Quick Sale with sitting Tennants

[owl09]

Hello. Apologies if this is posted in the wrong area.

We're looking for some advice. My partner has been trying to sell her 2 Bedroom Semi for almost 5 years now. She is an 'accidental landlord' and she has good reliable sitting Tenants. We're just not getting anyone through the door let alone any offers. So we wondered if there's a good Website or Letting Agent that specialised in Landlord to Landlord Sales so we could attract the 'going concern' market.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[thesaint]

Is it not a property that an owner occupier would buy?

If it has been up for sale for 5 years, it's time to change strategy.

[Wannadonnadoodah]

The price is too high.

[owl09]

thesaint,

1. We would have thought so. Next door went quickly enough and it's exactly the same at £1K more asking price.
2. This IS the change of Strategy!

We've had three different Estate Agents. Probably because it's in a poor area in the middle of nowhere. That's why we though it was time to see if any Landlords wanted an investment rather than owner occupier....

[owl09]

Wannadonnadoodah,

It's the lowest we could possibly go. And its £1,000 lower than next door was listed and that went ok. People talk about the housing bubble but not in our area (Rural North East England) the owner occupier market is stagnant and we want a change of strategy. We've even investigated Webuyanyhouse type of websites.

[thesaint]

Get rid of the tenants, and sell with vacant possession.

[theartfullodger]

It's the lowest we could possibly go. .....

That's the issue: It doesn't matter what price you want, what matters is what price someone else will buy at..

Fundamental principle of/fault with capitalism..

Cheers!

[owl09]

Get rid of the tenants, and sell with vacant possession.

We couldn't possibly do without the Rent coming in. Anyway the fact that there's someone in the house cannot be the reason why people are not coming to view it in the first place - how would they know? Secondly, I would have thought a sitting tenant of good track history, not in arrears, looks after the house etc would be a good selling point to a potential Landlord investor...

[owl09]

So at the moment nobody knows of any specialist service offered to Landlords selling/buying from Landlords? (mmm, sounds like a potential .COM business opportunity to me)

Has anyone seen this? http://www.landlorddeals.co.uk/index.html it looks like its affiliated to LandlordZone?

[Wannadonnadoodah]

It's the lowest we could possibly go. And its £1,000 lower than next door was listed and that went ok. People talk about the housing bubble but not in our area (Rural North East England) the owner occupier market is stagnant and we want a change of strategy. We've even investigated Webuyanyhouse type of websites.

I presume the webuyanyhouse type sites were offering stupid money for the property as that'd be how they work. Sounds like you're stuck then. If the price is too high but as low as you can go and you've had 3 agents over 5 years I'd say you have to sit tight. Does the property need any renovation work doing to it, kitchen/bathroom? They can sell a house but obviously come at a price. What's the rental yield at the moment?

[theartfullodger]

We couldn't possibly do without the Rent coming in.

You're likely stuffed then sorry.

Anyway the fact that there's someone in the house cannot be the reason why people are not coming to view it in the first place - how would they know? Secondly, I would have thought a sitting tenant of good track history, not in arrears, looks after the house etc would be a good selling point to a potential Landlord investor...

The general rule of thumb is, selling with sitting tenant (even with perfect paperwork..) gets a lower price than vacant..(worked for ne when I bought in such circumstances.. & the selling landlord expected that)- apart from anything else, you getting the tenant out could well take, say, 6 months & buyers don't want that delay..

I agree with the earlier advice, sell with vacant possession: or sell to some dodgy merchant who will almost certainly drop his price 2 seconds before completion...

Good luck, sorry...

[owl09]

It's all good inside. No work needed, and the tenants take pride in the property. Indeed if their financial situation was significantly better they have said they would love to buy it (however we both know they have NO chance in getting a mortgage). Current Rental income £450 p/m looking to sell for offers in region of £89k.

We've been told by a friend that the webuyanyhouse sites will typically offer anything between 25%-40% under the market value and then at the last minute they tend to 'suddenly' find and issue with the survey and offer a few grand less so to catch the desperate to sell people unawares. We have a call into them but we're not expecting anything realistic that we could sell for. If they are offering that low then why not reduce it in the shop window of the Estate Agents!

[Wannadonnadoodah]

Ok, so it's offers in the region of, what would you accept as an offer if someone made it today?

[owl09]

We'd have to re-visit the mortgage company for an exact settlement figure but would probably accept £84k at a push if we did our sums. Some may ask why put it up as high as £89k but people always knock off a certain amount on their initial offer. We just wanted some room for manoeuvre.

It would be a massive move forward if someone actually did put in a "taking the Michael" offer that we had to laugh off, but as I say we've had absolutely nothing in several years, not even a joke offer!

[Wannadonnadoodah]

Market it at 84K firm then. It's up to your agent to manage peoples expectations when asking about the property and doing viewings. I'm not advocating putting 'fixed price' on the advert either as I don't think that does anyone any favors. I agree everyone likes wiggle room but some people also like it straight up, no messing and like to know where they stand from the off.

Good Luck.