Selling a property with tenants in

G_M

Originally Posted by G_M
and the potential buyers..............?

GRBWA wrote: »

I don't know. Hence why I asked the question.

Exactly. You don't know. But you can probably bet that at least 50% of potential buyers will not be interested once they find out that tenants live there.

Another 25% will view and perhaps make an offer.

Of any buyer who gets this far, and with whom you agree a sale, most (say 75% again?) will not take any further action, spend money on legals, surveys et until the tenants have gone.

And as others have said (much as you don't wish to hear) just because the tenants have said they will leave around March, does not mean they will leave around March.

The last 25% will be the ignorant ones who think that having tenants there makes no difference, so they will proceed as normal. Until they speak to their solicitors and get advice..........

Loopy28

I am in the process of buying a house with tenants in, the house was a bit messy on viewings but I was able to look past it and it didn't bother me.

The only thing is the seller is putting immense pressure on me to complete quickly as in the next 2 weeks because the tenants leave in a week, but I only got my offer accepted recently and can only move as quickly as the people who are buying my property are moving and as they are FTBs, their mortgage offer seems to be taken an age to come through.

I can understand that he doesn't want to lose money through rental income but at the same time there is not much I can do and the pressure is stressing me out a little.

GRBWA

Interesting stuff

Thanks to all those who have made helpful comments.

SeduLOUs

Loopy28 wrote: »

I am in the process of buying a house with tenants in, the house was a bit messy on viewings but I was able to look past it and it didn't bother me.

The only thing is the seller is putting immense pressure on me to complete quickly as in the next 2 weeks because the tenants leave in a week, but I only got my offer accepted recently and can only move as quickly as the people who are buying my property are moving and as they are FTBs, their mortgage offer seems to be taken an age to come through.

I can understand that he doesn't want to lose money through rental income but at the same time there is not much I can do and the pressure is stressing me out a little.

Absolutely do not exchange contracts until the tenants are out. Your solicitor should already be telling you this. You have absolutely no idea whether those tenants will actually move out, and it could take several months to get them out even if the landlord has done his paperwork properly.

thesaint

G_M wrote: »

The last 25% will be the ignorant ones who think that having tenants there makes no difference, so they will proceed as normal. Until they speak to their solicitors and get advice..........

...Which is to not exchange until the property is vacant.
Suits the OP(whom is the one asking for advice, not the potential buyer, or current tenant)down to the ground.

Loopy28

SeduLOUs wrote: »

Absolutely do not exchange contracts until the tenants are out. Your solicitor should already be telling you this. You have absolutely no idea whether those tenants will actually move out, and it could take several months to get them out even if the landlord has done his paperwork properly.

Thanks and yes the solicitor has said that exchange will not take place until the property is empty. To be honest I can't see we will be in a position to exchange any time soon because our buyers are having all sorts of delays getting their mortgage offer due to one owning a business and needing documents from the Inland Revenue. They are also using a no sale no fee solicitor who have told them they won't start any work on the conveyancing until their mortgage offer has come in. You can imagine my annoyance by this but my solicitor has advised me not to proceed any further with our purchase until they get their mortgage offer and start conveyancing work because otherwise we will be paying legal fees and searches that we may lose if they don't proceed.

This is fine but not sure how long the landlord we are buying the property from will be happy with that taking into account being without rent on the property while it is empty.

dancingfairy

I would come up with a deal for the tenants. Could you accept 75% of the rent and give the rest as a discount? It might be worth getting it in writing though or maybe offer to buy them dinner/a nice bottle of wine/pay their deposit - how generous are you feeling and how much of a good relationship do you have?
Do remember though that it is there home at the end of the day and they do not have to accomodate viewings so please only do this if the tenants are happy (you don't want them sabotaging a sale). IF the tenants are happy to do this you should be extremely thankful.
If my landlord tried to do this I would be very fed up unless we had a very good relationship and there was something in it for me (ie a financial incentive) and the landlord realised I was doing him a huge favour.
df

martindow

Loopy28 wrote: »

This is fine but not sure how long the landlord we are buying the property from will be happy with that taking into account being without rent on the property while it is empty.

You need to stop worrying about his happiness. In most cases for all of the reasons mentioned earlier in this thread LLs need to have tenants out before they can sell.

cloo

I had no evidence my tenants' presence put off viewers, who were all FTBs and probably didn't have any thought about potential problems.

It's a risky business doing so, and when I did it (I also had a good relationship with my tenants) lots of people here told me my tenants WOULDN'T leave and I would HAVE TO evict them and it could take 6 MONTHS. As it was, the truth was somewhere between that and the actuality... they strung out their stay for another 5 weeks (fortunately it was another 6 or so after that before the house exchanged) causing me a lot of stress because I couldn't be sure if they were just playing for a bit of extra time or were determined to stay as long as was convenient for them, but I didn't have to evict them at least, though I did have to serve the papers, which I suspect gave them the shove to move on.

CantSwingACat

I don't think there is really any need to have a go at the OP here. I know they're a landlord and everyone who isn't a landlord is supposed to hate them, but the original post really didn't stand out as particularly negative to me. Yeah this person wants to sell their property and that's often far from ideal if there are tenants involved, but the OP hasn't suggested that the tenants are being turfed out at any point. If this person has decided they want to sell then so be it. As long as they're considerate of the tenants then I don't see a problem. Let's all be mates rather than all hostile