Selling Rental Homes in Sacramento That Are Occupied by Tenants

Selling Rental Homes in Sacramento is easier with cooperation.

Some real estate agents in Sacramento will not list a rental property if the home is not easy to show, even if the price is right. The reasoning is the home might not sell for a while if buyers can’t get inside because tenants won’t cooperate. Oh, tenants will say, sure, they’ll cooperate, but then they bolt the inside of the door, don’t answer their phone for appointments and make life all-around-hell for the Sacramento Realtor. This is why I caution sellers to either evict the tenants or give them an incentive.

I have two new listings this week, a home in Elk Grove and another in West Sacramento, in which we were able to quickly move out the tenants, clean up the home, and put these homes on the market — while it’s still sizzling hot for sellers. Of course, I help sellers prepare the home for sale, either through referrals to contractors or staging advice. We want the home to show in its best light.

One rental home in Sacramento closed recently with a tenant in place. This tenant claimed to work from 6 AM in the morning to 11 PM at night — and maybe she held several jobs, I don’t know. She would not allow a lockbox. I had no interior photographs. Buyer’s agents struggled mightily to make appointments because the tenant would not call them back. I would text her and encourage agents to text, but the tenant was slow to respond, if she responded at all. This particular home probably could have sold for 10% more than it did, and the seller knew it, but the seller, for personal reasons, wanted to leave the tenant in place.

The seller also would not evict the tenant during escrow, which meant either a buyer would be saddled with a tenant and could not take immediate possession or the buyer needed to be an investor. There are not many investors in the market anymore like a few years ago. This is a situation that many agents would walk away from.

I am not an agent who needs to close every single escrow in 30 days. I have incredible patience, and I can wait, especially if that’s the seller’s intention. These sellers wanted a certain type of buyer who would pay a certain price. It took us 211 days to find that buyer but we closed escrow. Compare that to other homes in that area that typically sell within 30 to 45 days over the past two years. There was nothing wrong with this home. It was the obstinate tenant and the lack of seller motivation, but that’s OK with me. As long as it will eventually sell, I will list that home and sell it.

My time frame is my seller’s time frame.