Do you know where you tenants are?
Sounds silly but it truly amazes me how often I will set up a showing on a vacant house to arrive and either scare or be scared by tenants the list agent didn't know about. More common would be setting up a showing with an agent, who had to call the owner, who had to call the tenant and of course day of showing didn't' happen because the tenants had no idea know you were coming. If you were given a key all is good, right? Or....do they have a guard dog, security system do they sleep with a handgun in case of intruders? You would think it would be an easy task to keep track of ones listings but in reality the tenants don't mention they got a dog or changed locks and the owners who were told rarely pass it on to their agents so any time I see the word "Tenant" under occupancy it throws several red flags, warning bells and whistles screaming. Add to that the potential buyer has drove 4 hours to see the home we can not get into and it is the perfect way to get rid of all those would be buyers. Recently I had to show three duplexes. Knowing tenants were involved I not only set up showings but called an confirmed day of showings. Naturally when my client arrived from his 200 mile journey to view we could not get in 2 and the third had just resigned another year lease and was NOT going anywhere for at least a year. I called the agent who NOW mentioned he was on a beach in Florida and left a message for the owner. Mad doesn't even cover my client...excuse me, my FORMER client as I should have made sure they were ready to be shown. Please, if you have listings with tenants involved try hard to keep track and know where your tenants are and if keys fit before setting up showings. It is not just good for helping each other but it could make the difference between a sale and an angry no sale. Thanks.
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Randy Ostrander |
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Randy:
I agree with you, showing tenant occupied proerty can be a challenge. There is not much motivation for the tenant to cooperate and make things easy.
How about listing the property after working hard with the seller to get it ready, and then have them announce that they rented it because they need the money? One seller, who doesn't speak English, called in distress saying that the police called, would I find out what happened? There was a drug bust in the duplex, 4 people arrested including two tenants. You would think that would annul the lease. Police told them that they are responsible for tenants, but rental laws made them go to court to get those people out.
Just wrote an offer on REO that still had tenants. It was on the market 12 days before anyone could even get inside. Then you needed gloves and surgical masks, they left it a garbage pit.