As landlords and property managers, we all love rent-paying, non-destructive tenants.  We hate the rest, but that’s another story.  No matter how much tenant love you may have, if you want to sell your house for the highest and best price, even the best tenant can be a detriment.  Why?  It takes a lot of work and devotion to get the house show-ready and keep it that way during the entire listing period.  Most homeowners lack the motivation to keep their own house show-ready, and they have the motivation of monetary gains (hopefully) to entice them.  Tenants have nothing to gain for their inconvenience so their participation may be less than enthusiastic.  By having a tenant, you limit your market to mainly investors because you are not only selling the house, you are selling the tenant with it.  Anyone buying your rental property automatically becomes a landlord, like it or not, until the tenant’s lease expires.  So what are your options for selling a rental property with a tenant?

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Thinking about having an open house or creating a virtual tour to sell your home?  Be careful not to reveal to much about your house.  Not only do open houses, virtual tours, brochures, and MLS pictures  attract buyers, but if you reveal too many details, you could be advertising to thieves and burglars too.  Thieves love virtual tours and MLS pictures because they can be used to “case” your house from the comfort of the thief’s home.   Follow these tips to reduce your exposure and prevent your marketing activities from attracting the wrong type of shopper?

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In this highly competitive market real estate agents jump on expired listings. So, when your listing expires you can expect a flood of calls from real estate agents eager to win your listing starting the morning your listing expires or gets canceled. Unfortunately, this is going to be a vulnerable time for you because you are probably not happy with the real estate agent you’ve been working with over the past few months and are ready to make a fresh start with a new real estate agent but don’t want to make the same mistake of picking an agent that can not sell your house a second time.

Expect calls from lying real estate agents trying to weasel their way into your home to steal away your listing. Failure to see through their lies may result in hiring a real estate agent that you will not be happy with. Here are a few of the most common lies you’ll hear from real estate agents when your listing expires.

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Is this your agent?

According to the “2009 Profile of Texas Homebuyers and Sellers” study conducted by the Texas Association of Realtors, 8 out of 10 sellers said that they would not use the same agent again to sell their house.  The survey doesn’t mention why sellers wouldn’t use the same agent again, but the Texas Association of Realtors speculates that it could be attributed to sellers no longer living in that agent’s area or that agents do not spend enough effort staying in contact with past clients.  I think there are other reasons the article doesn’t want to admit.
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Rarely is it a good idea to use the same agent that sold your last house to sell your current house.  You should focus on finding an agent that is successful in your new neighborhood instead of using your old agent that was an expert in your old neighborhood.  Successful real estate agents focus on a targeted area and because of that focus, they perform better in certain areas than they would in other areas.  So the same agent that you used to sell your last house may not perform as well selling your current house.
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