I had a resident of seven years turn over the keys last week. The place looked awesome. Sure there were some minor scuff and scarps but you absolutely have to expect some normal wear and tear.

The resident is moving in with her B/F instead of buying my unit. This suits me fine. Based on the condition that it was turned over in coupled with the amount of equity she could have had, I am returning all her option money and most of her deposit (She did owe for four days hold over rent).

I sure wish all turn overs were this easy.

Curious why you took option money if only to return it? Isn't the whole point of the option that you gave up the rights to sell that property to anyone else for 7 years...?

I bought the place in 2015 for $42K. I sold her an option that year for 16 months. She was able to buy it for $99K but never elected to buy. The option money was only $4,500. If she turns over the keys and its worth over 170K now........why not return the option money.

Sure I could play hard ball with the resident. But why - I made more money from treating them respect. Do I think the resident made a mistake? Sure I do. This is in a low cost area and it started out renting at $865/months and now rents for $1,259. But with zero vacancy for seven years straight, top rents and limited maintenance calls - she earned the refund.

Ray-N-PA-

I like your thinking. Nothing wrong with giving back to a tenant who did everything right and has contributed to your success. I do this all the time and without fail it comes back to benefit me over and over again.

That being said, I don’t disagree with Sid or anyone else who aims to get as much as possible out of their investment either. This may allow them to be charitable in other ways, or they simply may not be in a place which allows them to be charitable at this point and time.

Just another example of different ways to do things.

I sold a house to a tenant for 20k below what it appraised at. He made my life easy for years and so I shared the increase in equity with him which was an increase of 165k to me, so I still made out.

He worked in landscaping and turned me on to two different clients of his who were selling. I bought directly from the owners. One house I bought for 87k which then sold 9 years laters for 355k. The other I bought for 110k and sold 5 years later for 220k.

Ken,

That’s a good practice for sure. But it doesn’t mean my experience of giving without the expectation of getting anything in return is not valid. It’s just been my experience when I’ve given without any expectations it seems to come back to me and then some. It certainly may not always be the case but so far it seems to be my experience. And like I said my approach isn’t necessarily the right approach for someone else. It may even be dumb, IDK.