On the Buying a Home page I put pictures of homes ranging from an ancient castle to a couple that, to put it mildly, need a little tender loving care. The point I was implying was that at any given time there is a wide variety of homes on the market. As a listing agent sometimes you get asked to market a property where the home and the situation are less than desirable. Sometimes the home is passable but the owner is absent or there is an indifferent or hostile tenant who doesn’t take care of the place or make it easy to schedule showings.
Sometimes it really is the condition of the home that is the problem. The one thing that can make it worse is being “under water.” Not literally underwater, although that could be a problem too, but if the price that it should be sold at is not enough to pay off the mortgage and pay the commission, it might as well be window deep in the river. It can cross your mind to just walk away or refer it to a rookie REALTOR and let them learn the ropes the hard way. But you’re here to serve, so you cross your fingers and hope to get lucky.
I have a listing now that isn’t terrible in any of those ways. In fact, for the price it has a lot of room, a fenced yard on a nice shady lot in a quiet neighborhood not too far from Downtown. However, it does have a tenant in it. She’s not indifferent or hostile. In fact she is a very nice woman but she is retired and at home most of the time so scheduling showings can be a real problem. Short notice is out of the question. She also has a lot of furniture and stuff. You’ve heard the expression “Ten pounds of potatoes in a five pound bag.” You get the point.
The irony in this situation is that she would like to stay and the owner is satisfied with her as a tenant and the income he receives from her rent. But for reasons that have nothing to do with the home itself he has been forced to put it on the market.
The ideal situation would be to find an investor to buy it and leave the tenant in place. She is currently on a month-to-month lease but would sign a one year lease at the same price which would probably provide a reasonable return to an investor.
For the tenant’s privacy, I’m not going to give the address on this website but I’ll be glad to show it to anyone out there in Ordinary Durham that might be interested in it, especially as an investment property. The picture above is not the home or even in Durham or even for sale if it’s still standing. In fact, the home in question is in pretty good shape but I hate posts without pictures and the one pictured here helps make the point.