Recently we have been working with a lot our long term owners on preparing their properties for sale.  I keep having the same conversation over and over so I thought it might be time to blog about it.

My owners are shocked to hear that their realtor is telling them that before selling they need to replace carpet, appliances and paint the whole place.  This is usually when I get an upset owner yelling at me that I didn’t take care of his/her property.

For every owner I tell them the same thing, there is a difference between rent ready and sale ready.  When I rent a property, a small burn mark on the carpet, some nicks on the lino, marks on the walls, older appliances, older cabinets are completely okay for renting the unit to the next tenant.  Buyers would not put up with most of this.  They want new carpet and lino, newer appliances and cabinets or at least a price reduction for compensation.

Some owners ask why I haven’t upgraded these items over time, I explain that I could have and it would have made my life easier to rent the units but that would have either been a cash call from them or no owner payments for a couple of months depending on the costs.   They quickly see why I didn’t.

This is a rule applies to major of rental properties but not all.  On higher end houses those tenants want near perfect places, similar to a buyer and in turn they also keep the properties the same.

For the shorter term owners that need to hold their home for a couple of years while they work out of country or until the market improves, I always tell my owners that we will charge the renter for any damages but wear and tear is not chargable.  Expect that you may need to paint the high traffic areas.

By the time I explain all of this most owners are happy and ask me to coordinate the needed upgrades to sell their place for top dollar.