Preparing your investment for sale

Thinking of selling your buy to let?  This is obviously a little more difficult than selling your own home as you are not in control of how it’s presented.  Here are a few tips that may help:

Where possible, use the agent who let it, sell it.  There is a very good reason for this – the agent will have a relationship with the tenant and this is key.  The last thing you want is for the tenant to give notice the minute they hear the property is going on the market.  Make sure the agent makes the tenant aware that notice will only be given once a suitable offer is received and accepted.

Encourage the tenant to keep it tidy.  This may sound simple but, at the end of the day, the tenant has little interest in getting the property sold.  Therefore advise them that there is every possibility that the property will sell to another investor, in which case they will probably be allowed to stay on.

Ask the agent to go early to every viewing!  This will allow them time to have a quick tidy, if necessary, open curtains and air it a little.

Emphasis the rental value.  If it is a typical buy to let investment and most likely to appeal to investors, make sure it is marketed as such including the rental value.

Periodic tenancy.  If possible, don’t market the property until your tenant is on a periodic tenancy.  Two reasons for this, if they are in a fixed term tenancy it limits your market massively, secondly, if it does sell to a new owner occupier, you can serve your two months notice.

                                                         

Notice.  If the property is sold to an owner occupier, only serve notice once you have agreed a price, solicitors have been instructed and you have received notification that the survey has been booked.  The sales process typically takes anything between 8 to 12 weeks, depending on the chain so this should limit the time the property is empty.

At the end of the day, communication is key when selling a buy to let and that’s mainly the communication between the agent and the tenant.  Keep them on side and it should be a relatively painless process!