Selling your home in Houston can be a daunting task especially if you are a landlord.
But how do you do it? even harder what do you do if you have a BAD TENANT? Here are five steps you must know for selling your house with tenants in Houston.
1: Sell to your Tenant
The first step to selling your house with tenants in Houston is to notify the tenants the property will be listed for sale, and ask the tenants if they are interested in purchasing the property.
The last thing you need are potential buyers touring your for sale home while the tenants are there.
If the tenants have been renting from you for a few years, they might have fallen in love with the home or really need the school district for their children.
Not many tenants want to leave a good home in a great school district so they most likely will be happy to get a chance to buy the home.
They also might really love the area and want to live there permanently. This would be a great opportunity for them to buy the house they know and love.
The next step is to have your tenants apply for a loan. Since they are living at the home they have the potential to save on some fees like inspection costs.
You may also want to offer an owner financing deal to the tenant if they cannot qualify with a traditional lender.
This may also be ideal if they have a great payment history, and you can continue to look forward to monthly payments unless you need the lump sum of cash now.
If they don’t have a good payment history you might want to consider not doing owner finance.
2: Review your Lease Agreement
The second step to selling your house with tenants in Houston is to review the lease agreement you have in place with the current tenants.
Most leases will have some sort of clause about what will happen if the property goes up for sale.
In many cases, when the property sells the tenant has a set time frame to vacate the property, usually around 30 days.
Your tenants may or may not be in a position to locate new housing at the time of the sale. Therefore, the earlier you are thinking about selling, its best for you to inform your tenant so they can be prepared.
You don’t want your tenants to wait until the last minute to move or when the new homeowners are ready to move in, they are still there.
If your property is in a hot market, the house may sell quicker than you think and the tenants may not make it out in time.
3: Let the Lease Expire
One of the least complicated steps for selling your house with tenants in Houston would be to let the current lease expire and do not renew it.
You may want to still accept month to month payments to cover your expenses or mortgage payment if you still owe on the property, but you would have to make it very clear to the tenants that if they have the move out clause in their lease, they would have to vacate the property per the lease agreement.
Having the tenant leave at the end of the lease without accepting month to month payments may leave you carrying the cost of the property on your own until it sells.
A typically home sits on the market for 60 to 90 days and you don’t want to spend unnecessary cash by having the tenant leave prematurely.
4: List the Home with Tenants in Place
If you are unable to wait for the lease to expire, the next step for selling your house with tenants in Houston would be to list the house with tenants in place.
This may work to your advantage, especially if the tenants agree to leave during house showings because the property would already be staged.
On the other hand, the tenants may be upset that the house is being sold and might cause problems when the house is being shown, especially if you have had a rocky past with the tenant.
Be prepared that they may also cause damage to the property when they leave, especially if they leave on bad terms.
The most important part here is to communicate with the tenant and keep them in the loop.
5: Pay the Tenant to Leave
The fifth step for selling your house with tenants in Houston would be to offer payment for them to vacate the property.
This might help smooth over any uncomfortable house showings or help them move into their new home. You could also pay them by offering a discounted rental rate.
This step might seem counter intuitive but it works.
How You Can Avoid These 5 Steps!
If you need to sell a house with tenants in Houston, the fastest, easiest, and most convenient way is to sell the house to a direct buyer.
This will eliminate property showings, dealing with upset tenants, the costs of putting it on the MLS, and the potential of an angry tenant damaging your home.
Conclusion
Its hard enough to sell your home in Houston especially being a land lord.
In this article, we go over the 5 must-know strategies that you need to sell your home fast in Houston.
DO YOU WANT ANGRY TENANTS THAT ARE GOING TO DESTROY YOUR HOME?