Is It Better To Sell A Rental With Or Without A Tenant?
I'm starting the process of standardizing my rentals by location, size, etc. I have one house that I want to sell that the tenant will move out of at the end of this month. Would it be better to get it nice and clean and sell it or put another tenant in it and sell it? I already have an excellent prospect for a tenant who wants it. The advantage I see to renting is that a buyer might like to know that they have instant rental income. The disadvantage would seem to be that the place will probably not look as nice once the tenant moves their stuff in although I'm not sure this is as important as it would be if I was trying to sell to a homeowner. Any ideas?
As long as you are sure you are selling the house as a rental it is always better to have a good tenant, with credit and/or payment history than vacant.
However, are you sure you don't want to sell to a homeowner who will move in themselves? Have you done the comps to see which is the better deal?
With a decent tenant on a month to month lease.
Good luck.
[addsig]
I feel with rental property it is always better to have a tenant in the house when trying to sell. Be willing to show the buyer your rental history with the house.
How much of your market is Investor vs User?
Usually many more users.....
Advise: Immaculate, freshly painted, vacant. Will appeal to all buyers.
Thanks for the feedback. The reason I am targeting an investor is the neighborhood. It is a very nice clean lower middle income neighborhood. However, it is the type of neighborhood that houses move slowly in because most of the people in the area don't have great credit. It's just a guess but I would say that homes sold to homeowners take about 5-6 months to sell. For me, that is a long time to have a house sit vacant in anything other than a middle or preferably, upper middle income neighborhood. I suspect that I could sell it quickly to another investor and still make a profit since it is a good rental property. I prefer to give up some money to know my houses always have someone looking after them.