash flow going forward. If the house is rented, after reviewing the existing lease, you will want to include language in the purchase agreement about receiving current months rent and security deposit at the closing. We make the leases attachments to the purchase agreement.

We like to close on the fifth of the month, and request the seller to pay us the full monthly rent at closing. It then leaves the issue of rent collection to the seller if the tenant is late with their current months rent. It also minimizes the amount we have to come up with at closing.

The rent roll will give you payment history so you will know up front which tenants pay on time and which are habitually late. For the ones with the bad habit, you will know to take immediate action when they are late with their payment so they will know you mean business.

Last years expenses will include payments made to service providers. The list may reveal that you have to pay certain utilities such as water & sewer of trash pick up and this information may not have been mentioned by the seller in the negotiations. The last thing you want at the purchase is the seller canceling a service and the tenant being without water or trash pick up.

You will need to send a letter of notification to the tenant of the change of property management, the date of change, where to send future payments, who to call with maintenance issues and the bank account number where their security deposit is now being held. You can use this occasion to reemphasize your expectations of the tenant's performance under the existing leases.

Use the transition of property manager to meet with the existing tenants and find out if anything is in need of repair. This goes a long way toward good will, and it gets you into the property to do a quick inspection.

Handle the transition in a businesslike manor; remember now you are in the property management business.