Buying & Selling
       Income Property

      Although the basics of income property transactions are similar to buying or selling a personal residence, in general,  buying and selling income property is significantly more complex and decisions require additional and different considerations.

A Certificate of Course Completion is now available for this Course.

      This e-course is designed to provide a general education in the purchase and sale of income producing real estate. However, we recommend that you complete the Valuing Income Property e-course before starting this course.  The Valuing course will help you understand some of the real estate investment concepts and related discussions in this course. Although the Valuing course is not a prerequisite to this course, understanding a property's value as an investment vehicle is critical and the Valuing course should be completed and well understood before actually buying or selling an investment property.

      This Buying and Selling Income Property e-course will take you step-by-step through the subject of buying and selling income property, including how to select a property, analyze it for profit potential, write a purchase contract, perform detailed analysis and inspection, manage it, and eventually sell it.  A pre-course quiz will test your existing knowledge of the subject and a final quiz will allow you to see how much you learned.  You may repeat all or parts of the course as many times as desired.  Some of the issues covered in this course are covered from a different aspect or in more detail in various Web pages throughout the CSES family of Webs as well as in other e-courses.
      Finally, this course includes a lot of detail so as to cover even unique and/or complex transactions.  Certain issues will not be of equal concern in all transactions, or in some cases will be of no concern at all.  If you understand the reasoning behind each issue, you should be able to judge if and to what degree an issue should be of concern in a particular transaction.

Introduction & Overview

• Pretest Your Knowledge

• Complete or review the Valuing Income Property e-course

• For definitions of terms used that may be unfamiliar, utilize either the public glossary or the more comprehensive searchable members-only glossary.

Lesson 1 - Investment Goals

• Cash flow

• Resale for quick profit

• Tax shelter

• Long term appreciation

Lesson 2 - Using An Agent

• Why Use an Agent

  • Expertise

  • Access to Market

• How to Select an Agent

• How to Use the Agent

Lesson 3 - Sources of Properties

• Print advertising

• Signs

• Real estate agents

• Internet

• By owner

• Special sources

  • Foreclosures

  • Lender owned

  • Tax sales

  • Bankruptcy sales

  • Other auctions

• From a builder

• Build it yourself

Lesson 4 - Property Selection

• Property Type

  • Commercial vs. Residential

  • Few Large vs. Many Small

• Location, Location, Location

  • Neighborhood

  • Government

• Timing

• Age 

• Condition

• Price

  • What can you afford

  • Cost vs. value

• Tax Ramifications

Lesson 5 - Pre-Offer Property Analysis

• Legal Issues
• Financial Analysis
• Physical Inspections
• Environmental Concerns
• Strategy

Lesson 6 - Writing the Offer

• General
• Contract forms
• Price

  • Fine-tuning the initial analysis

  • What will it take to make a deal

• Contingencies

  •  General

  • Financing

  • Legal issues

  • Licensing & permits

  • Title report & title insurance

  • Financial Records

  • Lease documents

  • Insurance

  • Physical inspections & reports

  • Survey

  • Environmental Issues

  • Estoppel Certificates

  • Tenants

• Escrow Length

  • What do you want

  • What does seller want

  • What's realistic & necessary

• Escrow Period Restrictions on Seller

• Final check

 Lesson 7 - Post-Acceptance Analysis & Inspections

• Legal Issues

  • Title report

  • Zoning

  • Building codes

  • Licenses & permits

• Documentation from seller

  • Financial records

    • What to get

    • How to analyze

  • Leases

    • What's there

    • What's not there

  • Lead-Based Paint Disclosure for buyer

  • Estoppel Certificates

  • Other tenant & property information

• Physical Inspections

  • General

  • Roof

  • Heating/cooling systems

  • Pest

• Environmental

  • Soil & ground water contamination

  • Lead

  • Asbestos

  • Radon

Lesson 8 - Financing the Property

• General

• Types of loans

• Sources of loans

• Finding the down payment

• Using investors

• What lenders need

Lesson 9 - Closing Escrow

• Vesting

• Pre-Closing 

  • Estoppel Certificates

  • Preview loan documents

  • Insurance

  • Pre-closing statement

  • Execute documents

• Transfer/Initiate services

  • Licenses & permits

  • Utilities

  • Maintenance

  • Meet tenants

  • Other

• After Closing

 Lesson 10 - Managing the Property

• Using a property manager
• Accounting

• Maintenance

• Laws

• Health & safety

• Forms & agreements

• Filling vacancies

  • Advertising

  • Screening & selecting

  • Keeping good tenants

• Deposits & rents

• Evictions & collections

 Lesson 11 - Disposing of Property

• Why do it

• When to do it

• How to do

  • Gift

  • Sale

  • Exchange

• Marketing

• Counter offers

• Contingencies

• Escrow

• Tenant notification
• Contingency cooperation
• Closing escrow
• Transfers & terminations

Lesson 12 - Taxation of Income Property

• Rules of special interest
• Estate taxes
• Preparing & filing returns

Addendum - Lease Option

Summary & Conclusions

Final Quiz

Pre-Course Quiz

Introduction
Lesson 1
Lesson 2
Lesson 3
Lesson 4
Lesson 5
Lesson 6
Lesson 7
Lesson 8
Lesson 9
Lesson 10
Lesson 11
Lesson 12

Summary

Final Exam