Cash for keys – How Much should you get?

Hello welcome to Todd Miller TV. Today’s topic is Cash for Keys. I get a lot of questions about this form people. What’s the reasonable amount? So, wanna go over some cash for keys scenarios with what’s reasonable. You’re probably wondering, isn’t there a set amount that I should get? And the answer is “No!” For example, if you live in a luxury home. So if you live in a home that’s whether your a previous owner tenant, if you live in a luxury home that’s a million dollar home, you are likely to get money than if you live in a really small house. It’s/and the reason for that is is because the reason that a lot of people will do cash for keys is ’cause they wanna ensure you move out, don’t vandalize, or take thing. We had a house that was a high-end home and they took probably $30,000 worth of stuff out of the house. I mean they took all the appliances, they took landscaping, they took like everything and; So cash for keys financial incentive not to do that. Biggest check I ever sa was 10 grand ($10,000). And that was for a million dollar plus home. Seen little cash for keys checks, $500 I think is the smallest one I’ve ever seen. Okay now, that being said, it also depends on the bank. For example, this morning I got a Cash for keys on a house that was about $4,700. Well, that bank has a policy kinda Nationally the way they do Cash for Keys. They go based on like a percentage of what they think the house is worth, something like that. That’s a lot of money for Cash for keys. That are other banks, $2,000 is the max. You get $2,000, doesn’t matter the value of the house. $2,000 if you move out within a certain amount of time, if not it’s starts going down on a schedule. So if you say, “I can’t move out in 40 days, I need 52 days” they do some Math and say “Okay, instead of $2,000 you’re gonna get $1,287.” And you take it or leave it, right? The other thing to keep in mind and just be careful about this, So let’s say someone comes in and knocks, and we have/this was a situation, imagine this, you’re in your house and the house is actually bought in the Trustee Sale. It’s not actually bought by the bank. It’s bought by Trustee Sale. And/but the bank thinks that they got it. Sometimes it happens. Sometimes it goes what,it goes to an investor, but the bank sends a Real Estate agent out to the house. Agent knocks on the door, offers cash for keys to the person, and let’s say they say they’ll give them $5,000. And the people say “We”, we’ll think about it or whatever” they sign the agreement. Well then the investor who actually owns the house, comes and knocks on the door and says ” I’ll give you $1,000 to move out” and they go “I’ve already signed the agreement for $5,000 to move out from the bank.” Well there’s a problem there because it’s not a valid agreement because the bank doesn’t own the house. They can offer you money to move out but at some point they’re gonna figure out they don’t own it. They’re gonna cancel that deal. The problem is you now have this hopes of getting $5,000. You’ve probably have gone to an attorney and the attorneys told you “That’s the going rate for, you know 3 to 5 grand, that’s the going rate for a cash for keys.” Well for an investor it’s not. Investors aren’t gonna pay that much, the reason why is they do an eviction pretty cheap. They can run an eviction for about 5 or 6 hundred bucks. For them, They’d rather save a couple hundred bucks than give you a few thousand. So what they’re gonna do is they’re just gonna do an eviction and have you removed form the house. They’re all about the bottomline so then you’re saying “Yeah, but what about if they’ve/I’ve trashed the house?” Well they have insurance on the house. You know, investor buys the house, they put insurance on. If you trash and move out, they’re just gonna go to the insurance company and say “Hey they trashed the house when they moved out.” The other problem you’ll have is the bank may not do this, but the investor ’cause they know who you are is likely to file criminal charges against you ’cause it is a felony in Nevada to knowingly damage a house that has been foreclosed or is being foreclosed and if you’re the occupant or you’re doing it with the intent of depriving the new owner of the value of the home, it is a felony in Nevada to do that. So the investor who is/who cares about the property a lot, and is going to/they’re probably gonna go down and say “this was the person, they’ve lived there, this is what happened, and it’s a felony, they’ve vandalized my house.” So if you wanna risk that, go for it. But, so, just keep that in mind that with cash for keys you know, you can talk to an attorney all you want, Attorneys don’t do cash for keys for the most part, they don’t/a lot of them don’t have practical knowledge, the people who know and have done this are the Real Estate agents. We’ve done hundreds of them, we’ve sold over 2,000 REO in the last 4 years so we’ve clearly done a lot of cash for keys and we know what the reasonable ranges are for bank or for an investor. So, just keep that in mind if you’re watching this ’cause you’re an agent, you’re trying to advice a client, or you’re just somebody out there who’s saying “hey, how much should I get for cash for keys?” It is negotiable to appoint but like I said, there’s some bank that’s 2 grand, that’s all they offer. They won’t, that’s their policy they won’t/they’ll never exceed that and some will go more but for the most part is, you have to make a decision at some point. Either take what’s offered, reasonable amount or that you wait for an eviction. And some people choose to do that. That’s fine too. Anyway, I want to share that with you since there’s a lot of misconception out there about what the reasonable amount for cash for keys that you should be accepting or be looking at. One last thing, the cash for keys is paid to each adult occupant. So let’s say that you live in a house and you rent out 2 of the rooms to tenants. Now technically, those tenants that the bank is gonna split that into 3rd. So let’s say they offer $2,000. What they’re gonna do is they’re roughly gonna take 660 each, 660/670 each and give it/they’re gonna say “who are the all the occupants?” So they’re not gonna give 2,000 each person, they’re gonna split the amount evenly. So that’s how it works if you have multiple people. If you have a 4plex, it’s different. So say you have a 4plex so it’s 4 units. And it’s one building. They’re not gonna offer $2,000 for the whole unit. They consider each like unit A. That’s a unit so that unit will get 2 grand. Unit B. That’s a unit so that unit will get 2 grand. So it depend on the type of property that it is. A single family residences and condos, that gonna be the limit. Anything that’s individual unit gets typically is eligible for that amount. That is my update and hope to see you on another video. Thanks.