Do you own a house or property that currently has tenants living in it? Are you interested in selling that property fast? The good news is that despite the fact that there are currently people living in the house you’d like to see, it’s possible. You don’t have to wait until they move out in order to sell your house.
Even if you aren’t planning to sell a house with tenants right now, that can change quickly. You might find yourself in a financial situation that requires you to liquify your assets, such as a rental property. You might decide that you need to unload your rental property because you need to move or it’s just not making a lot of financial sense for you anymore. You might have inherited the property and never intended to be a landlord. You might have to make a move to another state due to a job change or relocation and don’t want to have to manage the property from afar. Or, quite simply, you want to sell your house with tenants fast because you don’t want to deal with the property or the tenants anymore.
Very Fast Home Buyers can buy your house with tenants in it. We can buy our property quickly without you needing to remove anyone from the property and we can give you cash for it. But even if you’re not ready to do that, we want to provide some potential steps and advice and you can follow to put yourself in a better position to sell your house with tenants in it quickly.
How To Sell A House In Houston TX With Tenants
Give Your Tenants Notice If You Can
If you decide that you want to sell your house with tenants in it, the simplest solution is to remove the tenants from the equation. Easier said than done in some situations. If your tenants are currently renting on a month-to-month lease, that’s the ideal scenario. You can simply give notice to them that they need to vacate the house at the end of the next month that covers at least 30 days. You shouldn’t even need to give a specific reason for the notice since this is a “no cause” lease termination. You’ll just want to make sure that the letter includes the specific dates and requirements of their move-out, language about personal possessions, the move-out process, and how you intend to return any security deposits.
If the tenant doesn’t move out by the requested date in your letter, you can begin the eviction process right away. Make sure you’re prepared to do this just in case you don’t want to waste any further time. Make sure you brush up on Texas’s rental laws while you go down this road so you cover yourself legally and don’t do anything that can come back to bite you.
Know Your Lease Terms
If you’re trying to sell a property with tenants fast, that can be a little more complicated if the tenants are not on a month-to-month lease. A fixed lease is one that has a specific end date in the future, which could be two, three, six, or even 12 months away. Getting a tenant to willingly leave the property when they have a signed fixed lease can be a little more tricky.
The first thing you need to do is take a closer look at the lease you signed with them. Check over all the details and dates. Be sure about exactly how much notice you are required to give before they need to leave the premises. You’ll also want to take a close look at the tenant requirements and rules to find out if they’ve violated any of the agreements. If that’s the case, you may have grounds to terminate the lease with notice way faster than otherwise.
This is not an opportunity to make up fake reasons to get a tenant out of your house. That’s a bad idea that came back on you in the form of legal fees and lawsuits. The point is that if you can identify an actual violation of the rules laid out in the lease. In fact, your tenant might be violating the terms of the lease and not even be aware of it. They may have failed to pay rent on time for a successive period of time. They may have broken a no-pet clause or a no-smoking clause. They may have engaged in illegal activities on the property, such as drug use or subletting without permission. They may have provided false information on the lease that you weren’t previously aware of. They may have caused property damage. Or they may have multiple people living in the house that you weren’t aware of or weren’t consulting about.
If you find a viable violation, submit a notice of violation to the tenant, and include information regarding when they need to leave the property. You should be aware that the tenant may be very surprised by the news and it could lead to a negative reaction or confrontation. It’s possible they could deny the violation and refuse to leave. Be prepared to get legal threats or local authorities involved in certain cases.
Pay Your Tenants to Leave
Let’s say you’ve got a tenant in your house who is locked in for a long time to a longterm lease and has made it clear they don’t intend to leave until it expires. In that case, you can simply make them an offer they can’t refuse, so to speak. Basically, you can consider trying to “buy them out” of the lease. This can be referred to as a “cash for keys” tactic as well. The idea is that the landlord and the tenant negotiate financial terms that give the tenant a reason to move out before their lease expires.
One way to do this is to pay the tenant the financial difference between what they’ve been paying in rent and what they’ll have to pay to move into a new place on short notice. You can also offer to pay all of the tenant’s moving costs or cover their security deposit or first month’s rent in a new rental. And if that doesn’t work, you can simply offer the tenant cash and see if it’s an enticing amount to make them leave before the lease expires.
Just remember that the tenant is under no obligation to accept any of these offers. They have a binding contract with you in the form of the lease and if they feel as though they want to stay until it expires and they haven’t violated the terms of the lease, they are free to do so. So don’t try to strong-arm the tenant too much because you might not have much leverage.
Execute the Lease’s Early Termination Clause
If you don’t have any options with the tenant in your house you want to sell fast, you can execute the early termination clause if it exists. This isn’t something that every rental contract has so be sure to check and make sure it’s in there. The early termination clause may have a unique deadline and can range anywhere from 30 days to 90 days.
The early termination clause will require a very specific reason for why you are executing it. The language in the contract should guide you. Often, it says that the landlord can terminate the lease for any “reasonable” decision. That certainly gives you some leeway but if your reason is that you need to sell the house fast, that seems like it could certainly qualify. Just know that a tenant could push back against this if the lease and your reasons aren’t aligned.
Sell Your House As-Is for Cash
If you want to sell your house with tenants in Houston, it can be a bit of a hassle. There’s a decent chance you’ll have to haggle over lease terms, spend some money, deal with angry tenants, and potentially even go to court over it. And of course, even if you get the tenant out of the house, you may not be able to sell as fast as you like on the open market.
Very Fast Home Buyers can help you out! We buy houses as-is and that also means we buy houses with tenants. We buy houses no matter the condition, financial situation, or tenancy. Let us make you a no-obligation offer, pay you cash for your property, and then handle dealing with the tenants so you don’t have to. We’ll make you an offer fast, often within 24 hours of you contacting us. Then we can close on your terms, so if you need to get this done ASAP, we’ll make it happen.