When a landlord tells us they are thinking of selling, they usually expect a pitch. An appraisal, a For Sale board, a fee. What they get instead is a conversation, because in our experience the landlord in front of us has usually seen one option, and there are five. Each one suits a different landlord, a different property and a different set of circumstances, and you should know all five before you decide anything.
Re-finance and keep it. Sometimes the property is not the problem, the mortgage is. Re-financing can transform the return on a property you already own and understand, and it is remarkable how often "I want to sell" becomes "I want it to earn properly" once the numbers are on the table. And if the real weight is the workload rather than the money, that is a different problem with a different fix, and it does not involve selling anything.
Sell to your tenant. The option almost nobody arrives having considered. Your tenant already knows the property, there is no marketing, no chain and no empty months, and they get to own the home they have lived in for years. Do not assume your tenant could not buy it. Deposit requirements have changed in recent years, and a mortgage broker can tell your tenant exactly where they stand. And if we manage the property, ask us how we charge for negotiating this kind of sale, because it works differently to a standard sale, in your favour.
Sell off-market to another investor. We keep a register of local investors looking for tenanted properties. The tenant stays, the rent flows right up to the day of completion, and the sale happens quietly, with no board and no viewings.
Sell at auction. With or without the tenant in place. Auction suits a landlord who values speed and certainty over squeezing the final pound, and some properties genuinely do best under the hammer.
Sell on the open market with vacant possession. The route everyone knows, and sometimes the right one. When it is, it needs doing with proper advice, because the rules around ending a tenancy to sell are now strict and the timelines are long.
Five options, five different landlords
There is no best option on that list. The right one depends on your numbers, your property, your tenant and what you actually want from the next few years. A landlord planning retirement needs a different answer to one rebalancing a portfolio, and a landlord who is simply worn out by the admin may not need to sell at all. What matters is choosing with all five in front of you, because the expensive mistake is rarely picking the wrong option. It is deciding before you knew what the options were.
Why we lay them all out
People sometimes ask why we walk landlords through routes that earn us little or nothing. The honest answer is that it is not always about the fees. We get the satisfaction of helping our clients find the result that suits everyone: the landlord, the tenant, and the property itself. After forty years of letting across this area, we can tell you that outcomes like that are why we do the job, and they are also, not coincidentally, why people keep trusting us with their properties.
Before you decide anything
Know your five options. Then come and talk them through with us, before you serve anything, sign anything or promise anything. We will give you the honest picture on all of them, including the ones that earn us nothing.
Talk to the lettings team at your local Nock Deighton office.
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