Are you a landlord and looking at selling your home with a tenant in {market_city} or Dane County? If you have a 1-4 unit property and have tenants currently residing in your property, it can be a difficult task to sell with these tenants, especially if they’re problem tenants. If you have finally reached your breaking point and want to sell your home without having to evict or deal with legal battles with your tenants, here’s a couple of tips, tricks, and solutions that can help you.
While selling a Madison house with a tenant isn’t always the ideal situation, consider how it will affect them before making any bold decisions. If you need to sell your house with a tenant, it can be done when handled properly. Below, we share some tips on selling your 1-4 unit property with the tenants still in place.
Lease Expiration
Obviously, you want to know how long before the lease expires. This will be important information for you as you proceed through the process, whether selling your home yourself or selling with a real estate agent. Take a look at how much longer your tenant has on their lease. If it is a relatively short time, and you can wait a couple of months before selling, it might be in your best interest to do so. Actually, you probably want to interject before the lease even expires. Give the tenant a heads up about your plans. This will help you in the end by not only being upfront with them and giving them a lot of notice but will also help you because you will see their reaction. You can, therefore, know just what you’re going to be dealing with when it comes time for them to move on. If they are accommodating to the sale process, you can even let them rent month to month while the property is being shown. If you have the forethought to do so, you can make this part easier by including an early termination clause in the lease, allowing you to terminate the lease if certain conditions exist.
Think About The Tenant
Do you think they will be willing to help you or do you think they will be upset about the impending sale? If you believe they won’t be agreeable with your listing, it might be in your best interest to wait until the lease is up or work with a direct buyer in order to sell without drawing attention to the matter. Only you know your relationship with your tenant and how they will possibly react. As stated earlier, it’s even better to have this discussion earlier in the process.
Use The Showings To Your Advantage
If you have to sell, and you decide to list and use an agent, make it worth their while to help you out. You can offer reduced rent for the inconvenience or help with their future move.
If the tenants are on your side, your much more likely to find a buyer in a timely manner. A great tenant will help keep things clean and be flexible about showings. By continuing to make money while the property is listed, you’ll be able to avoid losing too much on the sale of the home. If on the other hand, they are not happy about having to move, they can end up causing hassles with showings. Disgruntled tenants may leave a messy house when people are coming to see it, quickly making people want to turn the other way. They can also potentially sabotage you by talking to potential buyers. Letting them know about all the bad things they will need to watch out for. If you feel your tenant falls into this category, you need to do better background checks, and it might be in your best interest to sell the property once the tenant has vacated.
While ideally, your house will be empty when trying to sell it, if you do have a renter living there, you will want to make them happy and comfortable with the process. Be considerate and accommodating from beginning to end. Nobody wants to feel uncertainty about the place they are living in. Put yourself in their shoes before making the decision to sell while an active lease is in place.
What About A Direct Buyer?
Selling your house to a direct buyer such as Wisconsin House Buyers, LLC can make the process easier on everyone. Make sure that selling in this manner doesn’t violate your lease in any way. You’ll also want to try to find a buyer who isn’t going to have a problem honoring the current lease. Many investors will love having a trustworthy tenant already in place. This ultimately saves them time and money in trying to find and screen tenants on their own. Working with a direct buyer is one of the best ways to sell your home with a tenant in Madison.
Whenever possible, you will want to try to work with your tenants as best as possible. They can help you sell the house if you decide to list it. Always keep your tenant in the loop as far as when the home will be shown, how much notice you’ll provide, and what condition you expect the property to be in. Who knows, they may even be able to recommend a buyer or maybe they will want to buy the home themselves! Having open and honest communication will help you sell your home with a tenant in Madison.