Rental properties are great investments for those in real estate. They can generate a nearly passive income for you. Unfortunately, sometimes you might need to liquidate your investment to take care of other expenses. If this happens, you could get stuck in a sticky situation. Selling a home or apartment can be difficult, especially when you need to sell quickly. In order to do so, consider the following three steps.
Determine the Property Value
The first step in selling your rental property should be to find out how much the property is worth and decide what the minimum amount you would take for it. You can find out the worth by having an official appraisal done. If you don’t want to pay for an appraisal, you can estimate the worth on your own. This can be done by taking a look at how much similar properties have sold for in your area recently.
When choosing the minimum amount that you are willing to accept, there are a few things you should consider. First, the amount of money that you need to pay your other expenses. However, you don’t want to sell yourself short by only asking for this amount. You should also take into account the costs of selling your property. You might have repair costs as well as realtor fees as you put your house on the market.
Stage It
Taking the time to stage your property might seem counterproductive if you need to sell quickly. But it can actually help get your property off the market faster and for a better price. When you stage the home, keep in mind that you aren’t trying to make it ready to live in. You don’t need to worry about long term quality. You are trying to make it visually appealing for the sale. So instead of using high quality furniture, you can use low quality furniture that looks nice. By staging your property, you show buyers the potential that it has.
Offer Incentives
If you’re having trouble closing the sale, you may need to sweeten the deal a little bit. There are several ways that you can do this. The easiest is to include some or all the furnishings and appliances with the sale. If your property is an apartment, this can be extremely appealing. Other options include paying for the cost of moving for your buyer. You could even throw in a repair/improvement credit.
Being forced to sell your rental property can be a painful decision. After having resigned yourself to that course of action, you may be tempted to just get it over with as quickly as possible. Take a deep breath and work quickly, yet calmly. You want to get the best return on your investment, so don’t sell yourself short on this.
Before you sell make sure you talk with your insurance company to work out the logistics of your plan!