How to Sell Your House with Tenants in Oklahoma City

Do you own an investment property in Oklahoma City that you’d like to sell? When other people are living in your house, the selling process can become a bit more complicated. In our latest post, learn more about how to sell your house with tenants in Oklahoma City!

As a landlord, there may come a day when you wish to sell your house. Even if you have tenants, it is your property and you may sell it if you wish. In some cases, you’ll be able to let your tenants know, and it won’t be an issue. However, you also don’t want to risk losing your tenants and being stuck with a vacant house while your house is on the market. That said, the tenants have rights, and you want to make sure you aren’t violating them. Below, we discuss common things that arise when you decide to sell your house with tenants in Oklahoma City.

The Lease Situation

What does your lease situation look like? If you have a month to month lease, ending it shouldn’t be too difficult. You’ will need to provide a fair amount of notice to your tenant, typically 30-60 days. If you are in the midst of a fixed-term lease, things are a bit different. If you want to sell mid-lease, you’ll either need to sell the property to an investor who will honor the lease, or give your tenant some sort of incentive to move out. Some leases contain early-termination clauses that would allow you to end the lease early in certain situations. Remember, the tenant has rights too under the fair housing act, and if you violate those rights, you could find yourself penalized.

If You Have Difficult Tenants

If your tenant has violated their lease, you should be able to evict them without an issue. That said, if your tenant is refusing to leave, the eviction process can become long and arduous. Most landlords try to avoid dealing with evictions at all costs. By selling your house with tenants directly, you’ll be able to avoid the eviction process yourself and be able to move on from the property with cash in hand. Many direct buyers will simply take over the lease and business will go on as usual. If the tenants are in violation of the lease, the buyer will go through the eviction process as necessary. Plus, a direct sale will help you avoid having to list, market, and show the property, things would likely cause even more tension between you and your difficult tenants.

Selling Directly

There are many reasons why a direct sale is beneficial for people who need to sell their house with tenants in Oklahoma City. Investors are happy to take over a property that already has a tenant in place, especially when they are in good standing. It saves them time and money advertising, marketing, and showing the property. They won’t have to bother screening tenants or running the background checks because those things have already been done. Even if there is a difficult tenant living in the home, an experienced investor won’t have trouble pursuing the eviction process if the tenant is in violation. They have likely had to do it before, and won’t be bothered by the process.

Other things to consider when selling your house with a tenant

Trouble is, selling a house with a tenant can be as big a hassle as choosing the right occupant in the first place.

The working relationship between landlord and tenants will be very significant!

Seemingly helpful tenants at beginnings might turn out to be tenants from hell and totally ruin any hope for a good outcome of a property sale!

Notify your tenants

Notify your tenants that you plan to sell the property before you start the selling process. You will need to notify the tenants after you have already reached an agreement with a buyer, so make sure that you are aware of the applicable notice periods in your state or territory that apply.

Start off with a gentle approach. You’ve got ownership, but they have an emotional investment, and the news is likely to cause distress. Ensure that you want to reduce inconvenience by figuring out the best time frames for display — for example during daytime (work/school hours) with at least 24 hour notice. The promise that potential customers are always accompanied by you or an agent might be more pleasant.

Finally, apply the (very specific) house rules to a signed written agreement with whatever you intend to sweeten the deal, separated from the lease contract.

Sell your home to your tenants

If your tenant has enjoyed living in your rent, he or she might be the perfect buyer. They know the home well after all, and have already moved in.

Offering a tenant the opportunity to buy your property prevents listing, arranging and showing it, although you may want an inspection to search for any unknown issues.

Give incentives to tenant

Money talks!

It is very likely that the cooperative tenants will see some opportunity reward going for the support provided during the sale process; the uncooperative tenants the change their bad attitude once they find out how much they are about to make regular. If basic communication with the uncooperative tenants doesn’t cut it, a great reward will do the job!

It’s a kind step to give tenants any sort of opportunity during the time the house is advertised.

When you are in a financial position to give a discount, a slight reduction in rent will mean a lot for your tenant. Other choices include providing free maid / cleaning, renting gift cards for restaurants, restaurants and film theatres, and even lending yourself to a good wine bottle. This will cost you nothing, but it can take a long journey to simplify the process.

Tenants rights

If the tenant has signed a fixed-term lease for a longer time — like a year or two — the tenant usually has the legal right to remain in the place they rent until their contract expires. The new owner needs to uphold the legally binding deal with the occupant even though the house or apartment sells before their lease is up.

No matter what the situation is, you will look at the lease agreement form that you have in place before you do something. The lease which you and the tenants have signed will help you decide the best course of action. You may even explain what the options are. You also have some provisions in there that can decide what action you will take if anything happens, such as refusing to move out of the house. When you don’t have that kind of terminology in the contract, then you can turn to the law anyway because it trumps everything in a contract. The law will go hand in hand, with your contract. Even if you have the language in place, you will need to look at your local and state laws to decide what you can do to get them out of the house. Remember you do have choices, but you have to do it all legally. And if the lease is expired, if they inhabit the house, then you will have to take the right legal action to get them out. The law and your contract will help you decide what your choices are, so that you can begin trying to eliminate them from the house.

Help the tenant find a new place of residence

If you own other investment property, inform the tenant of any applicable vacancies. If you’re not an investor, you might suggest local listing sources or let the tenant know you’ll be asking your friends if anyone knows about available properties.

Local House Buyers is happy to pick up a property with an existing tenant who is up to date on rent and has a long-term lease in place.

Having a tenant in the property can be a good thing , especially if the property is likely to be bought by another investor. Investors like to know that the property is likely to be re-rented. If they know how much it is currently being rented for and that someone is currently paying that amount of money for it, the investor can be persuaded. However, if the home is not well presented or if the buyer wants a quick settlement, a potential buyer looking to live in the property itself may be turned off by the tenant.

In some cases, it is very easy to sell a rental property with tenants on a lease. Some real estate investors could be trying to grow their holdings with minimal effort, so purchasing a rental property that comes complete with tenants included will render the expansion much more straightforward.

In fact, there are situations that you need to stay out of the leasing market as fast as you can. Even if you have rent money, that may not be something you want to do anymore. In situations that you need ASAP, selling with renters makes more sense, as you can sell without needing to wait for their contract to be finished.

If you want to sell a house with tenants in Oklahoma City, there are certain ways to go about doing it. Always make sure you are being fair to your tenants, and giving the proper amount of notice. Not only is it the law, but it is the right thing to do.

To get more information about how to sell your house with tenants in Oklahoma City, send us a message or give us a call today!

---