It's becoming more prevalent, that many more listings than usual are expiring.
With that in mind, there lies some decision making for sellers at that time.
Instead of immediately thinking "I cant sell at this price, and if I drop the price, I'll owe more to the bank - so I need to apply for a Short Sale", some sellers are thinking about the option of 'renting' their home instead.
Depending on their situation, they may be a good candidate to consider the option of renting their house. This road may buy some time for a few years, until a more favorable market for sellers may return, when they can pursue selling their home again at a higher price.
Some situations include:
- If they own a second home that they had wanted to move into. They can go ahead with their plan of moving their life to that second home, but will still have income to offset (or cover) their mortgage or taxes on house #1.
- Another situation may be if the owner gets relocated with their job and is forced to move with the job. Again, renting may allow the owner to hold the home for a few years, and eventually sell the home for more in a different market.
- I even had a seller last year who lost his job, and knew that if he got another job right away, it would probably be a year or two before he could build up to the salary he was at with his previous job. In this case, the owner absolutely loved his home, and wanted to keep it until a time that he could afford the mortgage again and eventually move back in. So he rented the whole house out for a monthly rental that covered the mortgage, and the tenant paid their own utilities - in turn, I helped the owner downsize to a rental unit at a much lower monthly payment than his mortgage - an amount he could manage on a lower salary. His plan is to move up the corporate ladder, and move back into the house, if and when he gets a promotion, and hopefully a raise !
So these are some situations that may be cases for an owner to consider renting.
... but it is often tough for owners to rent on their own.
- We know their advertising will consist of avenues like craigslist, and the newspapers, they typically cannot get their rental listing on the MLS where it would get the most exposure -- YOU CAN !
- Typically they cannot get hold of a trackable lockbox like our Realtor Supra Boxes, that they could log into and see the access history of who has been into the home, so they are stuck with having to be at home every time someone wants to see the home. Some owners have bought some version of a combination lock in case a Realtor wants access, but that presents a severe security problem if any members of the public get the combination. -- YOU HAVE A SUPRA LOCKBOX, AND CAN TRACK ACCESS -- YOU CAN HELP !
- Owners are usually not been trained in negotiating Lease Agreements (heck they may not even HAVE a Lease Document -- YOU DO !), but they can end up with a Lease Agreement that doesnt protect them enough, or end up being negotiated down below a fair monthly rental -- TYPICALLY, REALTORS ARE TRAINED FOR THESE NEGOTIATIONS, SO YOU CAN HELP THEM !
- Most sellers wont have access to credit reports, or even know how to interpret them if they did -- YOU DO !
These are some key ways that you can help owners who need to 'Buy a little time',if they would like to hold on to their homes for a few more years, with the hope of selling at a higher price - and dont forget, many people are banking on the sale of their home down the road, for things like retirement, or children's tuition costs etc ...
I know this option of helping an owner 'RENT' is not a terribly profitable one for you as a Realtor - but if you help the owner with this rental option, and he decides to sell at some point down the road ...
...guess who will get the listing ;o)
Good luck out there everyone !
.... we need to be ready for all possibilities to help our clients right now !
Cheers !
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UPDATE / REMINDER !!! -- The Renting otpion is NOT FOR EVERY OWNER !! Many may not qualify, or be able to cover the mortgage with low rental income - HOWEVER - I know FIRST HAND that it CAN BE A GREAT OPTION FOR SOME !! ...and can help them buy time until they can hopefully sell in a better market for sellers
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