The seller tried for years to refinance his property. However, his loan was sold to a loan servicing company. He was led to believe he can get his loan modified. The loan mod person told him to get a one-year lease from his tenants who were at that time on month-to-month. Big mistake!
The servicing company later informed the seller that his application for a loan modification was denied, and that the only option left for him is to do a short sale or deed in lieu of foreclosure. And worse, he was served with a Notice of Trustee Sale!
Tenant with a one-year lease.
Trying to sell a short sale with a tenant is difficult enough. Without the proper motivation, tenants can make it impossible to sell a property: they can be uncooperative (See Tenants from hell caused a short sale to be foreclosed)
Naturally, they weren't happy about having their residence sold from under them, especially since they have such a sweetheart deal in terms of paying a relatively low rent for a house. They made it challenging to show the property.
Can we talk?
The first thing I did was to talk with the tenants to test the temperature. Will they cooperate? Will they let us show the property? Will they keep it presentable during showings? Will they leave and give people a chance to view the property privately?
Listening to them and learning that they fled San Francisco in search of a low-key but nearby community and discovering Alameda CA which they love, I knew they wanted to stay in this town.
So I asked them....would they consider buying the house?
AHA!
They haven't thought about it....but since I brought up the subject, it got them thinking. They're both in fairly stable jobs. The husband just had his book published. They want to stay in the house. What they pay in rent for a comparable house will be nearly as much as what they would pay for a monthly mortgage.
Several emails and several links to my homebuying blogs, they called me. Time for a serious conversation.
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