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I believe, but check your state's statutes, that if you give them proper notice, you can let yourself (and the potential buyers) in. Check your lease and read the landlord tenant laws for your state.
In Oregon you'd have to post a notice of your intent to enter the property at least 24 hours in advance. If they are uncooperative, you'll need to show up yourself to let potential buyers and their agents in. If that doesn't work, then you'll have to end the lease, assuming that you have a month to month agreement.
So...read your state laws on when you are allowed entry on the property and what kind of notice is allowed.
This is difficult. As others have posted, you will want to review the landlord / tenant law in your state. In most states you can enter the property for inspection after reasonable notice. In Kansas the LL is allowed to show the property to prospects after reasonable notice. Other states have specific requirements.
Regardless, the problem you will be up against is that the tenants may not be willing to clean up or may keep the house extra messy to try to kill the deal.
Best wishes.
I had a similar issue when trying to sell a home in South Carolina after we had moved to Texas. We had rented out our home in South Carolina for a below market rate. After six months we became weary with the rental situation and put the SC home on the market with rental agency as the listing agent.
Fast forward another six months with a number of showings but no offers. Our agent shows the home, but isn't recognized by the tenant, and discovers that the tenent trash talks the home for the entire showing. He makes a number of claims of defects and issues that for some reason he never reported to the agency. (IE he lied.) Since a year has passed and he was on a month to month lease, we opted to bring the rent upto market levels and the tenant gave notice to vacate, as we desired. Within two weeks we had an offer and within six we had closed.
My point being that you may have to be willing to lose the monthly rental income before you can actually sell the home. I would discuss your particular situation with a lawyer to ensure you are not violating your renter's rights or any agreed upon conditions of the lease.
One question, are you looking to sell to a family, and there by causing the renters to have to move, or are you looking to sell the home as a rental income property with built in renters? If the second option is one your willing to commit to, you may be able to reassure the renters that they aren't losing their home and thereby gain their cooperation in selling.
Is the ability to show the home up for sale included in this lease? Were they aware when signing the lease you planned on selling the house? If not, then why would you expect them to do this willingly? I would think most renters arent interested in signing a lease for a home that will end up being sold. It sounds as if you werent being truthful up front...
Even when you have the ability to have the buyer gain access, it is difficult to sell a home with tenants in most cases. Most tenants do not keep the home in show ready condition and it's usually a mess.
If I know a home has tenants in it I exclude the house from showing if there are plenty of others to see. Homes with tenants do not usually look good or impress buyers - there are exceptions.
Best thing to do is get rid of the tenants, fix up the house and have it looking in tip top shape.
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