[Academic]

We are going to be putting our rental on the market this month. We have tenants whose lease expires in February.

I feel bad for putting it up while they are still living there, as I know how irritating and disruptive that would be, but we don't have a choice. We need to allow that time before their lease is up as we can't afford to be paying for it without the rental income (I'm aware it may take longer to sell anyway, but we are hoping to minimise that possibility).

I want to try and respect them as much as possible, and I know they will need plenty of notice before inspections, that I can't expect them to keep the place pristine etc. It does worry be that we can't control how the place is presented, but that's the compromise we have to make.

Is there anything else we should think about? What else can we do to make it easier on them? Do you think it would be asking too much to let us have someone come in and fix up a few little cosmetic issues?

Am hoping that an investor buys and they can stay in place (if they want to) and it all happens reasonably quickly! Who knows in the current market though...

[crayons]

I don't think it's too much to ask to let someone come in and fix some things but they don't have to say yes. As a tenant I wouldn't let anything be fixed that had an impact on the way i was living so I would say no to completely repainting a room as it would smell and my stuff would need to be moved but I would be ok with minor touchups.

If you were concerned with presentation you could always offer to pay for a cleaner to come before the first open to do things like clean windows get marks off walls and stuff. Again they don't have to say yes but I would as it would mean that I had to do less of that stuff when I moved out.

All in all it's going to annoy them but not much you can do about it.

[fairyflosser]

Firstly ask them if they want to buy it, we sold our house that way this year. Didnt have to lift a finger or use an agent. Hope your house sells quick!

[Academic]

Firstly ask them if they want to buy it, we sold our house that way this year. Didnt have to lift a finger or use an agent. Hope your house sells quick!

We thought about this - you never know when someone is thinking of buying, after all. I really doubt they would buy our place though, as they have a six-month-old and while the apartment is spacious enough for a young baby, it would quickly become too small as it grew. Another reason I don't want to disrupt their lives too much!

I don't think we need to repaint inside - we just did the living area again before moving out - but part of the garage and the downstairs music studio could definitely use a touch-up.

[Silver Girl]

We are having a similar dilemma. Our tenants have been brilliant in terms of paying rent and there have been no tenancy breaches. We gave them permission to have a puppy and there have been no issues there.

We want to be fair to them when we sell, but the house is not presentable in my opinion. Nothing terrible, but there is clutter and all the furniture is old; instead of a doona cover there's a cartoon-style blanket etc. Hard to describe, but the overall effect would all completely put me off as a buyer.

I like the idea of asking them if they want to buy it. Otherwise I'm hoping we can negotiate to pay for cleaning and maybe storage.

Looking through a vendor's lens we should end the tenancy and market it with rented furniture, but if the new buyer is an investor we'd have left the tenants with no home simply to get a good price, and that doesn't sit well with me.

Sorry for the long reply. I will watch this thread with interest and would welcome any suggestions.

[Silver Girl]

I was right when I posted in the other thread. I'm a thread killer ...

[Academic]

I was right when I posted in the other thread. I'm a thread killer ...

*bump*

Thanks for the replies so far! I like the suggestion of offering to pay for a cleaner. I'm also thinking that if their lease ends and it hasn't sold, we could offer them a month-to-month lease at reduced rent, and then look at a long settlement so they have plenty of time to get organised if the buyers aren't investors.