Pre-lease While Under Contract With Seller (Looking For Advice)
I have a 50-unit apartment building under contract that is scheduled to receive Certificate of Occupancy at the end of January. I would like to start the marketing and leasing campaigns now with the expectation that I could start getting tenants signed up in January. This will give me a head start on lease up and trim down the vacant time.

How could I legally do this as a buyer? Do I need any special agreement or arrangement with the seller?
[{"id": "hlq7gtb", "text": "It should be spelled out in the PSA. The seller should absolutely be pre-leasing the building; honestly marketing / leasing should have started in October. Not sure where you are but January is a tough leasing month (but better than November / December). The PSA should have them leasing to the guidelines you specified in the contract once your money went hard - any deviation would be a breach of PSA. \n\nThat said if they aren\u2019t doing anything you should approach them to amend the PSA and have them start doing it; it\u2019s not really your expense to incur until you have the keys. \n\nGood luck!", "replies": [{"id": "hlrksj3", "text": "They are doing nothing at all about lease up. They just want to finish and hand me the keys.", "replies": [{"id": "hlsdh36", "text": "Yea dude you should\u2019ve had that in your contract, they should be leasing at their expense. If you\u2019re hard you need to get in front of them to beg them to start leasing this thing or have you do it at their cost till you close; if you don\u2019t close due to some default on their end you get protected and if you do close just net your leasing expense against the closing costs. They might choke on that, who knows, but it was a big miss in the PSA to not have them start leasing this thing", "replies": [{"id": "hlsi6mz", "text": "Not familiar with MF, but curious.  Why would the seller be responsible for lease up at sellers cost? It sounded like OP is just buying new construction. I would have thought it would be buyers expense if he\u2019s getting the benefit of the income, which it sounds like he would.", "replies": [{"id": "hlsu52y", "text": "Assuming that OP is buying this for some amount above the builder's basis, there should be embedded value in the fact that units have some level of leasing activity. It's kind of atypical to buy a deal at c of o to begin with, usually there's some level of leasing first to prove up value / proof of concept, and also helps tremendously with financing to already have some cash flow in place. No idea what this guy is getting for rate on his loan but imagine its going to be a lot more than what it would be (with hefty interest reserve) with no one in place. It's kind of a raw deal for OP that he's paying XXX above what these guys built it for with them not having done anything on pre-leasing or marketing. \n\nAnyways, you'd expect to have something in the contract about them starting marketing (or alowing OP to market once he's hard) so that you're not turning over a deal with a ton of expense burn. At least he's buying it close to the start of the busy season and not closing in like October.", "replies": [{"id": "hlt02ib", "text": "Ok, makes sense if that is what OP bought into.", "replies": [{"id": "hlz0yzb", "text": "This exactly.", "replies": [], "depth": 7}], "depth": 6}], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hlqfcjt", "text": "You should\u2019ve been pre-leasing already", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hlrjlqp", "text": "You are behind in the game, but you should reach out to the seller to get them to hire you as interim property manager (for negligible or no pay) with a term that lines up with your closing date. They can replace you if you don\u2019t close. \n\nIf your pre hard money, they should let you. If you already have hard money, beg them. They still should let you but that\u2019s a detail you should\u2019ve worked out in the PSA.", "replies": [{"id": "hlrkn1m", "text": "Lesson learned. Thanks for the feedback! Should the lessor be my PM firm, the Seller, or both?", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}]