Do you own a tenant-occupied property in Idaho that you would like to sell? Here’s the good news…you don’t have to wait until everyone has moved out in order to sell the house. There are lots of reasons why you might need to sell your rental property or extra house even though someone currently lives there. You may need to make that investment more liquid to help with a chance in your finances. You might not feel like this investment is working how you wanted it to and you don’t want to spend another month dealing with it. You might have inherited it and never intended to be a landlord. You might be moving away from the property and don’t want to manage tenants from far away. Or perhaps you simply don’t want to own that house anymore in Idaho.
Gem State Cash Offer can help you whatever the reason you want to sell. But we also want to offer some advice on potential steps to take in order to avoid further headaches and make sure you can sell a house in Idaho with tenants in it quickly.
Selling A House With Tenants In It
Give Notice If You Can
If you are looking to sell a house in Idaho that currently has tenants in it, some situations are easily sorted out. If your tenants are currently renting on a month-to-month lease, that’s the best possible scenario. Assuming you and the renters signed a good lease, you should be able to give notice to them to vacate the house within 30 days. It’s probably a good idea to brush up on Idaho rental laws and guidelines while you’re at it to make sure you’re doing everything by the book. The good news is that you shouldn’t have to provide a specific reason for giving notice since this will be a “no cause” lease termination. Just make sure your letter to them includes specific dates, when they need to remove all possessions, and what to do with the keys upon vacating. If the tenants don’t comply and move out by the date noted in the letter, you can begin the eviction process immediately. Be ready to do this right away so you don’t delay matters further than they already are.
Consult Your Lease Terms
The tenant in your Idaho house that you’d like to sell might not be a month-to-month lease. They might be on a fixed lease with an end date that’s in the future. In that case, it can be a little trickier to get them to leave the property willingly before the lease expires.
Take a close look at the lease, confirm all of the details and dates, and figure out what kind of notice you’re allowed to give. Something else you’ll want to take a look at is whether or not the tenant has violated any of the lease’s terms. If that’s the case, you may be able to terminate the lease with notice much faster. Now, this isn’t to say you should make up a false violation just to move the tenant out of the house, that’s a bad idea that can come back to bite you and put you in court. The point here is to identify actual violations and it actually isn’t always that hard to realize they’ve occurred. The tenant may have failed to pay rent on time, broken a pet clause or no-smoking clause, engaged in illegal activities inside the property, included false information in the lease, caused property damage, sublet the house without permission, or allowed people to live with them without consulting you.
If you find a violation has occurred and Idaho rental laws back you up, submit a notice of violation to the tenant along with information on when they need to move out by. Be aware that this could come as a shock to the tenant and it could lead to a negative reaction or confrontation. They might also fight the charge and refuse to leave. If you have concerns about this, either decide that it’s worth turning into a legal fight or don’t consider the option altogether.
Pay Your Tenants to Leave
If you find yourself in that situation where you have a tenant locked into a longterm lease who won’t leave before it ends, you can consider simply making them a financial offer to “buy them out.” This is sometimes known as a “cash for keys” tactic. It involves the landlord and the tenant negotiating an offer that gives them a good enough reason to move out when you would like them to.
There are a few different ways to go about this. One way is to pay the tenant the difference between what they’ve been paying in rent and what they’ll have to pay to move into a new house or apartment on short notice. Another way is to pay for all their moving costs. You can also offer to cover their security deposit or first month’s rent in their new residence. And if none of that works, you can simply make them a cash offer and see if they will take that in order to leave soon.
The biggest thing to remember is that the tenant is under no obligation to agree to these terms. They already have a legally binding contract with you, so they have every right to turn down your offer. Make sure you remember that if you decide to strong-arm them during negotiations to get them to leave your Idaho house.
Sell the House to Your Tenant
Depending on the type of property you’re selling, you might already have a buyer right in front of you in the form of the tenant. If you think this might be the case, let them know what would like to do and give them a chance to buy the Idaho house from you outright. They’ll probably need to go get financing, so that could add some time to the transaction. If you want to sell your Idaho house fast, this is probably not the most likely way to go about it. Plus, it’s unlikely that someone renting from you in going to have the cash reserves to buy your house fast.
Execute the Early Termination Clause
If you’re out of options when it comes to selling your Idaho house with tenants, you can execute the early termination clause in your lease if one exists. Not every contract includes this so make sure you confirm that it’s in yours. Depending on the contract, these clauses usually include deadlines that can range from 30 days to 90 days. As for how you can justify the early termination to the tenant, you might need to get creative. Sometimes an early termination clause is considered viable for any “reasonable” decision. A property sale would seem to fit that situation but someone could push back against that as well.
Sell the Property As-Is
As you can see, if you want to sell your house with tenants in Idaho, there are possibilities but many of them involve paying money, losing out on money, or potentially headed to court and paying for legal bills. And even if you are able to get the tenant to leave, it might not be as fast as you like.
Gem State Cash Offer can help. We buy houses as-is in Idaho. That means we buy houses based on any condition, any financial situation, and any living situation. If you own a house with tenants that you want to sell, we can buy it from you and deal with the tenants ourselves. We will make you a fair cash offer on your house, often as soon as 24 hours after you contact us. Then if you accept we can close on the sale in a matter of days. We’ll move as fast or slow as you want. And we will give you cash for your house or property in Idaho. It’s that simple. Contact us today to get a no-obligation offer on your house.