Back in the day when things used to be civil, you could sell a home that was occupied by a tenant.
But in today’s environment, it is better to wait until they vacate, and then put the house on the market. Here’s why:
- The elevated urgency of today’s market causes a whirlwind of activity during the first week. A rash of showing requests and realtors stopping by without appointments shuts down any tenant cooperation quickly.
- Then the tenants start looking around for a replacement home, and realize how hard and how expensive the next move will be. They are mad, and want to blame the sellers.
- By the time they leave, the condition of the home isn’t what it could have been either, if they had left happily.
Staging is a critical component too, and unhappy tenants aren’t going to leave the home in great condition for the few showings that do take place.
Fewer or lower-quality showings means fewer offers, which isn’t good for the seller.
Our policy today is to vacate the property first, make it look spectacular, and then put it on the open market.
Another great post, Jim! When we were home shopping, we looked at a few that were tenant-occupied. In one, the occupants didn’t even know we were coming – awwwwkward. In another, there was a “nice” big dog waiting to welcome us in. And one we could actually get in to see was not very well kept, to say the least.
So yes, home sellers, listen to Jim!
An evil tenant can stretch a 60 day notice to move into at least 6 months, and with skilled community organizers helping him/her, they can make it a year before you get ’em out. Community organizers can allow unethical idiots to “rent a brain.” And they do.
Another tactic a tenant can initiate is filing for a restraining order against the landlord or on site manager when no personal interaction has transpired. They can make up what they like, submit for a restraining order, and get it.
This means you, or your manager, can’t go near your own property until the restraining order is removed. Once a restraining order is removed, the tenant can walk downstairs from the courtroom issuing the removal, walk into the sheriff’s office, and reinstate the restraining order.
Over and over again.
Even when you finally get the okay to evict, and they’re out of the place, if all their stuff isn’t out of the house, a judge can issue an “emergency order” to allow the tenant to regain entry into your property. If they should still have a restraining order on top of that, you’ve got problems.
Courts are extremely overloaded helping prolong anything a psychotic tenant can come up with to delay the process, and if you get an elderly judge who is managing assembly-line tenant/landlord mitigation because he’s not altogether competent for anything that requires a brain–and there’s a lot of those–you’re looking at hell delivered to you on wheels, every day throughout “the process.”
When evicting someone, plan for the worst, and hope for the best. Never assume they’ll do what’s “legally” required of them. Have as many of your ducks in a row as possible, related to legal time and energy, beforehand. You never really know anyone until they’re put under some pressure, and sometimes you can be terribly surprised. If you plan ahead well, you can save yourself a lot of tears. If they do what they’re supposed to do, it’s all good. If they don’t, you’re not caught flat-footed.
Thanks Kwaping!
Daytrip – add the serial bankruptcy strategy too.
Jim Burmeister told me about the couple who were tenants here. Each filed bankruptcy individually in California, giving them back-to-back stays of 6 months per.
Then they went to Florida and each filed BK again, and got another 12 months.
Boom – 24 months’ free rent!
Find a way to keep tenants happy!
I have toured a property that had renters. One of them was there the day we came to tour the house, and he wouldn’t leave the bedroom. We then had to knock when we wanted to see the bedroom that he was in. It just was a very uncomfortable experience. Great advice, thanks for sharing!