We bought this rental property in Marrero with the tenant

It can be hard to sell a house when you have a tenant in place. Ideally you want to get the tenant out and fix the house up so you can maximize the sales price. But that can be easier said than done. Once you evict the tenant you lose the rental income and still need to pay your mortgage, taxes, insurance and maintenance and also invest some money to freshen the house up. Then you need to list it on the market so home owners can come through the property and when you eventually get a contract to sell it there will be long inspection where the bank has to appraisals, inspectors need to check everything. This takes time and its not uncommon for the banks or the buyers to find issues and cancel the contract. All this while you are still paying the mortgage, taxes, insurance and maintenance.

If you have the funds and time to wait then this isn’t a bad option, we have just found for lots of people this just isn’t an option. They just want a fast easier sale from a cash home buyer like us. Since we buy houses with tenants we don’t have an issue buying the house in as is condition with the tenant.

In this video our founder Steve Keighery is at a house we bought with the tenants last year. The tenant has now moved out and Steve talks through the situation with the seller, how the deal came together and the condition of the property. Check out the video or read the transcript below.

Video Transcript

Hey, guys, Aussie Steve here. We buy houses in any condition in Louisiana. We are here at a property we bought a while ago. It’s been eight or nine months since we bought this property. We’re on the west bank of Jefferson Parish, in Marrero. I didn’t do a video when I bought it because there was a tenant in it.

The seller had reached out to us, she was done being a landlord. She was ready to sell, but the tenant was still in the property. The tenant still had a lease and wanted to stay in the property. So, it was hard for her to sell.

It’s hard to show and present a property with tenants in it. The tenants aren’t always very helpful with that. Also, like most landlords who have had a rental for a while, they’ve kept it up, but it’s a rental grade. I’ll show you the property in a second. Some of the repairs aren’t fantastic. A bit of deferred maintenance, nothing too crazy about it. But it’s just really hard to sell to a homeowner.

Homeowners won’t want the tenant in the property, and they want the house to be nicer before they can buy it. These things aren’t always easy to achieve. But luckily, we love rentals, we flip properties and we buy and sell properties for sure, but our favorite strategy is to keep them. So, we don’t mind having a tenant; we can deal with them. Even though this tenant was fine, they’re paying a bit under market rent. But they were looking after the property, so we didn’t have an issue keeping them. Their lease expired, and they were ready to move on, so they’ve just moved out. But we were happy to keep them.

We’re comfortable buying a house with problem tenants. Not that we want problem tenants in our property, but we do know how to deal with them. So, you might have a tenant that’s not paying, or one that’s not looking after the property, and you want to sell it. We can buy it with that tenant, and we’ll take responsibility. Just like we buy a house that needs repair in as is condition, we’ll buy a rental property that has a bad tenant and fix that problem. These are things we do. So, if you’re selling a rental property with tenants in it, we’re a really good option.

We also understand that sometimes you want to keep it a bit more discreet. You may not want us to come in with a Home Buyer Louisiana shirt. So, if you need us to look inconspicuous, we’re happy to do that because we understand that until you have a contract, you may not be certain about selling your house, and you don’t want to scare the tenant. So, if that’s you, then we know how to be reasonable with that. It’s pretty common for a landlord to send inspectors over to look at the condition of the property, insurance agency, etc. We could come in as one of those.

I’ll show you around the house. If you’ve seen my videos, you will know I definitely buy houses a lot worse than this. This is pretty good by my standards. But the floor is a bit uneven. You’ll see some substandard repairs on the property. So, it wasn’t ready to be sold to a homeowner. Also, the owner would have had to get rid of the tenant. That means they would no longer be getting rent. To add to that, they would have to come in and spend the money to fix it up. Then they have to list it on the market and wait to get an offer.

When you sell on the market, the sale usually takes a longer time. Homebuyers will be making use of financing, and they need to go through inspections and they might pick you up on an inspection report. Also, the financing falls through. Particularly now with interest rates going up, people are falling out of financing. It could also happen that they get the insurance quotes and they’re too high. So, the deal might fall through. Then, you have to find a new buyer and that can take time. So, in the meantime, your rent is gone, you’re paying the taxes, insurance and all that sort of stuff, and you’ve spent the money to fix it up. But you’re sitting there waiting for a homeowner to get it off you. If you can afford that, that’s fine. You probably should do it because you’re going to sell to a homeowner, and they’re going to eventually use bank financing. You can squeeze them up to top dollar, so that’s not a bad thing to do, but it’s not for everyone. In this case, and in a lot of cases, they don’t have the money and time to want to do that. They just want to move on, sell it as is with the tenant for cash. They just want to sell the house fast. That’s what we do.

So, if you have a house with tenants that you want to sell in as is condition, reach out to us. Also, If the house needs repairs and you just want to sell as is, reach out to us. You can check out our website, HomeBuyerLouisiana.com. You’ll see lots of information in there about selling your home.

Thank you so much, guys. Have a great day.

Looking to sell your house in as is condition? We buy houses all over Louisiana with a particular emphasis on New Orleans, Metairie, St Tammany & Baton Rouge