Sell your investment property vacant

Sell Your Investment Property Vacant
5 Reasons to sell your Investment Property Vacant
sell your investment propertyIn a previous article I posed the question – “Should you ever sell your investment property whilst it is tenanted?”
My answer was no!

For the majority of you looking to sell your investment property, you’ll be selling it to either a homeowner or an investor.
If you even think there’s a chance of selling to an owner/occupier do not, under any circumstances market your property with a sitting tenant.

Now I’m going to tell you why.

Here are 5 reasons to clear out your tenant and sell your investment property vacant.

1. You won’t get the same opportunity to fix problems and dress the house.
   No matter how “good” your tenants are it is impossible to do justice to even a minor cosmetic renovation with someone else living in your house. You really can’t paint, carpet, replace tapware, light fittings, switches and the like. These are the basics you’d want to have done before selling. You are selling yourself short by not getting rid of these problems.
2. You can’t ask tenants to de-clutter.
   If you were living in the house you could clear out the way you’d like to. You might have to make a couple of trips to the tip or arrange a council rubbish pickup, but you could get the job done.

You can’t really tell the tenant their furniture looks tired and to smarten it up. By not doing so you miss out on the opportunity to “tell a story” the way you can with a blank canvas.

3. Access to a tenanted property is more difficult.
   If your house is vacant, perfect, you can give your agent carte blanche. If you’re there it’s still very easy to arrange last-minute inspections. When you have a sitting tenant you have to respect their right to enjoy their home. It’s your house, but it’s their home. You have to give them reasonable notice. It’s very difficult to schedule repeat inspections and things like last-minute building or pest reports.
4. Potential buyers will be all too aware that someone is currently living in the home.
   You can’t ask tenants to “de-personalize” their home and remove family photos and knick-knacks. Potential buyers will be very aware that someone is living in the home. It may become obvious to them that it is a sitting tenant. Even if the home is being sold on a “vacant possession” basis there will be a psychologically barrier to purchasers picturing themselves living in the home. When you see someone else’s personal photos, kids toys etc., you start to feel “bad” about booting someone out of their home
5. If the tenants are around buyers feel “spooked”
   If the tenants are physically present during an inspection you can’t help but feel you’re invading their space, because you are. You just want to have a quick look around and get the heck out of there. Potential purchasers will not feel welcomed and want’ to linger.

You want your potential buyers to fall in love with your home and want to stay. They just aren’t going to do that when tenants are sitting on the couch watching TV.

Now if you’re not convinced think about if from a purchasers point of view. If you’re a seasoned investor when you encounter a situation like this you say “bingo”. You know the home will sell for less than it could potentially fetch and it has a built-in discount. Happy days, but not for the seller!

As Molly Meldrum would say – “Do yourself a favour !” and sell your investment property vacant.

Until next time,