Why Landlords Are Raving About This Easy Way To Sell A Rental Property

You invest in property to make money. If you made money acting as a landlord, you felt good about your property. But then, when it’s time to sell, it could get a lot more complicated. Not too many buyers want a rental property, so your audience is limited. Suddenly it makes investing in properties feel less than optimal.

But there is an easy way to sell a rental property, and landlords love it. Landlords are using Roofstock Marketplace to sell homes. They can’t believe how easy it is to sell their rental properties and for the price they want.

Here’s everything you need to know about Roofstock Marketplace.

What Is Roofstock Marketplace?

Roofstock Marketplace is a platform for buyers and sellers of investment properties. Many sellers sell property with tenants in it successfully. Roofstock professionals make it easy to list, market, and sell your property without the help of a real estate agent.

Roofstock Marketplace’s main audience is investors, so you don’t have to waste your time dealing with buyers who aren’t interested in an investment property. Instead, you have access to an audience who is interested in buying a rental property and possibly even a home with renters already in it.

Roofstock does all the work, including marketing your home. All you have to do is sit back and wait for offers to come in. Many buyers will bid on the home sight unseen, so it takes a lot less effort to sell a home online using Roofstock than it does selling it yourself or with a real estate agent.

How Does It Work For Sellers?

Roofstock makes it easy for sellers to sell their property. The most work you have to do is submit a listing and great photographs of the property. Roofstock does the rest.

Once you submit a listing, Roofstock provides you with a free price estimate based on your provided information. You can solidify your pricing after Roofstock does the rest of its due diligence to ensure you price it right.

Roofstock does some or all of the following for each seller.

Property Inspection

Roofstock professionals will inspect the property much like a buyer’s inspector would inspect it. They’ll ensure the property is in good condition and doesn’t require any repairs or renovations. This helps buyers know the home is in good condition, and they are likely to pass the appraisal if they need financing.

Title Work

Roofstock professionals also do a preliminary title search. This search looks for any outstanding liens or other issues with the property’s title. A title issue could delay mortgage financing or cause a deal to fall through. Having the title work done upfront makes it easier to sell the home with a clear conscience.

Financials

Roofstock also does financial analyses for buyers, so they know exactly what they’re getting into if they’re interested in the property. The analyses include net cash flow predictions, lease information, and even neighborhood information.

Create A Listing

Once you have everything completed, Roofstock creates a listing for the home. The listing includes all the information Roofstock has come up with, along with the information you provided. The better the pictures you can provide for the listing, the faster it will sell because most buyers buy investment homes with tenants sight unseen. Many investors may even be located halfway across the country.

Accept Bids And Close

Once your home is listed, you can accept bids online. Just like when you sell the home in person, you can negotiate the price or terms of the sale before signing a sales contract. Once you and the buyer agree on a price, Roofstock coordinates the closing process. The process typically takes 30 days from the date you sign the contract.

What Does Roofstock Cost?

Roofstock costs a fraction of what in-person real estate agents charge. In general, sellers pay 3% of the sales price or $2,500, whichever is higher. If you compare that to the cost of a traditional real estate agent, it would cost sellers 6% of the sales price or double what it costs to use Roofstock and market your property directly to investors. 

What Are The Benefits Of Selling On Roofstock?

Selling your property on Roofstock offers many benefits, including:

• You market directly to your target audience. If you sell the home yourself or with a real estate agent, you typically market to a general audience. It could waste a lot of your time as you work through buyers who want a home to reside in and not invest in as they are usually looking for different features. Many buyers looking for a home are hesitant to buy a home that was once rented.
• Roofstock does all the work for you. All you have to do is provide information about the home and photographs - Roofstock professionals do the rest. This includes an inspection and title work upfront, so you know what you’re dealing with before you even list the property. Traditional sales do these steps after they find a buyer, which can delay the sales process or cause sales to fall through.
• You’ll save money. Roofstock costs half of what a standard real estate agent charges, and they do more work. You’ll have better analyses to provide buyers with, which may help you sell the home faster and for a fraction of the cost. This means you walk away with a larger profit and for less work.
• You can take advantage of the Roofstock Open House. During the Roofstock Open House, your home is featured at the top of the Roofstock listings for 24 hours. Homes in the Open House usually get a lot of traffic and often sell during this period. Sellers have 24 hours to respond to any offers. It’s a great way to sell your home fast.

