We all know the real estate market is on fire, and if you are a landlord that owns a rental property, you may want to cash in on this red hot market. If you are wanting to sell your tenantoccupied rental property you must know and understand what to expect and best practices to sell your rental property and if you should even sell a property while the tenant is occupying the property.

Tenantoccupied rental homes are much harder to sell than vacant homes ready for showings. In this video, you will learn how to sell a tenantoccupied property, and what you need to know as a landlord.

1. Follow The Terms Of Your Lease Agreement

On all occasions, both the landlord and tenant must abide by the terms of the lease agreement. Your lease agreement should clearly state how the sale of your rental property will operate if you decide to sell during the occupancy. Important terms to include in your lease agreement are:

Sale Provision in Your Lease
Entry Notification For Showings (How Much Notice You Need To Provide)
Notices Once the Property Has Sold
Security Deposit Transfer At Closing

2. Tenant Relations Matter

If your tenant does not like you, chances are they will not cooperate with the sale of your rental home. If you are a self managing rental property owner, tenant relations are extremely important.

How to create a healthy relationship with your tenant:

Provide Excellent Service
Respond to Tenant Requests
Provide Quick & Quality Maintenance
Clearly, State How Things will Operate
Talk with Your Tenant Before Selling Don’t Just List It and Sell It
Show Appreciation if They Are Cooperating with The Sale
Incentivize Your Tenant or Offer a Lease Buyout

If you have a quality relationship with your tenants and show compassion they will understand the property has to be clean, showready, and help with the sale of the property.

3. Provide Sufficient Notice

There is nothing worse than a random person showing up at your house. If you do not provide sufficient notice of property tours, then the home will show horribly.

By providing your tenants a wellwritten and respectful notice of showings and updates, they will respect your time and be much more willing to work with you. As a landlord, a small gesture can go a long way.

4. Schedule Showings Around Their Schedule

We always suggest showing and entering a tenantoccupied property around the tenant’s schedule. As the landlord, you have to understand that your tenant also has a life, juggling, work, family, activities just like you.

Being considerate of your tenant’s time, they have a right to quiet enjoyment of the home, and scheduling the best time can be extremely helpful and beneficial for both parties in the sale of your property. There are days and times that work best for showing a property for sale.

5. Let Your Tenant GO

We have seen rental property owners in the Orlando area needing to sell their property fast. If you are a landlord that needs to sell your property fast, then you may want to consider letting your tenant vacate the property early, without penalty, and offering a buyout. If you have a solid relationship with your tenant and provide ample time, provide helpful information and assistance, typically your tenant will be willing to work with you.

6. Communicate Once Your Rental Sells

Many tenants enjoy being in the loop, if your tenantoccupied property is sold, make sure they know the property has a new property owner. When one of our rental properties is sold, we provide the tenant with a soft introduction of the new property owner or new property management company. This is the best practice as well because you're required by law to inform the tenant where their security deposit will be transferred to and where it is going to be held.

People, in general, do not like uncertainty. Neither do tenants, a tenant will want to know:

Where to Pay Rent
Who to Pay Rent To
Is Their Current Lease Still Valid?
Who Handles Rental Property Maintenance?
Who Do They Contact in Incase of Emergency?
Where is Their Security Deposit Held?

7. Partner With Professional Property Managers

We always recommend having a property management company or property manager that can handle all the aspects of owning an investment property and when it becomes time to sell use them to sell or someone they refer.

8. Our Opinion Of Selling a Tenant Occupied Property

As a professional property management company, if your home is a singlefamily home we always suggest NEVER sell a TENANT OCCUPIED RENTAL PROPERTY. We always advise our homeowners and real estate investors to wait until their tenant’s lease expires. 12 months goes by very fast if you decide to lease out your property.

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