You went all out. You staged, you painted, and you even cleaned. But that perfect buyer never showed up. Real estate transactions can end on a sour note without rhyme or reason. Despite everything you did your unit just didn’t sell. So what do you do now? Do you end your listing? Do you let it run indefinitely? How long can you hold out financially until you have to sell your apartment?
New York City truly is the land of opportunity, but is also known for delivering a swift kick in the butt when you least expect it. This might be one of those times. Want to run to mom and dad? Don’t. That won’t actually fix your problem. Your NYC apartment is still yours for better or worse. At least until you stop making the mortgage payments (I’d advise against this if you ever plan on buying anything on credit again). To make matters worse, you may be leaving New York City or you already closed on the purchase of your new apartment. In either scenario, you find yourself in trouble. It’s time to move to Plan B.
In order to avoid financial ruin, renting or leasing your apartment through a short term lease is your best bet. Keep in mind, you did your best to make your apartment as appealing as possible to sell. But it didn’t sell. You don’t have much choice but to lease your beloved apartment to a warm body (who can cover your monthly mortgage expense). Just make sure that warm body has a profound respect for other people’s property.
Unintentional Landlord
While an honor you’ll probably leave off of your resume, being a landlord can be a dubious profession. So how do you find a good, reliable tenant? Someone who will take care of your apartment like it is their own, will pay their rent on time, and will be flexible on the length of the lease? In fact, when you find that person, send them my way. Tenants who match that description are few and far between. You may have better luck winning a $1.5 billion power ball lottery.
Realtors Make the Best Property Managers
Wary of becoming a landlord? For a separate fee, you can pay someone else to deal with the whole tenant mess. Realtors can also act as property managers when your apartment just won’t sell. TripleMint is a full service brokerage, and they can assist you whether you are buying, selling, or getting into the landlord business. Leverage their strength and expertise when trying to lease your apartment. When you need help with your apartment, be sure to turn to their experienced team of specialists for all your real estate needs.
Leasing to a Prospective Buyer
Don’t do it.
Really?
If your tenant truly is a prospective buyer, you’re better off keeping them in buy-mode. But isn’t this the best scenario? you ask. Let the apartment sell itself. While I agree that letting a prospective buyer move-in can definitely help seal the deal, it can also produce the opposite effect. Every time I make a large purchase, no matter what it is, I feel some level of buyer’s remorse. This is especially true when purchasing an apartment. Looking through pictures online and seeing an apartment in person 2 -3 times skews your perspective. You are a guest, a visitor, and you can’t notice every little imperfection.
It takes living in a space to really learn it. Maybe there’s a scuff on a piece of tile, or the shower head makes a noise if you put the hot water too high, the kitchen sink drains slow when you do dishes, or the dishwasher doesn’t do as good of a job as you had expected. These fun little quirks exist in every building and every apartment. As new buyers, we don’t notice or think to ask about them. Only once we move and settle into routines do we perceive the minutiae.
Guess what. If you let prospective buyers move-in, they will become intimately familiar with your apartment down to the last scuff on the floor. When you return to the negotiating table to talk selling, tenants may stand you up because they got a taste of what life is like living in your apartment, and they don’t like it. They’ll come in with an itemized report describing in detail all the deficiencies of your apartment in order to drive down your asking price not a good situation as the seller.
In short, you are giving the buyer a no-risk test drive of your apartment. This doesn’t even take into account the intangibles unrelated to your space, like location. Is the nearest grocery hard to reach? Are the neighbors¦ unpalatable? The list goes on and on.
Dollars and Sense
At the end of the day, if you need to cover your mortgage until you are ready to re-list your apartment, get someone in your unit. Work with your realtors they are the experts. Adding a tenant in the mix will only complicate matters, but if you need help with the mortgage, what other option do you have? The key is to stay positive, and don’t give up.
