Home buying freak out meets lease signing freak out
July 12, 2010 2:14 PM Subscribe
We're close to finding a house to buy, but our current landlord wants us to sign another six month lease. We're in MA--is there anything we can do?
She won't budge. How long does it generally take to close on a house? If we get the house we have in mind, we'd need to do about a month's worth of work on it before moving in. We might not go for this house. We might go for the next one -- we're still talking about it.
Our rent now is $1000 -- I would hate to buy a house next month and then have to pay thousands of dollars to this woman when we could be using that money for furniture or absolutely anything else.
We've lived in the place we're renting for about three years.
Is there anything we can do, and if not, can you offer some kind of perspective that might cheer me up?
We're in MA.
She won't budge. How long does it generally take to close on a house? If we get the house we have in mind, we'd need to do about a month's worth of work on it before moving in. We might not go for this house. We might go for the next one -- we're still talking about it.
Our rent now is $1000 -- I would hate to buy a house next month and then have to pay thousands of dollars to this woman when we could be using that money for furniture or absolutely anything else.
We've lived in the place we're renting for about three years.
Is there anything we can do, and if not, can you offer some kind of perspective that might cheer me up?
We're in MA.
Can you offer to pay a bit more to go month-to-month? That way you're not out six grand for six months, but she's getting something more for giving up the security of having a tenant for six months.
posted by ambrosia at 2:33 PM on July 12, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by ambrosia at 2:33 PM on July 12, 2010 [1 favorite]
Good luck. We had the almost exact same situation but with a 12 month lease and our landlord would not budge. We are now in the process of trying to find a subletter ourselves for the remaining 9 months on our lease. We have 18 days to get someone before we have to pay rent AND mortgage for the second month in a row. It sucks. Moving isn't really an option because where can you find an apartment that's month-to-month from day 1?
That said, if you just have a house "in mind" and not under contract, negotiations, inspection, and closing could easily take 1-2 months depending on your market and how motivated the seller is, plus the month you want to spend working on it (we did the same thing BTW, it's a great idea). And that's assuming you're not talking about a short sale. Which means it could only be 3 months left of your lease. Plus, mortgage is paid in arrears while rent is paid at the beginning of the month, so although you put down a bunch of cash at the closing table you don't pay your first mortgage payment until the following month.
If you have to sublet or find someone to replace you, take great pictures of the apartment when it's clean and sunny, post on craigslist and your local newspapers and stuff, and consider listing with an agency (which will cost one month's rent if they find someone but gets more eyes on the property.)
posted by misskaz at 2:47 PM on July 12, 2010
That said, if you just have a house "in mind" and not under contract, negotiations, inspection, and closing could easily take 1-2 months depending on your market and how motivated the seller is, plus the month you want to spend working on it (we did the same thing BTW, it's a great idea). And that's assuming you're not talking about a short sale. Which means it could only be 3 months left of your lease. Plus, mortgage is paid in arrears while rent is paid at the beginning of the month, so although you put down a bunch of cash at the closing table you don't pay your first mortgage payment until the following month.
If you have to sublet or find someone to replace you, take great pictures of the apartment when it's clean and sunny, post on craigslist and your local newspapers and stuff, and consider listing with an agency (which will cost one month's rent if they find someone but gets more eyes on the property.)
posted by misskaz at 2:47 PM on July 12, 2010
if she won't budge, there's nothing you can do. you can't force her to let you live there unless your lease already had a month to month provision (have you checked your lease? every place i've lived has a month to month at an extra charge).
i'd probably be tempted to put everything in storage and go to a pay by the week suite hotel. of course, that's all dependent on if you have kids and their ages...
posted by nadawi at 2:54 PM on July 12, 2010 [1 favorite]
i'd probably be tempted to put everything in storage and go to a pay by the week suite hotel. of course, that's all dependent on if you have kids and their ages...
posted by nadawi at 2:54 PM on July 12, 2010 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I'm confused by these responses here: barring being able to get your landlord to budge, I think you should re-up for another 6 months. Depending on a variety of factors, escrow could take a couple months. You need another month (at least) to work on the house. You still haven't put in an offer on the house you're interested in, and getting an acceptance on the offer might take a little time depending on how motivated the sellers are. They might not accept, you might have some back and forth, there're tons of factors at work here that could delay anything here. You might get the house inspected during escrow and discover massive problems that need a lot of time to be fixed. Heck, you might not even end up buying this house -- you might need more time to find a place. I say stay in your current place. I'd wager that you won't have a move-in date earlier than five months from today. If anything, it'll mean a leisurely move instead of a rushed job.
posted by incessant at 3:24 PM on July 12, 2010 [3 favorites]
posted by incessant at 3:24 PM on July 12, 2010 [3 favorites]
For what its worth, earlier this year, my wife and I put in an offer on our house and closed 17 days later. Admittedly, both we and the seller were motivated to move quickly.
