Selling a Flat (Privately?) while living abroad?

vacalo

Hi All,
I used to live in my personaly-owned flat in London with my flatmate.
I have now moved to the US and he got a new housemate and they both pay me rent.
I asked my old housemate to give me the total rent from his accoutn and he can then negotiate with the other tenant what to pay e.g. I receive 1000 per month and he pays 400 and the other tenant 600 - i.e. he has a great deal, better than if he went to someone else as I know him so I gave him this option.
I have been trying to sell this flat for 12 months now with local Estate agents to no avail.
The problem must be the price as the number of viewings (eventhough I am in all the websites is low).
I will reduce the price quite a bit to get more viewings.
But I will ALSO do one of those 3 things

A. De-instruct the agents and go to housenetwork so this way I ll save a bit of money by paying less commision.
The problem then would be is that while I dont live anymore in the house I cant be there to supervise the viewings.
My tenant has to do those viewings.
But the problem is that its not to his benefit for the house sale to go through as he will then lose his preferential rent agreement where he pays 400 a month (see above).
Also a problem because the house could be a mess (an EA would tell me if it was) and I wouldnt know during a viewing
Also i m afraid if a buyer hears that i m living in the US and the agent is an online one then him/her might think its a fraud.
What can I do here? I could tell my current tenant/ex-housemate that I ll give you 1 or 2 rent free if you make the sale happen.
The one thing I can do is to make sure that I make a phone call from the USA -> UK and talk them through the house.
What is the problem with this approach from a buyer side? Do you think people will be put off because of all these problems? What can i do?

B. I can get a few MORE local agents (multi agents) instead of the one that I currently have and have many people selling it for that lower price I just mentioned.

C. Combination of the A + B
The only minus with an EA is their high commission and maybe that they ll do a bit more adversing (through their site or billboards in their store)...i m saying that cause most people look online when buying so i dont really need them.

Thank you all for your help
Appreciate it!

Annisele

If you don't mind the criticism you'll get, post a Rightmove link (stick in some spaces; you can't post links as a new user). You might get some more help from that.

However, as a FTB looking in London, there are two reasons apart from price that mean I'd want to buy another property instead of yours:

• It's tenanted. I need to buy with a mortgage, so I need the tenant to be out before I complete - and I've no idea if the tenants are going to go. So...not interested.
• You are on the other side of the world, with (presumably) nobody acting as your attorney in England. Rightly or wrongly I'd expect that to cause significant delays.

I can see the "between a rock and a hard place" argument. If you give your tenants notice, you now have an unoccupied property that wants checking over every so often and you're not receiving rent. However, it is difficult to sell whilst renting, you might need to decide which you want most.

G_M

You ARE joking aren't you? You are trying to sell a property while tenants are living there? Very few buyers will be interested as there is no guarantee the tenants will leave when asked (however convinced YOU may be that they will).

And you are relying on these same tenants to show the property? Tenants you admit yourself have a vested interest in no sale progressing?

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

You're seeking advice? Simple. Get rid of the tenants and price the flat right. This is not an issue with the agent, it is you and your strategy.

I hope for your sake you have proper tenancy agreement in place, landlord's insurance etc etc.

And as for the ad hoc arrangement with the 2nd 'housemate'! Presumably not on the tenancy agreement, but so how are you going to evict him/her when the time comes!!

vacalo

Thanks for the answers - i really mean it

If I say "my friend lives in the apartment" (true as we lived together for 1.5 years in that flat and we are friends) and that "I only need 1 month notice in order for the flat to be empty" (true we got a proper tenants agreement signed which states that) what is the problem? People not believing me? or people dont wont to bother with this "complicated" situation? I am sure a big % of people selling houses will have tenants living in them... ?

In regards to "nobody acting as your attorney in England" I will have a lawyer asap if I get an offer. Should I get one before that? And what do I say to him - i.e. would you be my lawyer just in case I manage to sell the apartment?

Sorry not being difficult, just ignorant as this is my 1st flat sale of my life...

Thank you again

hcb42

Get the agent to do the viewings, give the tenants notice and get them out asap.

Lots of people sell property when abroad, it's nothing new.

