I leared a lot here on this site but I found out by looking at foreclosure dot com about one a week, even you don’t join they list the name of the owner and the street name on the preforeclosures but not the street numbers, unless your landlord owns more than one house on the street you can figure it out. I actually knew before, they had to tell me because they wanted to list it as a short sale and having the place shown to buyers is not required so they usually have to make some concession or reduce the rent, some renters stop paying when they find out, that is a personal decision. On the advice of some people on this site, I just told them that I would use the deposit and some repairs that they didn’t pay for as rent time, figured out when my money already given to them ran out and told them I would be leaving on that day, they broke the lease by needing to show it and by not paying the mortgage. We negotiated an additional month beyond that at a discount, the discount covered my moving expenses and utility switch so it was a wash. I could have stayed another two months because it took that long to foreclose but didn’t want to move on short notice so I was gone before there were any knocks on the door. Rents went down a tad at the time so I ended up in a nicer place for the same money. I was tempted to just buy ahead of my own schedule but I didn’t because of the people on this site and just dealt with the move which wasn’t that bad. I’m glad I waited, in just the six months since deciding, priced have declined 50-100k accross the board, so if you look at it that way, you are making 10k a month at least in falling prices, it takes the sting out of the move.
I’ve never heard of any contractual item from a landlord but in todays market it would be a good marketing strategy for them to offer it.
