Sell with tenants or empty house?

Has anyone sold property with tenants living in it and found the process reasonably easy? Were tenants co-operative in keeping house tidy, clean etc? We are thinking of doing this for a ppor-style house so it's important for potential buyers to love the house and be able to imagine themselves living there.

The other option would be to sell the house right after it's empty - we could stage it and keep it clean, but the holding costs might add up, esp if the house doesn't sell at auction (it's an auction area) and takes some time to get to the desired price.

 

thats big "it depends"

most important thing is to find out what buyers want, if a buyer wants vacant, tenants no matter how good will only be a negative, and vice versa

some tenants will actively help you sell the property,
some tenants will actively sabotage your sale in order to stay, like it happened to me recently, my tenant deliberately told every prospective buyer that the house was falling down and that it was unliveable and even pointed out a crack in the brickwork by painting it a different colour!

 

Wow! Special place in hell for people like that.

 

We've sold various properties with tenants in place and generally no issues . It makes it easier if you make it clear you'll try to sell to another investor. Occasionally things haven't been managed well and it does make it harder . It makes it much easier if the selling agent in also the managing agent .

Worst tenant we've come across when we're buying ... Open bedroom door and a large vicious dog lunges at me .... tenants comment .. " lucky he didn't rip your throat out mate.... " . We didn't buy it . Place was relatively cheap ( obviously for a reason ) . My assumption is that someone who was up for a challenge would have low balled the owner , and then kicked the tenant out at the first opportunity , but I wasn't interested in buying something that was obviously problematic from the start .

Cliff

 

Can go either way. I've inspected homes that are tenanted which had dirty laundry strewn all over and food scraps and dishes piled in the sink and others where it was very presentable. I had tenants that didn't cooperate well with inspections and the place stank of stale air and again messy beds and laundry hung indoors. As you can't tell how they will leave the place during inspection, it's best to have them go and have the place staged if you want your home to look the best!

 

Selling without is much easier and has many benefits

- Controlling home open times
- Controlling the presentation of the home
- Opening market pool / target audience up to owner occupiers rather than just investors
- Loss of break-lease provisions in most states.

 

If you do decide to sell with tenants in then I think you need to offer a weekly cleaner to come in and give the place a clean the day before home opens. This has 2 benefits, 1. that the place is clean and 2. it's a nice gesture to the tenant for having to put up with dealing with home opens. You might want to offer a garden service too so that the outside is weed free and nicely mown

 

Easier all round if the tenants are gone, as long as you have priced it right, present it as best you can and have confidence in your agent, it should sell reasonably quickly.
You also have the benefit of it being available for someone looking for a home as well as investors - some home buyers could be put off thinking they may have to get rid of the tenants ...

 

It's not too hard to sell while you Airbnb a property. I would just keep Friday nights blocked off for Saturday open homes.

 

Auction campaign you need to be all in with the marketing especially a PPOR style home. Tenants need to be out to present property in it's best light (I would nearly always recommend staging). Getting that one motivated extra bidder in the mix can really get you a lot more money!

 

I totally agree with Westminster! I had let two amazing tenants go on two properties I was selling and they didn't sell straight away. Went from a happy family home to empty.

 

When I sold empty you have to factor in no rent plus vandalism. Copper pipes stolen on one, windows smashed on another.

With tenants you have to deal with annoying the tenants, a potential messy house (depending on tenants) and potentially less buyers as some will want to move in straight away. Probably best would be periodic tenancy and give 60 days notice when property is unconditional.

 

Hmm - seems a bit of a toss up, will probably stage and sell without tenants