Charlotte Property Management | Charlotte and Winston Salem Property Management

Lake Norman Property Management Advice

Recent nightmare in the Charlotte NC area. Thankfully Carolina Living Property Management was not involved!

Sheriff shows up at tenant/purchaser door.

Sheriff John: “Ms. Smith I am here to serve you papers to vacate the property within 48 hours.”
Ms. Smith:“Sheriff John”, there must be some mistake, I am paying $1500 a month every month and on time”
Sheriff John: “Ms Smith, I got notice from the bank that this home is going into foreclosure and you must vacate”
Ms. Smith:“But Sheriff John, I am paying 1100 for rent and 400 is being applied to my down payment when we close the sale”
Sheriff John: “Ms. Smith, I don’t know who you are writing your check to but the homeowner has not made a mortgage payment in months”
Ms Smith:“Sheriff John, What do I do”
Sheriff John: “Do you have an attorney?”

At Carolina Living Property Management, we not only manage your assets, we try to advise our clients in a way that we ensure a great worry-free relationship.

So back to the nightmare. What do we recommend to our clients in the Charlotte and Lake Norman areas?

First,make sure if a lease purchase is the way you want to take the transaction, you must make sure an attorney writes up the contractual agreement. We do not have standard real estate forms to handle this scenario.

Second: If you are the purchaser, make sure any monies you pay towards the purchase are held in an agents trust account or the attorney trust account. Best case scenario is that you actually send the check to the attorney and he/she handles the funds (paying the mortgage directly or paying the homeowner, withholding the portion going to the purchase and keeping it in their trust account). If you are the seller, make your mortgage payments in good faith or communicate you are in trouble. Offer to have an attorney handle the funds and this will go a long way towards making the home and transaction appealing.

Lastly: Unless the lease purchase is the only way to get your home sold or to purchase the home, just rent it and save the funds in another way.

Here is a question to ask yourself (both buyer and seller). How does a drop or increase in the home value affect the purchase agreement? We can help with this and other issues with this type of transaction!