Monday, August 8, 2022
Chuck Marunde, J.D., Broker/Owner 360-775-5424


iRealty Virtual Brokers


Broker/Consultant

Washington State

SUBSCRIBE
Light/Dark Toggle
  • Home
  • Search MLS
    • Sequim MLS
    • Sequim MLS Map Search
    • Port Angeles MLS
    • Port Townsend MLS
    • San Juan Islands MLS
    • All Islands MLS
    • How to Search the Sequim MLS
  • Videos
    • Sequim Videos Q&A
    • Buyer Videos Part 1
    • Buyer Videos Part 2
    • Buyer Videos Part 3
    • Buyer Videos Part 4
    • Living in Sequim Video Channel
  • Books
    • Sequim Real Estate for Buyers (Free eBook Updates Forever)
    • Sequim Real Estate: A Buyer’s Guide (Paperback)
    • Escaping California to The San Juan Islands
      • Menu Below
    • Buying & Selling Real Estate in The Rain Shadow
    • Real Estate From Bricks & Mortar to High Tech Virtuality
    • The Seven Myths of Selling Your Home
    • Buying Your Retirement Home
    • The New World of Marketing for Real Estate Agents
  • Agents
    • Professional Buyer’s Agent
    • Flat Fee Listing Broker
Tetralogy
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • Register
  • Home
  • Search MLS
    • Sequim MLS
    • Sequim MLS Map Search
    • Port Angeles MLS
    • Port Townsend MLS
    • San Juan Islands MLS
    • All Islands MLS
    • How to Search the Sequim MLS
  • Videos
    • Sequim Videos Q&A
    • Buyer Videos Part 1
    • Buyer Videos Part 2
    • Buyer Videos Part 3
    • Buyer Videos Part 4
    • Living in Sequim Video Channel
  • Books
    • Sequim Real Estate for Buyers (Free eBook Updates Forever)
    • Sequim Real Estate: A Buyer’s Guide (Paperback)
    • Escaping California to The San Juan Islands
      • Menu Below
    • Buying & Selling Real Estate in The Rain Shadow
    • Real Estate From Bricks & Mortar to High Tech Virtuality
    • The Seven Myths of Selling Your Home
    • Buying Your Retirement Home
    • The New World of Marketing for Real Estate Agents
  • Agents
    • Professional Buyer’s Agent
    • Flat Fee Listing Broker
No Result
View All Result
iRealty Virtual Brokers
No Result
View All Result
Home Selling Your Home

How Not to Sell a Home in This Market: Rent It

by
July 27, 2012
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0 0
0

I had an interesting experience this past week with clients from out of town.  It was a reminder of a recurring mistake, a major mistake, that sellers often make in selling a home.  Here’s what happened.  I’m showing these clients homes that fit their general parameters, and we’re having a great time.  I always have a great time with clients as we are looking at homes and talking about their retirement plans and what they hope to find in their ideal Sequim or Port Angeles home.

We narrowed down the list of the best prospects, and that included a nice custom home in an area that appealed to my clients.  This home had been vacant, and it appeared to still be vacant, but when we arrived, we were promptly met by a nervous couple on the front sidewalk.  They were new tenants just moving in and were not interested in showing the home, not without the statutory 24 hour notice.

My clients were not impressed with that less-than-stellar greeting, the fact that we had to drive away without seeing the home, and the fact that the property had clearly not been maintained on the outside.  No mowing had been done.  Weeds were popping up everywhere, and there were unfinished projects.  And the tenants were not very friendly.  In fact, their behavior really turned my clients off, and my clients expressed concerns about dealing with sellers who would be responsible for this.  My clients wanted to leave the property and take it off their list of possible homes.

The Washington Landlord-Tenant Act does provide for a 24 hour notice to tenants before showing a home the landlord has for sale.  That’s not the issue.  The real issue here is that homes that are for sale and have tenants are almost always much harder to sell.  If you haven’t been a buyer from southern California or elsewhere who has come to Sequim or Port Angeles to look at homes for a quick weekend trip, you may not know how inconvenient it is to find out you have to jump over some hurdles to see a home.  The greatest inconvenience is that it may not be possible for a couple to reschedule 24 hours later if they have to get back to SeaTac to fly home.  (It’s not always possible to schedule every home clients want to see before they get here.  There’s much more to how this works in practice, but I don’t want this article to get too long on the main point.)

A home that is rented is harder to sell because of all the coordination that must take place.  The tenants are not always home when the agent calls, so they must play phone tag to get a time.  Meanwhile buyers don’t like waiting to find out if and when they can look at a home, so they typically scratch it off the list entirely.  There are many homes in the inventory in this slow real estate market.  There are plenty of homes to choose from.

So if you want to make the sale of your home much more difficult, rent it out.  And if you must rent it out, make sure your tenants agree in writing to waive the 24 hour notice requirement to show the home.   As a matter of fact, any homeowner who is serious about selling their home ought to agree to show the home (or have his tenant show it) to a prospective buyer ANY TIME the buyer wants to see it.   If an agent calls and asks if he can show your home in 10 minutes, let him!  If an agent and his clients showed up on the front steps with no advance notice and asked to see the home, SHOW IT!  Do not turn away potential buyers in this market!  They normally will walk through the home and be gone in less than 15 minutes.

