Selling a property w/ tenants vs. waiting for vacancy to sell

[Nikki Taylor]

Hey there! I would love to get some feedback from more experienced investors on this issue. My husband and I are preparing to sell a single-family home in Brooklyn (it was our primary residence until 2 years ago, at which point we rented it out to tenants.) Their lease expires on October 1st and we're not sure whether it makes more sense to try and list the house now while our tenants are occupying it, or wait until they move out to put it on the market. 

Reasons to wait: The tenants have a lot of furniture and they put dark curtains on all the windows, making the house feel dark and small. I know how to stage a house and take awesome photos to help it sell, and we just wouldn't be able to do that with the tenants there. Also, they are 3 roommates in their 20's who are working from home, and coordinating showings when they're all out of the house will probably be impossible.

Reasons to list it now with tenants still there: The carrying costs on this house are around 3k/month, so we wouldn't want it to sit empty for too long. Also, the tenants love the house and they volunteered to stay on month-to-month until closing, so we'd never have to carry the mortgage alone, even if it takes longer to sell than we'd hoped. Also, with all the craziness around COVID restrictions and new NYC regulations, I just feel like it's so hard to predict what will happen in the NYC real estate market even 2 months from now, and it's still a good time to sell in our area.

So, those are our pros and cons. What would you do in this scenario? Any input welcome!