Being a Landlord is a Problem.
Owning a duplex, triplex or simply a single family home you rent out can cause serious anxiety – especially in California.
If you’re managing the tenants and doing the repairs mostly yourself, you know that homes need constant maintenance.And if you’re not doing it yourself, you’re having to find people to do minor repairs and it’s getting harder and harder every day to find good people.
Not to mention the hassles of dealing with bad tenants. Even if you don’t have to deal with them very often – when you do it’s not pleasant or just weighs you down.
Over time you come to realize renting out your home isn’t all that you thought it would be.Perhaps you inherited a rental property, but you don’t have time or the desire to manage the whole thing and don’t want to hassle with tenants and repairs before selling. Or maybe being a landlord was a good idea years ago, but it’s more of a burden or you’re just done with it now.
So what do you do when you’re tired of being a landlord?
There are several reasons you as a homeowner might be tired of being a landlord. The most often complaint we hear are the rising costs.If your home is 20, 30 or more years old, the major systems are probably breaking down or near the end of life, if they haven’t already needed replacing by now.
Owning the property in the beginning may have brought some nice cash flow, but now the costs to make repairs are sky high. You just don’t have the cash on hand to make expensive repairs.
Sure, most landlords expect to pay for minor repairs, landscaping, and other typical home maintenance.Little fixes here and there aren’t the problem.
However, unexpected expenses – especially the larger items like a new roof, repairs or replacing the HVAC (heating/air), backed up old plumbing or electric issues – can be overwhelming. And not repairing them can lead to even bigger problems down the road.
A lot of people who bought rental properties when they were younger, or had their husbands managing the small maintenance items, find that with an aging property and themselves getting older, it’s harder and harder to tackle the work.Thus, the deferred maintenance grows, either leading to worse relations with the tenants, more complaints, or simply bigger issues when something completely fails like the roof of hot water heater leaks.
If you’ve owned your property for 10 or more years, you’ve probably seen nice appreciation and perhaps haven’t had to experience major costly repairs.But, if you’ve been a landlord for 15, 20 or more years…maybe it’s time to stop losing money on your rental property and finally sell it.Cash out and let go of all that responsibility.
Selling Your Rental With a Real Estate Agent
The good news is real estate is still selling so now may be a good time to cash out. Selling your home is probably your best option when you’re tired of being a landlord.
Some rental property owners think of using a realtor when selling their property. But, you may not know that real estate agents don’t like and often have a hard time selling a house with tenants.
Tenants can make it a nightmare for agents because they can severely limit showings to prospective buyers. Showing your property to potential buyers is key to getting an offer and selling it. If the tenant isn’t willing or able to keep their home in showroom condition, you may lose out on a sale.
The majority of real estate agents are reluctant to show their clients homes with tenants.Tenants are often difficult to schedule appointments with, sometimes taking days or even a week to respond to requests for showing.
Some tenants restrict the showing hours so much that you miss out on buyers because they can’t work around your tenants’ stipulations. And agents know they usually have to prepare their buyers because tenant-occupied homes can look run down, every corner full of stuff, and their personal belongings all over the place making the home look worse than it really is.
You know how nice it is to look online at photos of pretty homes for sale where everything is nicely staged and looking pristine for new buyers.With rentals, it’s a whole different ball game.
Not surprisingly, some tenants can be downright hostile during the selling process. Excuses and stories about why they can’t let people in cause unnecessary delays, frustrate buyers and put off you selling your home for longer than needed.
We’ve heard time and again from sellers who went the route of selling with a realtor, that tenants refuse to pay the last month’s rent so the landlord is stuck with the loss.
Before you hire an agent to help you in selling a house with tenants, give strong consideration to your options. Decide whether working with agents will be worth the headache, the added costs, and lost income when you think you want to sell a tenant-occupied property.
Selling to a House Buying Company Like Us
If selling your property is the best option when you’re tired of being a landlord – what really is the best option? How can you sell it quickly, with little hassle, and not lose money or cause yourself more stress in the process?
Selling to a house buying company, like Virtus Offers, is a great option.
We are private investors and are used to dealing with all the tenant hassles, seeing properties with all of the tenants’ junk doesn’t scare us away.We are also very accustomed to tackling any deferred maintenance or big repairs that may be needed.
We have construction crews, hauling crews, cleaners, electricians, plumbers – you name it.We’re good at it and enjoy buying old rental properties because we like to see the transformation from worn down rental to beautiful new home.
When you sell to us, we take the hassle out of dealing with tenants during the whole selling process.We have a process where we go into the home as a “home insurance inspector”; this prevents your tenants from getting spooked or wondering if you’re selling.You simply tell them it’s a routine insurance inspection required by your insurance company and we’ve seen this work time and again.
We come through the property, do a full inspection in one visit. We are very flexible on timing so we’ll work with whatever your tenants need.We’re in and out in no time.They have no idea you’re interested in selling your property and we can make you an offer to buy the very next day.Easy.
We’re familiar with landlord-tenant laws in California and can help you navigate if they have an extended lease.Either way, calling our house buying company before an agent could save you tens of thousands of dollars and a LOT of hassles.
Sell Your House to a Central Coast Cash Home Buying Company
If you want to save thousands on agent commission costs, closing costs, repairs or lost rent while it sits vacant – call us to make you a fair cash offer. With our streamlined process, you’ll receive a no-obligation cash offer in just 24 hours.
Virtus Offers works with you and your tenant situation (good or bad).
We can move quickly if you’re ready to close right away or close whenever works best for you.
Just imagine you can have your rental sold in as little as a week!Try that with a traditional agent!
If you need to sell your property in Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo or Monterey counties fast and would like to get a no-obligation cash offer, call us now.
Whether you decide to sell your rental house to us or not, we would like to help answer questions you might have about the selling process. Oh, and we can buy more than one property at a time – so you can quickly turn all of your rental properties into cash today.
No obligation. No cost. No hard feelings.
Give us a call at919-275-5388
BBB or fill out the form below to get started. We look forward to talking with you.
Other considerations for selling your house with a tenant
Regardless of which avenue you choose in selling your rental home, you’ll want to gather pertinent information and monitor these important details.
Review your tenant’s rights
In addition to reviewing your state’s landlord-tenant laws, look over your lease agreement again to be sure you don’t lose track of the following items recommended by Avail, an educational platform for landlords:
- How much notice you need to give your tenant about vacating, regardless of whether you have a fixed-term or month-to-month lease. “It might be month-to-month, but with 60-day notice,” Mauro said.
- How much notice the tenant needs before showings and inspections
- Transferring security deposits and rent receipts to the new owners. You’ll also need to notify the tenant where the deposit was transferred.
- How to pay rent moving forward. If your tenant is remaining in the property, make sure he or she knows the new owner’s contact information, since the new owner will inherit the lease.