Originally posted by @Randi Knight:
Apologies, I'm sure the topic makes your skin crawl but has anyone ever sold (or considered selling) due to a bed bug infestation? Many jurisdictions require a property owner start remediation within days and many laws hold the property owner responsible for extermination and upfront costs even when the tenant is 100% liable. Remediation, if caught late, can be a never-ending battle costing tens of thousands or more (especially if it's a multi-unit or adjoining another building). Then there's cost to the tenant (in or out of court) and possibly penalties from the local government. More DC property owners are experiencing this issue especially with the rise in tenants previously living in shelters or communal dwellings. DC is extremely tenant-conscious and the city has essentially pushed the homeless problem onto property owners. A fellow landlord is considering selling now to mitigate future losses. She's addressing the problem but on a scale of 1 to 10, her exterminator says the problem is a 7. She said she'd have to disclose the problem to potential buyers but thinks she'll still fare well in the current market.
I feel her pain. Although I've never had a bed bug problem, and Lord be kind to me I never will, but I've heard since they hatch in cycles they are very hard to get rid of. And sometimes the property gets a "reputation" that the neighbors talk about, even to the new tenants. But, I haven't had a bed bug pull a gun on me yet (one tenant has and I had to talk him down.)
So, I'd do everything I can do to mitigate instead of sell. Unless the property was in D.C., San Francisco, L.A., Seattle , Portland, Chicago, New York, Baltimore, Newark, St Louis, heck, a whole lot of places but not because of bedbugs, but because of city councils. I can hire someone to fight bedbugs and gun toting tenants, but city councils that are tenant friendly scare me about what they are going to think up next. I can't plan my future with that kind of uncertainty.