Another why not-- you've just signed a tennancy lease. If they don't voluntarily leave on the assigned date, you need to run eviction proceedings.

where do you start? what grounds for evicition? Unpaid rent? You've already agreed that rent is zero...

Why would a REIT/Private Equity not care about this? Because their goal is to rent the property in any case. Professional landlords already have this in their risk models.

> what grounds for evicition?

Trespass; at the expiration of the lease period, without an agreement (which can be inferred from acceptance of rent after the expiration, so don't do that) the tenants become trespassers.

> Unpaid rent?

That or other lease violations are typically only needed as the basis when the tenant has a current rental agreement. (Either in writing or inferred from acceptance of rent by the landlord.)

But, yes, the potential of having to deal with the process isn't something that should be ignored (nor are all the positive obligations on landlords.)

Why not pay thousands of dollars to let someone else live in your house for free? Is that a serious question?

The idea of rent-free occupancy wasn't even a thing two years ago. It's just sellers taking advantage of the current market where a lot of the buyers have no intention of living in the house and so a few months of rent-free occupancy make absolutely no difference as long as they get to buy the house.

"for free"

No, for a house. If I'm spending $600,000-$700,000 on a house, paying $600,000 + three months rent is still on the lower end of that range. It's just a different structure, not more money.

Because you are now paying double "rent".

Sure, but a month's rent is something like 0.5% of the cost of a house. If they simply offered 1.5% more for the house to get the one they wanted would anyone say "No person actually looking for a place to live would do that"?

$10k on the base offer or $10k in "free rent" is $10k either way.

The difference is that if they increased the price by $10K, you can get the loan to pay them, and you amortize that payment over 30 years. Many people are financially stressed enough to pay the downpayment - essentially you are saying the downpayment should go up by $10K. They may not have that $10K.

Yes, this is a very material difference to a lot of people, but the original claim was that it's something that only a speculator would do. I'm saying that as a person looking to buy and move into a house, this is 100% something I'd be happy to do.

Where I am, I'm seriously considering down payments in the hundreds of thousands. Should houses be that expensive? No, I personally believe we should build so much housing that it tanks the market. But the reality for people trying to buy a house here (Austin TX), +$10k to the down payment is insignificant compared to the price variation between home A and home B.