Did My Realtors Lie to Me??
First IndicatorI closed on my property during the first week of February. When I arrived at the closing my realtor handed me a slip of paper with contact information for a potential tenant. I was immediately worried; was one of the tenants moving??
My realtor said no, they just periodically got calls about it and the soon-to-be former owner wanted to pass the lead along to me. OK...I saw the seller's agent come out (who I had met before), and I asked him as well if any tenant was planning on moving. As he ran out the door he said "No, tenant B's been grumbling about moving, but that's not likely. She's lived there for 20 years after all. Bye!" OK...Second IndicatorEarlier this week my realtor forwarded me an email from the previous owner with yet another tenant lead. What the heck? Do they know something I don't? Keep in mind that DAYS before the closing Tenant B signed a lease agreement to satisfy my lender (she didn't have a written lease before that).
In it she pledged to stay for 12 months and pay month to month. If she/the agent/the owner knew she was planning to move and had her sign a lease anyway then that's obviously unethical at best.Really Starting to WorryRent from said tenant is due 2/15 and is late on 2/20 (today). So today I drove (flew) up there to give her a very formal, simple notice that her rent is late and requesting immediate payment. And to peek in the windows and make sure it looks occupied. I was already starting to put the pieces together and freak out a little.
Maybe It'll Be OK?Well, she had some mail in the mailbox, though I couldn't see through any windows. I did talk to the other tenant who said he's been seeing her every day except for the last couple. Then he mentioned that her live in boyfriend had moved out 3 weeks earlier. "She might have moved out too," he shrugged. I thanked him and left, feeling slightly better.
If she'd been there recently then she surely got my letter and knew where to send the rent. And unless she moved out YESTERDAY then she obviously still lived there...Wrong!
But I still wasn't settled, so I emailed the previous owner and politely explained the situation and asked if she had any other contact info for tenant B. She assured me that "that number" (to the adult entertainment hotline; see previous post) was correct and that the tenant would probably call me back. Then she said "She did tell me that she was moving back to Arkansas and would be out by February 15th. I thought [the realtor] would tell you this. He said it would probably work well for you as you wanted to go in and do some of the repairs."EXCUSE ME?!?! So I promptly forwarded the message to my realtor with the following message:
"What the hell? I can't believe you guys didn't tell me this. I knew it was fishy that you were passing along potential tenant contact info to me even before the closing. I specifically asked [the seller's agent] at the closing if any tenant was planning on moving, and he said no right to my face. Specifically I remember him saying "Oh, the lady in unit B's been grumbling about moving eventually, but that's not likely. She's lived there for 20 years, after all." This is absolutely unbelievable. And I know she was planning the move WELL before the closing, because Tenant A told me so today, and said the boyfriend went ahead and moved 3 weeks ago.
I can't believe this."Ok, so I was freaking out a little. He called me immediately and insisted that he didn't know anything about this. He went on about his morals and ethics and how he values helping his customers and would never withhold information. He said he'd emailed the seller's agent and instructed him to give me a full explanation of the timeline and where the break in communication happened. He suggested that the other agent hadn't known for sure if the tenant was moving or had found out after closing.
He said he felt bad about the situation, though, and offered to give me all kinds of advice on how to lease it out quickly, get referrals for needed repairs, and minimize my expenses. I was glad he was talking so much because I was crying a little and didn't want my voice to shake on the phone.So now there's nothing to be done, really. It's not as if I can or would sue them or fraud, even if they were lying.
I just have to immediately make the slew of repairs and upgrades needed on that unit and rent it out (which will cost thousands and thousands of dollars, and now I have to do them all at once). I called the adult entertainer/tenant back and requested that she give me a call.
Told her if I didn't hear from her within a day or two I was going to have to change the locks. She's probably back in Arkansas by now though. UPDATE: The tenant in question just called me back. She's been planning to move since before Christmas and told the previous owner so at that time. Which very coincidentally happens to be when that owner listed the property for sale.
Both women seem very sincere and genuine (previous owner and tenant), and I have no doubt the seller's agent knew about the situation. At the very least it would have been mentioned once my lender requested a signed lease from the tenant. She'd never had a lease, so they drew one up. They dated it February 2007, not 2008. I didn't even catch it, and neither did my lender. What kind of lease would appease a lender that expires one week after the closing?
