I need advice please

[Damir Kamber]

Alright my fellow investors, I need some help with the current situation I am in. My wife and I are looking to sell our condo in the midtown Atlanta area. We have a tenant who has been renting from us for almost 3 years (will be 3 at end of her lease in July). We verbally communicated to her at the beginning of April that we are going to list the property and she expressed some interest in buying it, however nothing came out of that since she wants to move out of Georgia. She moves out at end of July. 

We need to list this property as soon as possible so that we are not losing any out of pocket money after she moves out. She has told us that she will be out of town until the end of May and wants us to wait until she comes back to list and start showing the property. She prefers to be present for the showings. The difference in opinion being 2 weeks, since we are looking to list/start showing no later than May 15th. 

She has been a great tenant for us and has truly taken care of the condo like if it were her own. We are torn...............please help!!

Our questions are:

1. Are we obligated to provide her with a written notice that we will be selling the condo even if she will be staying until the end of her lease, plus 15 extra days which she asked to extend? 

2. How do we convince her that we will be showing our condo without her presence and not have her lose sleep over it (my sales people, where you at)? 

3. What other advice/strategies do you all have that will help us ease the transaction while accommodating all sides? 

Very important factor that is to be considered currently is we just had our second daughter and our older one is 2 and a half. My wife is about to go back to work in two weeks. We want to make this process as smooth as possible and try not to affect our current survival mode at home. :) 

Thank you in advance for taking time to chip in!

Cheers,

Damir  

[Account Closed]

@Damir Kamber First, does your lease have anything in it that says you can enter the unit to show it, or with a certain amount of notice, etc.?

If not, Georgia law says the tenant can refuse you unless it's an emergency.

In GA, the lease decides details.  But, the fallback law, if the details aren't in the lease, is that you can't enter unless it's an emergency - or with tenant's permission.  According to this document, on page 13:

http://www.dca.ga.gov/housing/housingdevelopment/p...

You aren't required to give her any notice of selling it, from what I could find.

As far as getting her to accommodate you?  Money usually talks.  Offer her some free rent - maybe free rent for the two weeks she'll be gone while you want to start showing it?  If that would be worth it to you, it wouldn't hurt to ask.

Keep in mind, if your lease doesn't address it, it looks like she can refuse to let you show it until she vacates.  But, in my experience, money talks.  And if she is looking to move out of state, she can probably use more money.  I know some landlords pay tenants for allowing showings, if the tenants are uncooperative initially.  It usually works.