Finding Balance

Real Estate never sleeps...or is it that I never sleep since I've been in real estate, lol...not sure which it is! ;)

As I write this it's 1am, it's quiet and inspiration struck so here I sit, laptop on my lap in my favourite chair.

I put in a full day today but still worked this evening and even though I worked a full week I will also be working this weekend.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining and I'm doing it of my own free will but it's really hard to "turn it off"!  I get an idea and I have to go research it, I get a call or email and want to follow up on it right away and of course I'm always in the middle of reading something, industry publications, online forums for real estate, continuing education material etc and it's really easy to lose hours at a time!

Meanwhile we're running out of clean laundry, the dishes are piling up and I'm not fitting in my daily workout...so I'm on a quest to find a better balance in my life!

I find it amusing that I started to write this post 2 weeks ago and never finished it, lol....and it's 1:30am this time and in the past 2 weeks nothing has changed! Actually I think it's gotten worse, I'll confirm that with my family! ;)

I like to start things fresh on Mondays and that would be tomorrow/today and my goal for tomorrow/today (lol) is to work a reasonable number of hours, eat properly instead of junk on the run and to re-start my workout program (TurboFire!!) from the beginning.  Seems like a doable plan so we'll see how it goes...

Until Next Time…

Kelly

Selling A Tenanted Property

This week I showed a home that was being used as a rental property that on paper and in the MLS  pictures looked very promising.

I arrived before my buyers and thought "uh oh" as I was struck by the lack of curb appeal for a home in this price range, in this neighbourhood....with pieces of wood in the driveway (it kind of reminded me of having a "car up on blocks" except the car wasn't there), lawn that was cut but not weedwacked so that it looked all scraggly etc. It was surrounded by homes that had good to great curb appeal so that made it's lack of it stand out even more.

Once we got into the home we quickly discovered that it was not what my buyers were looking for, the main floor was a little too small  and they didn't really like the layout but we did make the rounds of the whole house.

Laundry piled up in the laundry room, dirty toilet and dirty grout in the shower of the master ensuite, stains on the carpet, food bits all over the carpet in the basement...I had booked the appointment a day and a half in advance so it's not like we caught them off guard with a last minute showing!

I've shown a few rented properties and the majority of the time the homes are clean and show pride of "rentership" but sometimes they're an absolute disaster!  This one did not qualify as a disaster but knowing my buyers,  it had me kicking myself for not previewing it first and crossing it off the list so as not to waste their time!

Now in all fairness when I spoke to the agent after the showing he did let me know that the seller had plans to fix some of the issues once the tenants moved out at the end of the month but how many buyers are going to look at this property in the next month and cross it off their list based on the current first impression? It's an unfortunate situation for the seller!

My buyer brought up an excellent question when it comes to rented properties...what happens if you buy it and the tenants trash the place when they move out?

The answer to this is that the seller will most likely have insurance to take care of any damage but regardless there are a number of clauses/conditions we can insert into our offer to protect him as the buyer and if they are not met then he doesn't have to close the deal.

There are inspection clauses (in addition to the usual home inspection), seller representations/warranties, and maintenance clauses that specify the condition the home must be in upon completion (the closing date).

At the end of the day this was simply not the right home for my buyers but if it was, there are many ways I could protect their interests in this type of situation and help alleviate their concerns about buying a home that had been used a rental propety.

That's what I'm here for!

Until Next Time…

Kelly