Buyers are few and far between these days, so a seller can easily lose a buyer by not cooperating to make it convenient for the buyer to see the home.  Of course, a tenant doesn’t have to agree to less than a 24 hour notice.  Again, that only makes my point.  A rental is harder to sell, and turning away a prospective buyer is not wise in this market.  Someone may argue that everyone deserves a 24 hour notice.  After representing many buyers going back 30 years, there are many reasons that doesn’t always work for buyers.  Serious sellers must recognize that they are not in control of this market or the buyers.  This is a buyer’s market, not a seller’s market.  Cooperation with buyers is critical.  Anything less can mean a lost sale.

I have listings myself in which there are tenants, but these tenants are friendly, cooperative, and quick to show the property and its features to prospective buyers.  That makes all the difference in selling a home.  But this isn’t the case for many homes, and I’ve experienced first hand how buyers will turn away from a home they might have made an offer on, if only they could have gotten inside when they were ready, willing, and able.

Last Updated on July 27, 2012 by Chuck Marunde

Tags: listingselling a home
ShareTweet

Related Posts

How to Sell Your Home
Selling Your Home

How to Sell Your Home: 7 Myths Chapter 1 (Part 3 of 3)

October 22, 2019
2
How to Sell Your Home
Selling Your Home

How to Sell Your Home: 7 Myths Chapter 1 (Part 2 of 3) The Open House

October 22, 2019
2
How to Sell Your Home
Selling Your Home

How to Sell Your Home: 7 Myths Chapter 1 (Part 1 of 3)

October 10, 2019
4
How to Sell Your Home
Selling Your Home

How to Sell Your Home: 7 Myths Part 5

August 3, 2022
2
How to Sell Your Home
Selling Your Home

How to Sell Your Home: 7 Myths Part 4

January 6, 2021
2
How to Sell Your Home
Selling Your Home

How to Sell Your Home: 7 Myths Part 3

January 6, 2021
2
Next Post

Why The For-Sale-By-Owner (FSBO) is Hard to Sell

Sequim Real Estate Market Reports

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

"I wish I read this before selling my
home. I could have saved $50,000." Andy 

Search 2,200 Articles by Category

  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest
Buyer and Seller

What if a Buyer and Seller Talk to Each Other?

August 5, 2022
10 Best Places to Retire

Why is Sequim One Of The 10 Best Places To Retire?

September 22, 2019
Terminate a real estate contract

How to Terminate a Real Estate Contract

December 31, 2020
Flat Fee Listing Service Now in Washington

Flat Fee Listing Service Now in Washington

July 28, 2022
print newspapers

Print Newspapers Losing Readers to the Internet

42
FNMA Killing Transactions by Requiring Private Road Maintenance Agreements

FNMA Killing Transactions by Requiring Private Road Maintenance Agreements

30
Buyer and Seller

What if a Buyer and Seller Talk to Each Other?

26

What Documents Does a Buyer Need to Buy Real Estate?

24
The 4 Most Powerful Real Estate Resources Packaged

The 4 Most Powerful Real Estate Resources Packaged

August 6, 2022
Real Estate Market Declining

Real Estate Bubble Popped

August 3, 2022
Flat Fee Listing Service Now in Washington

Flat Fee Listing Service Now in Washington

July 28, 2022
Sequim Real Estate Market Turns Down

Sequim Real Estate Market Turns Down

July 13, 2022

Subscribe to Chuck 
Marunde's Newsletter

Popular Stories

  • Buyer and Seller

    What if a Buyer and Seller Talk to Each Other?

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Why is Sequim One Of The 10 Best Places To Retire?

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • How to Terminate a Real Estate Contract

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Flat Fee Listing Service Now in Washington

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • How to Prorate Propane at Closing

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

iRealty Virtual Brokers

iRealty Virtual Brokers reaches out to buyers around the United States with thousands of online articles, MLS sites, apps, real estate books, videos, and much more specifically to help buyers find all the answers to their questions. We also now offer a flat fee commission listing service that saves sellers tens of thousands of dollars.

iRealty Virtual Brokers
125 Olympic Ranch Ln
Sequim, Washington 98382
360-775-5424

The largest independent real estate blog in the State of Washington with over 2,200 articles totally focused on our client’s best interest, their needs and their curiosity. All free and 100% reliable. I’m here if you need me, 

© 2006-2022 iRealty Virtual Brokers and Chuck Marunde

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Search MLS
    • Sequim MLS
    • Sequim MLS Map Search
    • Port Angeles MLS
    • Port Townsend MLS
    • San Juan Islands MLS
    • All Islands MLS
    • How to Search the Sequim MLS
  • Videos
    • Sequim Videos Q&A
    • Buyer Videos Part 1
    • Buyer Videos Part 2
    • Buyer Videos Part 3
    • Buyer Videos Part 4
    • Living in Sequim Video Channel
  • Books
    • Sequim Real Estate for Buyers (Free eBook Updates Forever)
    • Sequim Real Estate: A Buyer’s Guide (Paperback)
    • Escaping California to The San Juan Islands
      • Menu Below
    • Buying & Selling Real Estate in The Rain Shadow
    • Real Estate From Bricks & Mortar to High Tech Virtuality
    • The Seven Myths of Selling Your Home
    • Buying Your Retirement Home
    • The New World of Marketing for Real Estate Agents
  • Agents
    • Professional Buyer’s Agent
    • Flat Fee Listing Broker

© 2006-2022 iRealty Virtual Brokers and Chuck Marunde

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms bellow to register

*By registering into our website, you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.