Why Is It Harder To Sell A Rental Property?

As an investor, you may think it’s easy to sell your rental property. When your tenants are done living there, and you’re done being a landlord, you figure you’ll stick a sign in the ground and sell it.

It may not work that way. It’s often harder to sell a rental property. Here’s why.

You Still Have Tenants

If you still have tenants in the home with an active lease, you can’t force them out. They have a signed lease, and unless there is an addendum to the lease that allows you to ask them to leave sooner, you can’t.

This could put a damper on your plans to sell your home. Now you're at the mercy of your tenants. When they leave, you can get in there and fix the home up and then list it. But this could take months or longer, and who knows what the real estate industry will be like at that point. 

When you work with Roofstock Marketplace, though, you can sell a turnkey property or a property with tenants in it. Once you close on the property, the only thing that changes is the name of the landlord and who the tenants pay.

Buyers Don’t Want Rental Properties

Many buyers want nothing to do with rental properties. They have the stigma that they are in bad condition, even if they aren’t. Since most people don’t take care of a rental as well as they do a home they own, many buyers won’t entertain the thought of buying a home renters lived in.

This could leave you with a smaller audience and increase the time it takes to sell the home. When you sell to a pool of investors who want a rental property, though, you’ll have an easier time selling the home and likely get what you want for it.

It’s Hard To Find The Right Audience 

Unless you network a lot, you may not have the right audience to sell your property to. If you market to the wrong audience, you won’t sell the home as fast as you’d like. 

Working with a platform like Roofstock, you’ll have the audience already since Roofstock has a following of hundreds of thousands of investors, many of whom want to invest outside of their area. 

What Decisions Must Landlords Make to Sell a Property?

Before you sell your property as a landlord, you must decide how you’ll proceed, especially if you have tenants. Here are your options.

Wait For The Tenants To Leave

If you have a current lease on the property, you can wait until it expires to sell the home. Once the tenants leave, you can fix the home up and sell it. This does create a gamble since you don’t know what the real estate market will be like when you sell. If values fell, you’ll have to decide if you should keep the property and wait or sell it for the lower price.

Ask The Tenants To Leave Early

Some tenants may be willing to work with you if you need to sell the property sooner. You don’t know unless you ask - some may be willing to break the lease without any issue, and others may want you to pay them to leave. 

Weigh the pros and cons of the situation. Is it worth it to pay the tenants? Will you lose money on the deal if you do, or should you wait until their lease expires?

Sell The Property With Tenants in It

One of the easiest ways to sell rental property is to sell it with tenants in it using a platform like Roofstock Marketplace. With Roofstock, you don’t have to worry about bothering your tenants.

The only thing you’ll need from them for you to sell the home is the opportunity to get photographs of the property and to let the inspector and appraiser into the home. If you need to have anything fixed on the property, they’ll also need to give contractors access to the home - that’s it!

When you sell the property with tenants in it, the tenants stay put. Nothing changes for them, including the lease. The only difference is who they pay. If the buyer hires a property management company to handle the property, they'll pay them. Otherwise, they’ll pay the buyer directly.

Join The Landlords Making Money Selling Rental Homes Today 

If you’re ready to take advantage of the crazy high real estate prices sellers are getting today and want to sell your rental property, use Roofstock Marketplace. You’ll get the price you want for the home and have the right audience to appeal to rather than guessing who will stumble upon your home for sale.

Landlords can’t believe how easy it was to sell their property with Roofstock, and you can too. It’s free to get started and to find out how much you can sell your rental property for - get started today to see if selling your property with tenants is right for you.
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