Read your lease. What are the penalties for breaking it? A lawyer friend of mine likes to say that contracts are made to be broken.
posted by crunchland at 3:33 PM on July 12, 2010
Read your lease. What are the penalties for breaking it? A lawyer friend of mine likes to say that contracts are made to be broken.
posted by crunchland at 3:33 PM on July 12, 2010
Talk to your realtor. If they work for a company that has a rental department lots of times they will give you a special deal on a temporary rental till you can move in. They may have other ideas for you as well.
With those ideas in hand, renegotiate with your landlord for a month to month.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 3:43 PM on July 12, 2010
With those ideas in hand, renegotiate with your landlord for a month to month.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 3:43 PM on July 12, 2010
Oh, and my husband is a realtor. Here it usually takes at least a month to get to closing. I have found that typically closings happen near the end of a calendar month. It all depends on how quickly everyone can get the paperwork ducks in a row-and sometimes those ducks don't wanna line up quickly.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 3:46 PM on July 12, 2010
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 3:46 PM on July 12, 2010
Rent and break the lease and see if she thinks it's worth suing you over or just stop paying rent and hope that you'll be in the new house before eviction proceedings can be finished. It takes a while to evict someone. (Sure, it's a dick thing to do, but when push comes to shove and someone's being unreasonable, shove back.)
posted by Brian Puccio at 4:04 PM on July 12, 2010
posted by Brian Puccio at 4:04 PM on July 12, 2010
It sounds like you already don't like your landlord - and realize that, well, it's not your house (because your'e buying one). You've been living there for 3 years - I don't think that should be relevant to your decision. That's the past, and you've already decided you are buying.
If you told the landlord you're planning on buying and she's insisting on a longer term lease.... it's probably because she sees the money walking out the door any day.
If you are in a strong/secure position to buy, and will definitely be buying *something* within, say, the next 12 months, then I'd say go find new place to rent month-to-month anyway. It's a pain for you, but your landlord could likely make things a pain anyway between now and then, even if you re-sign the lease for 6 more months. And heck, while your'e at it, find a *cheap* place to rent, so you can save even more money to pimp out your house when you finally get it.
(You are concerned about a few thousand dollars in rent that you will most likely need to pay most of anyway..... you can save a few thousand dollars when buying / outfitting a house plenty of other ways.... perhaps you need to take a step back and put everything in perspective... this doesn't sound rational... )
posted by TravellingDen at 4:27 PM on July 12, 2010
If you told the landlord you're planning on buying and she's insisting on a longer term lease.... it's probably because she sees the money walking out the door any day.
If you are in a strong/secure position to buy, and will definitely be buying *something* within, say, the next 12 months, then I'd say go find new place to rent month-to-month anyway. It's a pain for you, but your landlord could likely make things a pain anyway between now and then, even if you re-sign the lease for 6 more months. And heck, while your'e at it, find a *cheap* place to rent, so you can save even more money to pimp out your house when you finally get it.
(You are concerned about a few thousand dollars in rent that you will most likely need to pay most of anyway..... you can save a few thousand dollars when buying / outfitting a house plenty of other ways.... perhaps you need to take a step back and put everything in perspective... this doesn't sound rational... )
posted by TravellingDen at 4:27 PM on July 12, 2010
I was in the same situation in MA last year - lease began in September, I got a signed offer back in October. When I told my landlord I was breaking my lease, he pointed out that I was liable for 6 months or had to find a replacement. I found a replacement, she fell through, and then because we'd been Very Civil throughout (and the location always filled fast) my landlord offered to do the work with the placement folks himself for one month's rent. Best month's rent I ever spent, but the fact of the matter was that the rental folks had someone in there less than a month, so I could've done it myself, too.
