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Can a renter help with selling a home?

I saw a report today on Fox news about homes being sold because they have renters in them.. You heard right! Renters are helping homes to sell. Now let me clarify this a little before we go on.

I have been inspecting homes for about 15 years and I can not recall the last time I saw a home with renters in it that I would want to buy!

The renters that are helping to sell homes are not your typical renters. They are more of a home manager and the homes we are talking about are million dollar plus homes. The news article went on to say, that they pay the utilities and about 30% of what the home would normally rent for; this is usually the house payment plus a little more. So for a $2 Million dollar home it might rent for around $1,500. The homes are also professionally staged, even with pots and pans. The renters basically have nothing in the home that is theirs, except for their clothing and a few other personal items.

Another caveat is that the home must be in "show ready" condition during normal business hours and on weekends. This is really a sweet deal for a couple or single person that does not mind moving on a couple weeks notice, possibly several times a year. Or should I say hopefully several times a year!

This got me to thinking, and I bet that the homes are not inspected before or after the renter/home managers move in or out. Maybe a small checklist but that might be about it. If I had a home like this that was in this type of program I would want to know the exact condition before and after. Very similar to an apartment or renters inspection.

Anyway, I'm curious to what everyone thinks about this type of program to help sell a home? It has to work better than a completely empty home.

Posted by Scott Patterson - Middle TN Home Inspector on 02/27/2009 02:51 PM

Comments (4)

renters selling a home, staged home, home manager

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4 Comments on Can a renter help with selling a home?

FEB

Scott, this sounds like an interesting idea----sure would end the ridiculous business of shuting off the utilities:)

Charles, that was the first thing I thought of. In that respect, I think it would work out great, no worry of having things being in bad shape due to a lack of operation. Still may be defects as Scott pointed out, so I would still want an inspection done, but that's just me.

FEB

Scott,

The Fox story was about the use of Home Managers to stage homes for sale, not the use of renters. There is a big difference! Home Managers are trained to keep homes in show-to-sell condition 7 days a week. Home Managers move every 2-4 months and unlike a tennant, work to help get the home sold.

The company featured in the story is based right up the road from you in Nashville and is a pioneer in the Home Staging industry. We've been staging and helping sell homes since 1986 and with 45 locations, have helped sell over 25,000 homes valued at almost $9 billion. It works but its a very different idea than using a renter which is almost always a bad idea.

If you want to connect in Nashville, I'd love to talk shop and show you a couple. We love referrals and would always be willing to help refer people if we can.

Thomas Scott

Hi Thomas,

Yes, you are correct that they are not a typical "renter". And, I agree that a typical renter does not work, in fact it will slow the sale of a home!

I think that the homes in the news clip were in Florida, but definitely they were very nice and high end homes. Actually, I was just in a staged home, or rather a home that in the process of being staged in The Governors Club last week for the owners. Then after the staging is done and the home is hopefully sold they will have a second inspection to make sure that noting was damaged during the move-in and move-out of the furnishings. It is not a typical inspection, but more of a safety net for the staging company and the owners. For about $400, I Call it cheap insurance on a 9,500 sf $3+ Million home.

For several years, I use to do this type of inspection for the TV show Trading Spaces. They would have it looked prior to the makeover and then afterwards, just as insurance.

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