Owner or occupant refuses to clean the house up and the pics on the listing are a turn-off (tenants, agent)
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As an agent who is listing a house for someone who currently leases the house to renters, what steps can you take to get some decent pictures if the current tenants won't cooperate in keeping the house "clean and show able"? I've seen many listings where the pictures display a complete mess. (I know the owner/landlord cannot force the tenant to make the beds and do the dishes every day).
As a buyers agent working with a buyer that sees the ugly pictures online and sounds turned off by it, what can you do (or say) to get them to take a look anyways?
I would let the seller know and recommend that they hire a cleaning service for one day to clean the house for the tenants and I'd be standing there with my camera ready to take shots as they went room by room. That way I would have okay shots for the internet. Then I would warn agents before showings to warn their buyers that the tenants are slobs.
You can just state in the listing that the house is currently rented and in need cleaning and say that the house will be professionally cleaned prior to sale, including cleaning carpet, waxing/polishing counters and non-carpet floors, etc. and even put in a painting allowance if the walls are messed up, or say the house will be painted in a color of the buyers selection prior to sale. And if its not your listing say that you can put those items in the offer.
I actually bought a fixer upper house once that I put in the offer that the seller would wash the walls and ceilings and professionally clean the floor and all kitchen / bath room fixtures and cabinets. The house was filthy and obviously the occupants enjoyed food fights with the walls loosing. They agreed to it and all was spotless at the final walk through.
For photos try to show close ups, e.g. once cabinet door in the kitchen and a piece of the counter or living room with a focus on the light and ceiling with only a piece of a wall and carpet.
And have a gardener make the outside spectacular so that people will see the house from the outside and decide they can change the inside. Ya can not have both inside and out in a pigsty And fixing the outside is less intrusive to the renter and the renter can not mess it up quite as fast
One of my agents told me that she went over to a neighboring house and cleaned up the yard and mowed it herself. The slob house was next door to her listing.
As a buyer, I don't mind sloppy houses. I expect to get a huge price break on any place that I have to clean up, and an even bigger price break if I have to evict bad tenants. I just figure a seller who keeps piggy tenants isn't all that concerned about getting top dollar, so I don't offer them top dollar.
Maybe you could talk the seller into offering the tenants a nice chunk of cash if the place sells. If it is enough money, that might motivate them to assist in the sale. Normally, tenants have no motivation to be helpful because all a sale means to them is that they are going to have to move out and their "reward" is losing their home.
Tenants have no motivation whatsoever to assist in the sale as it might mean they'll be evicted.
Many investor properties are listed with long-term tenants, or all units currently occupied as a plus factor.
If they will go for the cleaning service before you take photos, that would be great.
Depends on the tenants... The last home we rented before purchasing our first home was small, older, but worked out OK for us. The landlords were great (and had some sneaky ways to be able to get access to the house and see what conditions were like)! For example, we would get a call on a Friday night and the landlord would be calling to let us know he would be coming over in the morning to "prune the trees".
No problem! Then when he or the wife or both showed up in the morning, one if not both of them always asked permission to "come in and wash their hands" or whatever. I often invited their young son to come in out of the heat and play games or watch TV with my daughter. They always commented on how nice and clean we were keeping the place. Re-renting it once we moved out was a breaze for them. (They even asked to borrow my vaccuum cleaner)!
A good lease should have provisions in it for the tenant cooperating with showings. If they don't, sue them.
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And fixing the outside is less intrusive to the renter and the renter can not mess it up quite as fast
