I have been receiving a lot of calls lately from condo owners who are becoming increasingly concerned about what they're seeing and hearing about the downtown Vancouver real estate market and I'm sincerely grateful for the opportunity to assist sellers who actually allow me to exercise my professional knowledge and skill in order to help them out of what for some is a real jam.
I am hearing from an increasing number of owners who just months ago put a tenant in their properties and who now have decided they don't like what they see in future. They are frightened and want to sell. The problem is, they have a tenant on a year (or longer) lease and they are thinking about yesterday's prices.
Change comes fast
The tenor of the whole Vancouver real estate market can and does literally change in a matter of a month or two. This year is no different and the downtown condo market tends to act as a leading indicator in this regard. Prices that drew buyer-attention a month ago are no longer even producing buyer calls, never mind generating offers. Right now if sellers of downtown condos are lucky enough to receive an offer, they can expect a rude awakening when it come to price. The best advice I have? Brace yourself. It's a buyer's market once again. Get ahead of the price curve fast or loose money. The only other choice is to hold on for dear life.
The new reality of selling tenanted condos
During the past year I have had tenants refuse entry for showings, threaten to sue me and the seller, insist that I can only show the property when they are present and at their convenience, have their lawyers communicate threats, change the locks and refuse to give out the new key and a number of other pleasantries. How can they do this? The legal answer is, they can't but from personal experience, I can tell you they do, and more often that you might think. Legal or not, they will derail your sale.
It used to be that only a small percentage of tenants were like this. Now? It's nearly all of them. What changed? I'm not exactly sure but it seems to have been correlated with the demise of common courtesy and the emergence of the "world's most important person" - a title that many Vancouverites seem to have recently acquired.
Here's the deal
The bottom line is this: If your tenant has recently signed a new rental lease, forget about selling your condo until their lease term is near to or is actually finished, and even then you'll need their cooperation. There are some other things you can look at but in short, you can not sell a tenanted condo without the cooperation of your tenant like it or not.
I'd be pleased to speak with you about all the tenancy considerations you'll need to be aware of if you are thinking of selling your tenanted condo. You really need to know what you're getting in to. Call me.