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How to Sell a Property With Tenants

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How to Sell a Property With Tenants

The real estate market is booming all across the country and this has led some rental owners to consider selling now that the equity has greatly increased on their rental property. But, how do you sell a home if it is currently being rented?  

There are two options when it comes to selling an occupied rental property and each one comes with a lot of advanced planning as well as its own set of pros and cons. Let’s take a look at each option for selling a tenant occupied property.  

Wait for the tenant’s lease to expire

Pros 

  • This Gives Plenty of Time to Freshen/Update the Property: An empty home allows you to repaint, deep clean, update, upgrade appliances, or any other general spruce ups the home may need on your schedule. These quick updates can help you get top dollar for the property.  
  • Makes for an Easier Closing: If the home is empty when it is listed you can market it as move in ready. There is a possibility of closing faster and there is no need to worry about the current tenant being able to move out on time.  

Cons 

  • Mortgage Carrying Costs: While the home is sitting empty, if you are currently mortgaging the property you have to pay the mortgage. This is a lot to consider because there is no guarantee of how quickly your home will sell, even in a great market.  

 

Sell the Home While Occupied by Your Tenants 

Pros 

  • The incentive for Another Investor to Purchase: Having a rental property with tenants already in the home can be a big selling point to a real estate investor looking for more properties. It will save someone who is planning to keep the home as a rental from having to find tenants. 
  • Staged Home: When a home is set up with furniture it is easier for a buyer to imagine themselves living in the home. It gives them a picture of how certain areas of the home can be used and fit their lifestyle needs and what they are looking for.  

Cons 

  • Tenants can Make Showings Difficult: It can be tough news to find out your home is being sold and you need to move. If your tenant leads a busy life it can also be difficult for them to have the home showing-ready clean. Tenants keeping the home spotless and being willing to not be in the home for a showing is crucial.  

 Related: Have an inherited property? How to know if it’s time to sell

Review Your Lease Agreement to Help You Determine Which Option 

To help you determine what your next step should be in selling your tenant occupied property you should look over the current lease agreement. An experienced property manager or real estate agent is a great help to determine local legal requirements as well as offer some tips on the best options. Going over your lease will also help you to determine how you will communicate the news to your tenants that you are selling the property.  

If you need help selling a tenant occupied property in the Savannah area please give me a call. I have extensive knowledge and experience in real estate and property management in Savannah. 

How Does a Foreclosure Impact Tenants?

Tips for Taking Care of Rental Property Maintenance

Using a Property Manager Tenants Actually Want to Work With

 

 

How to Stage a Bathroom to Sell or Lease

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How to Stage a Bathroom to Sell or Lease

Staging your Savannah home to sell is always important and you’ve probably seen tons of blogs on how to go about it, but have you seen one that focuses on the bathroom? If not, it’s really too bad, because the kitchen and the bathroom are probably the two most important rooms in the house when it comes to hooking your buyers. Therefore, here are some great tips for staging your bathroom to sell.

How to stage your bathroom:

How to Stage a Bathroom to Sell or Lease

Step 1: Clean it like you mean it

Just as you don’t want to walk into your home after a long day at work and soak in a tub full of mold with a few well-placed spider webs overhead, your potential buyer doesn’t either. When potential buyers walk through your house, they’re envisioning themselves living there. Help them by making the scene a good one.

A sparkling-clean bathroom is perhaps the most important quality that will grab their attention. Devote a good day to scrubbing the floor and tiles, the toilet bowl, the tub, the sink, and throwing out everything that looks old and yucky.

Additionally, get an effective air-freshener or candle to rid the space of residual odors. Use a caulk gun to fill in any cracks and gaps in the tiling. Wipe all mirrors, so buyers see their reflection, not your kid’s fingerprints.

How to Stage a Bathroom to Sell or Lease

Step 2: No personal items

If you are still living in your home, it might be challenging to tuck away all of your personal care items. Place all toothbrushes, toiletries, and medications in convenient plastic shower baskets, so you can easily transport them out of the room if a new buyer is visiting.

