Centers And Squares
Welcome to Centers and Squares
As a Cambridge real estate agent, the city squares of Cambridge, Somerville and Medford and the town centers of Arlington, Watertown and Belmont, Massachusetts are my home turf. And as a lifelong New Englander who’s lived within twenty miles of Boston most of my life, I can introduce you to other nearby towns as we search for your new home. If you’re planning to sell your home in Cambridge, MA or nearby you’ll find plenty of info about the home selling process here too. Questions? Send me an email or call me at 617-504-1737.
Are You Considering Renting Rather than Selling?
Are you thinking about renting rather than selling your home?
Are you considering renting rather than selling your house or condo? With the real estate market off its peak, some prospective home sellers are thinking about renting out their home rather than selling it at today’s price.
Or perhaps you’ve had your property on the market for some time and would rather get some rental income and try to sell down the road.
There are some important factors you should keep in mind if you want to rent a property now that you plan to sell in the future. Aside from the ins and outs of being a landlord, how to get good tenants, what rent to charge, etc. there are issues to consider when you’re thinking about renting out a property that you really would like to sell. Here’s what to keep in mind:
When will the lease end? It doesn’t make a lot of sense to have your lease end at a slower time in the real estate sales market. If you have tenants through August, for example, you’ll be ready to sell in the fall and will have missed the busy spring market. Ideally you want to be ready to sell in the spring.
It won’t be easy to sell with tenants in your property. Tenants and home sellers do not have the same goals. As a seller you want your place to look its best and to be easy to show. Tenants have no motivation to keep the property show-ready and even less motivation to make it easy to show.
When real estate agents look at properties for sale we’ll sometimes inquire “Is this place rented?” That’s code for “This place is a mess and if it’s the seller who lives here why haven’t they cleaned up?” It’s a rare (and prized!) tenant who keeps a property as well as a motivated seller.
For weeks I’ve been trying to show two Cambridge condos to a prospective buyer. In each case, the tenant is not cooperating and we’ve not been able to schedule a showing. The sellers are building up days on market, making their condos look “stale” and unappealing, while in reality few buyers have even been able to see the properties. Amazingly, in one case the tenant is related to the seller. In fact, in my experience relatives or “friends” of the sellers can be the most uncooperative when they’re faced with showing requests.
When your property is empty of tenants you’ll need to spend time and money cleaning and buffing it up by making any needed repairs, refinishing floors, etc. You may alos want to budget for staging. Properties typically sell better when furnished so you’ll want someone to stage your house or condo with furniture and accessories.
Renting rather than selling may make sense but you want to make sure you’re positioned for a successful sale at the end of your lease.
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