Cooperating Tenants

I'm not making this up

So I have this listing. The owner is a personal friend (and once-realtor) who moved to another state. She has tenants in place and has made them a smoking deal. If they cooperate and the buyer is an investor they will stay and get some $ off the rent for a month or two. If they cooperate and the buyer is someone who wants to live in the home, the owner will pay them a generous sum to leave.

The tenants have been wonderful. They are cooperative. They make their beds. They allow for showings and (sometimes) even leave so the buyers can have privacy. However, they aren't leaving the place in "showing condition."

In this market, anything marked as active for more than a week, looks to be stigmatized or over-priced. Honestly, having to put "tenant's rights" on the listing is a form of stigmatization. Agents don't like to show homes with tenants in place for a variety of reasons. One of those reasons happens to be tenants like to talk. "This is broken." "The owner was too cheap to fix..." and other such disclosures which does nothing to sell a home.

But the big reason why agents don't like to show homes with rentals is that even cooperative tenants aren't cooperative. What they truly are is passive-aggressive. For example, these tenants may keep the home clean, but they didn't put the closet doors back on the closets, nor did they patch and paint the walls. There are tools, debris (like a hay bale) and half-a staple gun outside. In fact, one can't walk to the front door without passing the dead brier bush out front. At the front door, please ignore the spider web and the random pieces of junk decorating the front patio. And by all means! Please make sure your tetanus shot is up to date!

Apparently, I sugar coated the condition of the home to the seller. I hadn't realized this until I sent her pictures and she was horrified. I know this because she instantly wrote me and said, "I'm horrified!" I understand. She has certain expectations: she wants the home to be in such condition a buyer will fall instantly fall love with the place.

The tenant on the other hand has the expectation the buyer will instantly hate the place and will be so turned off the home won't sell and they won't have to move. So far the tenant is winning.