It took 2 months + from my offer to closing, so yeah, you'd probably have time find someone to take over your lease. So I'd say sign for another 6 months unless your landlady is making your life miserable.
posted by ldthomps at 5:11 PM on July 12, 2010
It took 2 months + from my offer to closing, so yeah, you'd probably have time find someone to take over your lease. So I'd say sign for another 6 months unless your landlady is making your life miserable.
posted by ldthomps at 5:11 PM on July 12, 2010
What state are you living in?
Many states have a long list of some what grey-area conditions under which a house may be deemed "uninhabitable" and the lease automatically broken after the landlord is notified of the condition and fails to fix it.
For example in CA when I faced you're exact situation I broke the lease with a formal letter that described unanswered complaints about insufficient hot water (subjective) and fumes from neighbors dog (this was a legitimate issue in my case, but would have been very hard to prove.) Anything on the following list (or your state's equivalent) apply to this situation?
http://www.dca.ca.gov/publications/landlordbook/problems.shtml
http://www.caltenantlaw.com/HabChecklist.htm
posted by oblio_one at 5:16 PM on July 12, 2010
Many states have a long list of some what grey-area conditions under which a house may be deemed "uninhabitable" and the lease automatically broken after the landlord is notified of the condition and fails to fix it.
For example in CA when I faced you're exact situation I broke the lease with a formal letter that described unanswered complaints about insufficient hot water (subjective) and fumes from neighbors dog (this was a legitimate issue in my case, but would have been very hard to prove.) Anything on the following list (or your state's equivalent) apply to this situation?
http://www.dca.ca.gov/publications/landlordbook/problems.shtml
http://www.caltenantlaw.com/HabChecklist.htm
posted by oblio_one at 5:16 PM on July 12, 2010
It seems like you have a very low rent and a chance for a half year lease. I would resist the suggestions to screw your landlord by either signing a lease with intent to break it or by finding 'uninhabitable' issues that haven't been an issue until you want to break the lease. Why start your life in your new home with bad karma.
posted by InkaLomax at 5:36 PM on July 12, 2010
posted by InkaLomax at 5:36 PM on July 12, 2010
You should be excited you got a landlord to offer you a 6 month lease - I've always lived in cities where 1 year was the minimum anyone ever offered. Please don't make life harder for the rest of us renters by being a jerk and trying to pull some stunt like staying there without a lease and forcing the landlord to start eviction proceedings...
posted by mrgoldenbrown at 6:31 PM on July 12, 2010
posted by mrgoldenbrown at 6:31 PM on July 12, 2010
IANAL. Check your current agreement for a "Tennant at Will" provision and see if you can stay based on that.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 7:37 PM on July 12, 2010
posted by ZenMasterThis at 7:37 PM on July 12, 2010
Response by poster: Incessant's right, given the foot dragging across the board it will probably be okay between the slowness of the process, the work that needs to be done before moving in and the WTF of paying her a few thousand dollars -- whatever. I don't like it, but there's not a lot we can do.
No, I don't like her, but I really did try to keep it out of the post. This is what she said to Mr. Llama during one memorable conversation: "Watch your tone of voice. I'm the vice president of operations at hospital X."
We're awesome tenants -- quiet, clean, respectful of the property, rent always paid before the first, and we've literally never asked her to fix anything -- we've done everything ourselves for three years because she's so unpleasant. I now know how to fix a washing machine, which might come in handy sometime.
As far as moving -- not realistic: toddler, cat, dog, short notice, demanding jobs.
Anyway, thanks everyone. I'm at peace with it. When I posted though I felt like maybe it would give me a tumor.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 4:35 AM on July 13, 2010
No, I don't like her, but I really did try to keep it out of the post. This is what she said to Mr. Llama during one memorable conversation: "Watch your tone of voice. I'm the vice president of operations at hospital X."
We're awesome tenants -- quiet, clean, respectful of the property, rent always paid before the first, and we've literally never asked her to fix anything -- we've done everything ourselves for three years because she's so unpleasant. I now know how to fix a washing machine, which might come in handy sometime.
As far as moving -- not realistic: toddler, cat, dog, short notice, demanding jobs.
Anyway, thanks everyone. I'm at peace with it. When I posted though I felt like maybe it would give me a tumor.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 4:35 AM on July 13, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
Be willing to sign something saying you will give one month notice. Or even be willing to give 2 months notice
You need to be prepared to move if the landlord continues to be a fool.
But point out that she could have a few more months a good tenants, and lots of extra time to find a new tenant - or she could be out a tenant right now.
posted by Flood at 2:22 PM on July 12, 2010