An empty and spotless mirror cabinet allows the potential home buyer to picture their own personal care products along the shelves and adds an extra feel of simplicity and cleanliness.

Step 3: Streamline

Although the kittens with balls of yarn shower curtain are in fact, adorable, some home buyers may not see it that way. All your personal flair in your decor must go. When decorating, think more along the lines of a “hotel look”. Use neutral colors and luxurious or plush looking fabrics.

Also, remove all dirty clothes and trash bins.

How to Stage a Bathroom to Sell or Lease

Step 4: Add luxury and details

Staying along the idea of a “hotel look” or “spa feel” in your bathroom, add details to complete the look. Perhaps put a flower in a vase or set out a pretty scented candle. Also, consider putting out fancy soap.

For more information about staging, check out these posts:

A Checklist for sellers Before the Inspection

Tried and True Secrets to Selling a Home

How to List, Market, and Sell Your Savannah Home

Sell Your Savannah Home Fast

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When you put your home up for sale you usually are not looking for the process to be a long drawn out one. No homeowner truly wanting to sell their home wants their property to sit on the market for months delaying the process of moving to the next step in life. While it is never 100% guaranteed how quickly your home will sell once it is listed, there are some things that a homeowner can do to make their property more appealing to buyers and keep the selling process running smooth that usually see quicker sales results in the real estate market.

Sale Your Savannah Home Fast

  • Hire an Experienced Local Listing Agent

This should be the first step in your home selling journey. An experienced agent will have a vast knowledge of the current local market. Including what is selling, what buyers are looking for currently, the best listing price to attract buyers, marketing strategies to reach a large number of buyers, and what should be done to the home to get it ready for sale.

  • Stay Objective

It is not uncommon for home sellers to still have an attachment to the property they are selling and think it is worth more than it really is or that the home doesn’t need any work. Keep the mindset that the sale of your home is a business transaction. Buyers are shopping; they have no attachment to your home. Think of it like walking into a store and seeing all available houses right next to each other on the shelf, to the buyer your home is an object for sale that they need and in order to pick yours up off the shelf they are going to want it to be appealing, in good condition, and  the right price.

  • Price It Right

The listing price of your home is a very big deciding factor in how quickly it will sell. To set the right price you will need the help of your agent, to do homework, and stay objective. The best way to know fair market value is to get the help of someone selling homes and who can access what is for sale in your neighborhood. Do the homework and find comparable properties in your area and see what they have recently sold for, what homes like yours are currently listed at, and the average number of days homes take to sell. The more you know about the current  market the better. A fair listing price makes all the difference. Setting a price too high because you love your home and think it is worth more will lead to it sitting on the market while other homes priced correctly sell.

  • In Real Estate Looks are Everything

Have your agent help you determine how you can get your house ready to sell. What needs to be fixed or redecorated to appeal to the widest number of buyers. Take down personal decorating touches and repaint with neutral colors. Staging is super important you want a buyer to be able to imagine themselves living in the home and what they will be doing in each room. Don’t forget about curb appeal. Curb appeal is huge; a home that is cute and inviting on the outside will make buyers want to come in and take a look.  Again stay objective here don’t get offended if it suggested to move out certain items of furniture or tuck a family heirloom knick knack away to sell your home. It’s strictly business.

  • Once the Home is in Top Shape Keep it That Way

Make sure every inch of everything in your home is spotless. Buyers are making a huge life purchase and some of them will be looking at everything. The cleaner a home the better impression you give to buyers that the property is well taken care of and it just makes the home prettier and more appealing.

  • Be Flexible

Showings are one of the best and most frustrating parts of selling a home. It can be tough to show your home to strangers while trying to live in it at the same time. The more flexible you are at making the home available for a showing the better chance you have at selling quickly. You want your home to have the most exposure to buyers possible.

Selling your home can be stressful,but you can take a lot of the stress out of the process with a great listing agent that is on top of things and here to help you get the best deal possible. For more information on selling your Savannah home please browse the website or contact me anytime.

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