Annisele

Your "proper tenants agreement" does not mean that your tenant has to leave with one month's notice. You may well trust him to leave - and he may well actually leave - but as a potential buyer I don't know that. I do know that if he digs his heels in, you'll have to go to court to get him out and that could potentially take months. I also know that no matter how good a friend he is, if he loses his job / gets in some situation where he might need help to pay his rent, he's likely to be advised to stay in your flat until he's actually evicted.

There are other flats with tenants, but given two similar properties where only one had a tenant, I'd take the owner-occupied one every time unless there was a significant difference in price.

By "attorney" I didn't mean lawyer; I appreciate I wasn't clear there! It is possible to appoint somebody to act in your place, as if they were you - so they can sign contracts, agree the price your house will be sold at, that sort of thing. You can only really do this if you have somebody you trust absolutely to act in your interests rather than their own; it sometimes works between spouses or between parents and children. You don't need an attorney, it was just a throwaway comment on my part. What I really meant was that I'd expect you being on the other side of the world to cause delays, so (all other things being equal) I'd choose to buy a different flat.

Given that you have two things that would make me nervous as a buyer (the tenant and your location), and that you think the place might be overpriced, I'm afraid I'm not at all surprised that you're struggling to sell.

missile

I would not even consider a flat with sitting tenant.

You need help. Maybe a.n.other friend or an agent to get the tenant(s) out, then arrange cleaning and marketing of the property.

vacalo

Thank you all for your help...

So I got to:
- empty the flat
- clean it, paint it,etc
- reduce the price to the correct range
- get a real EA as I live abroad...should I probably got for 4-5 agents to advertise at the same time so we got more % of a sale? Or do you think thats a bad thing to do?
- in regards to having someone to "act in your place", I got some good family friends who can help me out, but I still dont get it.. I am sorry!:( I, myself, will be agreeing the price of the house (over the phone with the agent) and I will ask for any documents to be mailed overseas to me to sign... so what else is needed besides all the paperwork that the lawyer will do as per normal?

Thank you again ALL for your help - you really shed a lot light and clarity on my problem!
Thank you

vacalo

also one more question: what if I say to the EA that when they do the viewings to make clear that right now in the house a close/family friend lives there with his girlfriend and NOT a random tenant..this is true! but he pays rent... i am 100% sure when I tell him to move out he will..so why not say that and ease the mind of any potential buyer?

zzzLazyDaisy

vacalo wrote: »

also one more question: what if I say to the EA that when they do the viewings to make clear that right now in the house a close/family friend lives there with his girlfriend and NOT a random tenant..this is true! but he pays rent... i am 100% sure when I tell him to move out he will..so why not say that and ease the mind of any potential buyer?

It doesn't matter how much you trust your tenant, or how close a friend he is, the simple fact is that a tenant does not have to leave when the landlord gives him notice, he only has to leave when a court orders him to do so.

With regard to you question about an attorney - the previous poster was referring to a Power of Attorney which means that you give a trusted someone the legal right to sign papers on your behalf, thus cutting down the delay of posting papers overseas which can add weeks to the transaction.

It is a buyers market, and I certainly wouldn't look at a tenanted flat with an overseas seller unless there really was nothing else available or suitable - and possibly not even then!

G_M

You have so many problems it is hard to know where to start.

The RENTAL
1) Who does the tenant pay his rent to ? You? Then he should be deducting tax (you DO pay tax on the rent don't you?)
2) The tenancy contract. Is it a fixed term contract or periodic (do you know the difference?). Whichever it is, he has more rights to stay than you know. Just because he contract says "1 month notice" does not make it legal. He cam stay longer.
3) Is there gas? Do you have a safety certificate. Criminal offence not to.
4) Is your insurance valid (with a tenant in place)?

My guess is that you lived there with your friend, who was a lodger (legally) with few rights.
You moved out and friend IMMEDIATELY became a tenant. This gives him rights, and gives you responsibilities. But you have no idea what these are (I suspect).

The SALE
1) Most properties are sold empty, or with the owner living there. The ones with tenants only get sold to... other landlords.
2) No buyer will be interested while the tenant is there
3) No you cannot lie to the estate agent (or ask the EA to lie to the buyers) about who the tenant is