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For Rent and For Sale- At The Same Time?

Home for rent signCan I have my house listed for sale anHomes for sale signd rent at the same time?  In theory yes.  For practical purposes I would advise against it.  Possible perceptions of  three key players:

The potential renter: I don’t want to move into a house that is listed for sale because I may get evicted (within the framework of Oregon/Tenant law) because it is only a month to month contract.  Even if I sign a lease the landlord will probably list it for sale before my leases ends and it may become a hassle to keep everything tidy so it can be shown and I really don’t want people tromping around my house.  I’ll find something else to rent.  The landlord probably isn’t that committed to the house if they are trying to unload it.

The buyer: What’s wrong with this house?  They can’t sell it which means it is overpriced and a renter doesn’t want it either. They’re probably not that serious about selling it if they can keep it as a rental and probably won’t entertain my offer, which is going to be low, anyways.

The Realtor: I’ve got a long list of potential houses and in talking to the listing agent they really don’t know how much interest it is getting as a rental because they don’t have any part of that.  We write an offer only to be informed that “the seller signed a lease yesterday.”  Our offer  is how the listing agent finds out that they have lost a listing (this has happened).

That being said there are all sorts of scenarios where being a “for sale” should become a “for rent” and vice versa.  We had a listing that as hard and creative as we tried to get after price reduction after price reduction the seller decided that renting is the best option to wait out the market.  That makes sense.  We know that when all else fails it comes down to price but the motivation to sell goes away at some point if the sale is a choice, not a need.  I think you need to choose one and go after that market rather than diluting the effort on both rental and sale.  We have no problem going into a listing appointment and telling a potential seller to rent the property out if that meets their needs.  The market isn’t going to change enough in the next few years to make a huge difference but if you’re going to hold the property for five or more years waiting for a different market may be the best option.

Of course everyone’s perception of a situation is different.  There are buyers, renters and Realtors who will disagree with each and every one of my points but there will be an equal share that agree.

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