Hello

When I first started in real estate in 2004, we would have sold investment properties with the tenant still there about 75% of the time. The reasons for this included, the landlord did not lose any rent whilst selling, an investor might be more likely to buy with a tenant already in place and the photos would have the tenant’s furniture in them as opposed to a vacant property. Back in 2004 only the premium properties would pay for hire furniture, whereas now you will rarely see an empty property. The 25% of the time that we sold without a tenant happened when a tenant had just moved out or if it would seem the tenant was not keeping the property clean enough or would be too hard to work with. In general, during the sale we would usually discount the tenants rent around 10% for the inconvenience, and under the condition that the property was kept extra clean for the selling period.

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Fast forward to today. I would say that now the percentages have reversed, in that 25% of the time the tenants will stay on during the sale and 75% of the time investment properties will be sold vacant but usually with hire furniture. There are a few reasons for the change. Landlords still don’t like losing potential rental income, but they understand that presentation is important. It’s not the tenant’s fault, as they are now looking for a new rental property, so what is their motive to keep the house picture perfect? Another reason is that it is now investors are not buying property like they were 20 years ago. You could put that down to higher interest rates as well as higher government charges like land tax.

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So, which thinking is the best? Given the lack of investors looking to buy now and the fact that people better understand the importance of presentation, I would say sell the property vacant with hire furniture. As mentioned, it’s not a criticism of tenants as how could they keep a property as well presented as it would be after a professional clean followed by adding hire furniture? I would say the exception would be if the property was likely to take a long time to sell for some reason or if the tenant was a clean freak!

Traditionally property has been a very good investment. The only issue being that the associated costs can be high when comparing to other forms of investment. Compare buying in and out of shares to property where you have stamp duty, agent’s fees, solicitor costs, advertising expenses and interest to pay. Because of these expenses I would say that it even more important to get the selling process right and fully capitalise on your investment. The old adage of give a little and get a lot often applies here. When making any selling decision, remember in real estate, presentation is king!