Renting a home, tenant/landlord S.O.P. question
 

What is the S.O.P. when it comes to putting up a home for sale with renters currently there?

I am currently renting a nice home from a friend of a close friend. I pay maybe 5% under market and they get a great tenant that pays on time, takes great care of the home and I fix EVERYTHING myself.

Well he has decided to put the home on the market while we are here, which is perfectly fine and I told him we would "work with him". My question is how should showings work? It's been on the market for maybe 4 months now (priced way over market) and we do maybe 4-5 showings a month. To be honest, it has gotten to be a pain in my azz prepping the house and leaving for these showings.

Is it normal for a tenant to do/allow this for a landlord or am I getting walked on here? I was thinking of offering a nominal holdback per showing off each months rent but if the precedent is that this is normal then I wont bother. I have never rented before some I'm out of the loop on this stuff. Thanks guys.

Are you under a written lease? Depends on how your lease is structured. Unless tenant concedes to different terms, showings have to be in alignment with the notification provision - 24 hours in advance is what I used, and there's really no reason that you should have to leave - it aint your place, you're not the seller.

If youre on a month to month or no lease, then it's really their discretion when/how often they show it, dont have much leg to stand on there. All depends on if they want to keep you as a tenant or go back to owner occupied - if they want to keep you, it's best not to piss you off, if not then - well...that's how it goes.

I'd talk to him first and let him know it's a bit of a pain, and to start setting an expectation that you'll get out of the place, but the condition will be what it will be - that's pretty much all you can do.

It is a written lease, but these provisions were not laid out. This is a very friendly arrangement and not the least bit contentious.

I'm not looking for what is legal, I'm just wondering what the norm is. I have had his realtor call wanting to do showings in 4 hours (I said no) and even calling me on Christmas Day with "hey, can I bring people through in the morning?" .....yea, not so much. Now this is his idiot realtor, not him an I know he is not even aware of these requests but it's annoying none the less.

I know that need to communicate the concern with the LL but I want to be educated on common practice first.

Gotcha.

When I sold my places I told the tenants we'd give them 24 hours advance notice unless they wanted more (never did). That's what all my peers worked with as well, so it seems a de facto standard.

If I were in your shoes, I'd tell him piss off also, 24 hours is the absolute minimum lead time to get the underwear put away and the plates in the dishwasher, that is a completely reasonable and understandable request - buyer should get that also. Unless a property is vacant, you dont get instant access.

Although housing has definitely turned the corner, if he's asking significantly more than market, then he's not really serious about selling imo and you're being jerked around. What's the "end game" for you? If he's serious, then if I were in your position, I'd already be looking and move on rather than go through the PITA hassle. Just talk to him about it and come to a reasonable solution imo. Good luck...

Thanks guys, good advice and I appreciate it. We are already looking to move on but it could be 6 months it could be a year.