Not every listing we take that is in danger of foreclosure is owner occupied. In this instance, the owner lived out of state and had a non-paying tenant who trashed the residence. The original listing was taken in 2015, and the tenants were not very cooperative.
We “chased the market” for a year and a half and 3 price reductions before the tenant finally just moved out, which was what needed to happen for the house to sell. It gave us an opportunity to clean the place out and of course showings were easier.
The down side of a vacant property, however, is that there is a concern about the pipes freezing or someone getting unauthorized access. Fortunately, this went back on the market in the spring and was closed by the end of the summer.
I never met the seller in person; he was a referral from another client and everything was done over the phone and by email. But we did communicate quite frequently. He had owned the property for nearly 16 years and had bought it as a foreclosure himself. Unfortunately, a transfer forced him to move, and he elected to rent it out rather than sell. He regretted that decision after a decade of being a long distance landlord. Despite the market recovery since the great recession, the damage from the tenant resulted in the value of the home being less than the original 1999 purchase price.
Tenants can be rough when they are de-facto squatters. We always want to respect their space and give them adequate notice for showings, and I can empathize with the invasive nature of showings and the prospect of having to move when the home sells. But when they don’t pay, don’t care for the home and don’t cooperate I find it hard to say anything nice about them. The client deserved better treatment.
It only took 27 days after relisting it to get a buyer under contract, albeit at a significantly lower price than the original asking price from 2015. The lender did approve the short sale within 90 days, and the client was able to finally walk away without any further financial liability.
