Practical and Legal Tips for Selling a Tenanted Property

If you’re planning to sell a property which is tenanted be heedful of the fact that the tenant’s co-operation in showing prospective Buyers the property is paramount.

So why not, to encourage your tenants to give this co-operation freely, reduce the rent by say $20 to $30 per week during the period that the property is on the market.

This won’t mean much to you an investor at the end of the day for such a short period but it will to most tenants.

To them it is the cost of a large pizza and a DVD every Sunday night.

Which Agent to Use

Understand the thinking of the Real Estate Agent.

Wherever possible, use the same Agent to sell who has been managing the letting of the property.

Appreciate that the reason the Letting Agent on most occasions has been dutifully managing the letting of your property over the last few years has not been for the meagre 7.5% commission they pick up on the rental paid to them.

The bigger picture to them is that management of the letting will usually also lead to the eventual sale of the property through their office at some time in the future.

The co-operation between the Letting Agent in helping to organise inspections of the property through the Selling Agent will go a long way in helping to achieve a sale.

Where the Letting Agent and the Selling Agent are one and the same company this will facilitate the process.

How little co-operation you see though, where an investor has given no thought to this issue and has engaged another agency to sell the property.

The first that the annoyed Letting Agent hears of it is when they are asked by the owner, through another Agent, for access to the property to show a prospective Buyer.

If you were that Agent, just imagine how offended you would be after years of good service, you are not given the chance to sell a property on behalf of someone with whom you already have an established relationship.

Little co-operation is often forthcoming in these circumstances and clients regularly complain about the Agent’s attitude in frustrating their efforts to sell the property.

If only the investor had given the matter a little more thought.